Forum Discussion
Microsoft's crusade to move tenants from Email DLs to Office 365 Groups
Microsoft is very keen that Office 365 tenants should move away from email distribution groups to embrace the world of Office 365 Groups. There is lots to like about Groups, but I have some doubts ab...
I can certainly understand where you are coming from but I am not sure I agree. Office 365 is designed to iterate rapidly, while you may not have asked for those new features, they have been mostly well received. Teams got a fantastic response, though finding where to best use these new features does take some work. Sometimes that does mean disabling them for a while, while they can be reviewed selectively.
Pushing to expunge Distribution Groups in favour of O365 Groups I agree might be a step too far if it's been done awkwardly. I think Microsoft's bind is if they introduce new features disabled by default, the uptake suffers and some customers will never get around to enabling them. I know that might seem like a hassle at times but I think trying to micromanage Office 365 is a bit of lost cause.
All of that's not to say I don't think Microsoft can't do even better, I'd like to see more predictability and improved tools for admins, so they can be more comfortable with managing change. I was intrigued with First Release Actionable Preview Period, while it hasn't materialised something along those lines I think would help a lot.
I think Microsoft's bind is if they introduce new features disabled by default, the uptake suffers and some customers will never get around to enabling them. I know that might seem like a hassle at times but I think trying to micromanage Office 365 is a bit of lost cause.
I think that is the crux of the issue (my bolding of your words). Who's uptake is more important? Is it the uptake on "metrics" inside Microsoft to show success? Or is it the uptake for my organization?
I have this impression the forcing of the apps upon the tenants has more to do with metrics inside Microsoft and not what's best for my tenant. Afterall, if we as a customer choose to use the feature or not should be up to us. Ultimately it's our money, and if we don't use this feature or that feature that's our internal issue and Microsoft shouldn't have any say in the matter.
I'm not disputing that this is the cloud and new features come all the time and most of them appear great, I'm just asking that as an organization we are allowed to determine which we use or don't use, not the latest new feature group at Microsoft.