Governance Across Microsoft Teams: Why Is It Necessary for Your Organisation?

For those unfamiliar with the notion of governance, it may seem a trivial concept. While certain decisions related to governance appear to be common sense, it is imperative that businesses create the schema for how they want operations to run, outline these plainly and take proactive stances to prevent data breaches, confusion, and inefficiencies. Governance is integral if the business is to achieve its objectives.

What is Governance in relation to Microsoft Teams?

Governance for Microsoft teams refers to how data and user permissions are managed in adherence to business standards and specifications in order to guarantee the protection and security of the organisations data.

Because Teams is a platform for collaboration and information sharing, your organisation needs a fixed procedure on exactly how Teams is intended to be used by everyone with access.

Think of Governance as the rule book that guides and informs all Teams users on the correct methodologies and conventions the organisation has chosen to employ, as it pertains to file naming, channel creation and more.

The Importance of Governance

Improve the security of the company and prevent data breaches – if everyone knows the procedure and has the appropriate access to information for their level of clearance, the likelihood of error and a data breach is minimised.

Increase productivity – With comprehensive systems in place, chaos is averted, data stored correctly, and employees can be clear on exactly what they are allowed to do with Microsoft Teams. There will be no uncertainty, allowing productivity to stay high.

Some Necessary Governance Protocols for Your Organisation’s Teams Platform

• Guest Access Granting – Subject to the nature of your business, guests may need access to your organisation’s Teams network for their input on certain projects, partnerships etc. You will need to restrict who can add guests to teams by utilising the appropriate tenant controls and limit which teams are open to guests by using sensitivity labels. Furthermore, you can ensure that guests adhere to the security requirements of the company by necessitating Multi-Factor Authentication.
• Teams Creation Capability – Who has the ability to create Teams needs to be decided by the organisation. To prevent duplication and disarray, it would be wise to limit who can do so to be sure that the teams created are useful and appropriately monitored.
• Teams Naming Conventions – It will be necessary to implement a set naming convention for teams, channels, and files to create consistency throughout the business, deterring disorganisation, duplicate names and unproductivity.
• Data Security Enforcement – To safeguard against infringement and breaches, the company can opt to use security labels to distinguish and classify the type of teams in your environment. You will need to set a retention policy on Teams data and use Microsoft 365 administrator rights to do this.
• Approved Third Party Apps – The Teams platform allows for the integration of other apps into the central hub. First party apps can be enabled to enhance your company’s teams experience, but you may want to go a step further and include other third-party apps, perhaps ones already frequently used by the organisation. It is important that any apps added, are vetted to be sure that they heed your organisation’s security and compliance requirements.

Spanish Point’s Governance Solution – SMART WORKPLACE

To help with your Governance needs, Spanish Point have developed a hybrid workplace solution that simplifies the governance creation process for you. SMART Workplace is a design methodology for your Information Architecture that improves communication and collaboration as well as providing you the perfect template for your organisation’s Microsoft Teams sites, at a fraction of the cost of developing one from scratch. Spanish Point have done all the work for you, secure your organisation and implement governance today using our stress-free SMART Workplace solution.

If you are launching Microsoft Teams or are actively using MS Teams and need support getting started with your Microsoft Teams Governance strategy, we are here to help. Get in touch today!

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