Top Management Challenges and Solutions in Office 365

We can’t deny it – Office 365 has significantly changed the way IT engages with managing a system. Gone are the old days of setting up a platform and providing end users with a sound structure to work in. Today, we have end user-driven applications where creating new workspaces and inviting external parties to collaborate is a daily occurrence.

While Office 365 and Microsoft Teams have made collaboration much easier for end users, they also present quite a few challenges for IT and records managers. The most prevalent are:

1. Empowering Users While Maintaining Control

Users love to be empowered to create what they need in Office 365 and Microsoft Teams with little to no engagement with IT. Unfortunately, this often leads to unwieldy site and document creation. Organisations should have an operational governance strategy in place to prevent potential content sprawl, enforce permission and privacy policies, manage information when it’s created and, over time, plan their lifecycles.

2. Managing Data in a Compliant, Secure Way

The past few years have seen a multitude of data breaches that exposed the confidential and sensitive data of tens of thousands of people. We all know the consequences – damaged brand equity, business downtime, and huge fines!

The fact that end users are empowered with pervasive access to data and information is making organisations susceptible to the digital shift. It has never been more important for modern businesses to understand the value of data and ensure that the information they capture and create is managed, protected and disposed of in a compliant way.

3. Leveraging Office 365 as a Records Management System

Let’s be honest. Users generally hate the traditional records management methods. They are often asked to declare records and tag them appropriately in a separate system that’s outside of their day-to-day routine.

Naturally, users shouldn’t be doing this. All content should be captured and managed properly at the time of creation in the workplace with no workflow disruption and no compromise on productivity. Luckily, this is achievable with Office 365’s document and records management functionality. But, how can users reliably remain compliant during all of that?

If you’re attending JuiceIT 2019, join me at my session where I’ll be talking about all the above-mentioned Office 365 management challenges, the best practices to cope with these, and how you can capitalise on Office 365 capabilities for long-term success.