If you’re still denying that Teams exists in your organization, then you have a lot of catching up to do; in fact, even those organization who know Teams is in use are having trouble keeping pace with governance and compliance.
In my 6th 2020 prediction ( see all 7 predictions here ), we’ll discuss why Teams has experienced such sudden growth, the compliance and governance predicaments, and where to go to get more information.
Rapid Microsoft Teams growth has admins playing catchup
Microsoft Teams is truly a tool for the modern worker, and any one of those workers, even the intern, can create a group and a Team, invite outside contributors, and dump tons and tons of data, even the sensitive kind, into it.
This past November, Microsoft announced that their collaboration service now has 20 million active users, 7 million of which were added in just the last 4 months prior to November. In fact, their rapid growth has spurred competitor, Slack, to hit back in the media – that tells you Teams is making an impact.
And it’s making an impact because Teams is on by default in any Office 365 environment. Anyone in the company can create a group and team – that’s a major reason for its dramatic uptake.
The problem is that same rapid uptake. Essentially, the horse has already left the barn before anyone understands the predicament they are in.
- What data is being shared?
- What outside collaborators are viewing this data?
- How do I even control who can create a Team (hint, it’s a PowerShell script)?
- How do the conversations, meetings and documents get archived to meet compliance requirements?
- And so many more questions.
Our enterprise customers have already begun to feel this pain, and only now do we see our SMB customers finally admitting that Teams is flourishing in their environment and they need to do something about it.
Where to go to get more information on understanding Teams usage and governance?
If you are just starting to get your head around Microsoft Teams, I suggest starting with some easily digestible videos to walk you through what it is, why Microsoft is doing this, its impact to you, and how to manage and secure it. The first place to start is with The Experts Conference (TEC) 2019 keynote address from Microsoft Sr. Product Marketing Manager and Microsoft MVP, Chris McNulty, as he talks about the growth and impact of Microsoft Teams.
From here, check out these other short, freely accessible videos from our TEC experts and one of our TEC sessions.
- TEC Talk : What is Microsoft Teams?
- Microsoft Sr. PMM and MVP, Chris McNulty
- Microsoft Office Apps and Services MVP, Tony Redmond
- Microsoft Office 365 MVP Mark Rackley,
- TEC Talk : Getting started with Microsoft Teams
- Microsoft Sr. PMM and MVP, Chris McNulty
- Microsoft Office Apps and Services MVP, Tony Redmond
- TEC Talk : Overcoming Teams governance and adoption challenges
- Microsoft Sr. PMM and MVP, Chris McNulty
- Microsoft Office Apps and Services MVP, Tony Redmond
- Microsoft Office Apps and Services MVP, Joel Oleson
- TEC Session (Office 365 track) : Successfully Manage Microsoft Teams
- Microsoft Office Apps and Services MVP, Tony Redmond
