Forum Discussion
Best Practice for replacing File Servers with Teams
Hi all,
we're in the process of rolling out Teams for 600 users. We did not use SharePoint in the past and most of our users are working with files on a file server that are accessed over a central company share. The share includes are folder structure that is based on the structure of the company and their departments, i.e.:
Marketing
Sales
IT
and so on
Is there any Best Practice on how to organize / replace such a structure with files and folders stored in Teams?
In theory we could just create Teams for the departments named above and place their files with the SharePoint document library for that Team. However, the big question for me is: How will people from other departments (that are not part of the Team where the files are stored) be able to access files and folders from other departments? Do the users have to share the folders and distribute the links to users in other departments and the users have to organize themselves (store shared links etc)?
Or would one rather create a dedicated SharePoint site to create a central folder structure in it that could be added as additional cloud storage for all departments within Teams?
If there is any experience or best practices I would appreciate if someone could give me some hints.
Thanks
Michael
19 Replies
Another question is
- Do we use Teams for the department or Private channel for the department?
first of all great initiative 🙂
Here are my few cents on this topic.
1. What we have in hand >>
** File systems / file servers
** business purpose and content - whats the purpose of the content !! , who is going to use the content and for what !!
** Information Classification - How the information is categorised. for e.g. public / private / secure / classified
** Sharing and Content security - who has access to what !!
2. What we want to do ?
** May be Migration ?!?!?
*** what do we need to migrate !! All of above mentioned in #1?
*** what assessment we have already to kickstart the thought process and put that into action.
3. What we would achieve ?
** Successfully migrated to Cloud
** ROI !!
4. How business is aligned with the migration plan ?
** Business teams and End User are aware of the future tech and implementations and milestones.
layer9de
So the first thing you need to do is create a governance board. CLEARLY define how this will be used BEFORE you move even one file.
What we did was to create an org-wide team (Team_All) that has channels in it for each team and that has info that will be consumed by other departments. Those files are copied from the department's folders to the org-wide one via a Power Automate script.
Then each department gets their own departmental team with any number of channels that made sense to how that team organized their work. Only that team can see that content.
We also decided on a naming convention:
Team=Standing department
WF=Work Flow, cross departmental work-flow with people from different teams for sustained work
Proj=Project work with cross departmental staff that is temporary in nature
Cust=External Customers
Part=External Partners
Lastly, the AH-HA that helped people make the mental leap from a file server to cloud storage was to sync folders to the person's computer via OneDrive and the sync button in a team's file structure. Once we do that, people just use File Explorer to access files from the cloud like as if it is a file share structure. They don't even know the difference since it presents as a folder in File Explorer. When people see that, it blows their minds and really helps them forget that it is cloud storage. Use the sync button, but definitely create a structure that is scalable and sustainable.
The end result was that users see in File Explorer a folder for the org-wide folders and then folders from their team and then folders from any of the other types of teams. It actually works really well and then they never have to open Teams to navigate files.
Hope that helps.What we did was to create an org-wide team (Team_All) that has channels in it for each team and that has info that will be consumed by other departments. Those files are copied from the department's folders to the org-wide one via a Power Automate script.
Then each department gets their own departmental team with any number of channels that made sense to how that team organized their work. Only that team can see that content.
Thanks, I actually think your approach looks very interesting as if I understand correctly you are basically using the org-wide Team as an org-wide document library where content from departments is placed that they want to be publicly available to other departments.
Regarding the syncing with File Explorer: I understand that users like this approach but I'm uncertain if that is the correct way to go because of the limits of synchronization that were already mentioned. I'd rather prefer that users are getting used to access files directly from Teams as this currently seems like the best compromise between usability and future-proofness to me.
Any other thoughts on this topic are still highly appreciated! I'm going to check User Voice now for voices requiring the ability to pin shared folders and files directly within Teams. That would solve a lot of usability issues IMHO!
Thanks
Michael- Agree with the sync. But I hate how users always depend on that. Throws any metadata use out the window :p.
Another thing to wTch out for is how large your file system is. MS recommends staying under 300k files synced with the client. So just be mindful of that!
Hi layer9de,
I agree with Andrew Hodges ' answer.
Additionally I would suggest you implement Teams for the "collaboration" part of your departments, and consider using a SharePoint (Communication) site for the content that you wish to "publish", that is, inform other departments about. It's more than just a technology swap, consider what functionality different users in the different departments are looking for.
Cheers.
Yes, good call, we do this too, Published content goes onto an "Intranet Site" - use a Communication site and make that site the new "SharePoint Home Site" . Always split the content available to everyone and the restricted "Everyday working" business team content into Intranet and Team Sites.
Hi layer9de ,
Microsoft never release best practice, the answer is always "It depends" and what we call best practice is just how other companies have implemented it.
The way we implement document management alongside teams is to create a Team/SharePoint site per business team. We also create the formal document libraries in the SharePoint sites per business team due to the messy nature of the linked folders to the Channels in Teams. We then just add the document libraries or a page with links to multiple document libraries as a tab in the Microsoft Team.
Hope that helps from a high level.
Andy
Thanks for all your replies!
Hi Andrew Hodges ,
thanks for your example. You wrote
We also create the formal document libraries in the SharePoint sites per business team due to the messy nature of the linked folders to the Channels in Teams.
Could you further explain this a little to me - I'm currently unsure about what you mean. Are you creating an additional document library within the Team's SharePoint site and add that additional library to a tab afterwards?
I guess the most intuitive what users are gonna do is to place their documents within folders created within the files tab of each channel. That means all files and folders for that team are created within the site's/team's default document library. Is that something you would not recommend since you wrote about the "messy nature of the linked folders to the channels in Teams"?
Thinking about it, creating an additional document library for that team and placing files there should have the advantage that you could break permission inheritance for that library and set permissions differently from the Team. If members from other teams need access to a folder within that dedicated library, they just would have to add the URL to that library in their Team. Is that the way you are talking about?
The most drilling question I still have is the following:
I'm member of Team IT and need to access to a subfolder within the document library of Team Marketing. With conventional file servers and file shares I can access the subfolder of Marketing as long as I know the path of the folder and have access to it.
In Teams/SharePoint I'm still not sure. Of course a member from the Team Marketing could just share that folder and send me a link. But:
- If the link breaks / is removed I loose access to that folder
- I don't see a way to pin such links within Teams in a convenient way
In case I need regularly access to 25 folders from within 25 different teams - how would I organize this? I think bookmarking 25 different links in my browser that could potentially break is not really an option.
Might also be that I'm still too tied within the "old world" with that thinking about a "central folder structure" that is "hierarchically organized".
Thanks
Michael- Agree here with the 2 step approach per department. Private files for department go into the Team, Public "Discoverable" documents go on the department communication site.
As for making exceptions and collborating on private team files, you can share individual folders by utilizing the "Open in SharePoint" on the file tab in Teams, and then navigating up a level to share the channel folder. This should have been added and I hope they still do to the Files update they did recently by adding the Share or Copy link button there so you can share from within Teams.
That said, you can keep share links as favorites but the easiest way is to education users on OneDrive and utilizing the Shared tab on the left of the OneDrive page. This allows you to see all the documents and folders shared to you from others that are hidden away in these private sites.
