Managing SharePoint sites and Teams with Orchestry
Managing internal environments has never been easy, but lately this challenge is taken to a new level. An accelerated move to the cloud and more people working from home just adds to the fun! The quick shift many organizations have faced has left them with more questions than answers. It’s not just about how to manage everything IT has created, it’s also everything that’s been ‘dumped’ in Microsoft 365. This leaves us with two challenges. The first being to take inventory of what’s been moved and where. The second challenge is to setup a plan to move forward in an organized way. While it would have been nice to have planned everything out and setup beforehand, it’s just not the case for most organizations we’re talking to.
Importing Workspaces
This is where Orchestry is a game changer! Orchestry is known for its templates, but it’s also great to organizing your existing sites and teams! During or after the initial configuration, you can import your existing SharePoint (modern) sites and Teams. Once your workspaces (SharePoint sites and Teams) are in the directory we’re able to do things like apply different types of metadata, classifications and labels.
Options for Managing Workspaces
Orchestry gives admins multiple tools to help manage the mess! Let’s jump into what comes out of the box, what can be configured or updated, and how that can help you.
Preconfigured Metadata
Orchestry takes the additional metadata offering to the next level. The out of the box configuration comes with examples to get you started! The initial setup comes with three choice items:
- Department
- Location
- Division
Each of the choices comes with multiple real life options filled out. These items can be used as is, updated, or removed to fit your organizations needs.
Adding Metadata
In addition to modifying the items provided, we also have the ability to add custom metadata. Choose from choice, date, text or even managed metadata.
This gives you the option to manage the metadata in the best way for your team. Use choice, date, and text field metadata to keep your terms and management localized or pull in managed metadata to use what’s already built (or going to be built).
Additional metadata configured for your Teams and SharePoint sites can give you the edge when it comes to governing what you have as well. You can quickly determine how many teams or sites you have for specific purposes at any given time. Helping you create an actionable dataset for your governance strategy!
Managing Workspaces with Metadata
Directory View
The directory initially shows basic information about each workspace. You can easily add the built in metadata options, or new custom options you create into the directory view. Each item can be added or removed individually.
Directory Sorting
Orchestry directory has advanced sorting I wish the SharePoint admin center had! Once you’ve added the metadata to the view you are able to sort by any item added! Simply click on the title for each item you want to sort by.
Directory Filtering
Just like with adding items into the view to be able to sort, there is a way to add the metadata items to the filters, letting you filter on organizationally specific metadata instead of limiting you to the out of the box filters!
Beyond the Dashboard
The Orchestry dashboard is a powerful tool in itself but it also let’s you take your directory to the next level by storing it in a SharePoint/Microsoft list. By storing this information in a list we gain the features built into SharePoint lists. This is incredibly helpful when needing to run reports because you can simply export the list! Not only does this make it easy get access to the information, but because we can add our own metadata our exported lists make sense.
My second favorite thing about the backend list is being able to give others access. Instead of someone having to go through IT every month to get the sites and teams for reporting, you can give them access to the list. They can then export it themselves and eliminate unnecessary roadblocks and pit stops for everyone.
By combining new and creative ways to administer your workspaces, with what Microsoft provides out of the box, Orchestry is a key tool for managing your Microsoft 365 environment.
If you’re interested in learning more about Orchestry please connect! We would love to show you how Orchestry and Coupled Technology can help make work simple.
Sam Collins
With more than 10 years Sam's focus is on not only providing solutions that work but ensuring that the solution is liked and accepted at the user level. With a passion for doing things the right way, Sam has developed a set of special skills that get executives what they want while keeping the users enthusiastic.