Forum Discussion
Best Practice for replacing File Servers with Teams
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.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.
Thanks, I guess you are describing the ability to share files and folders from within SharePoint. That is still not available within Teams, even not with the changes introduced by the new files experience. I hope Microsoft adds that option directly to Teams as well so users don't have to leave Teams for just sharing a file or folder.
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.
That's what Andrew mentioned too but as written above I'd rather wish that there was an option to pin shared folders / files in directly in Teams as well so I have the ability to quickly find access to all pinned files / folders that are important to me.
Are you aware of a similar feature for files and folders placed in a SharePoint document that allow a quick overview of what has been shared? In OneDrive I'm able to quickly identify what folder and file has been shared, both by an icon next to the elements name and the "Shared by you" area. It would be great to have that option for document libraries in SharePoint as well so a Team was able to quickly identify all shared elements within a team site.
Thanks
Michael
Hi layer9de
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?
Yes that's correct, our client's teams general have between 5-15 document libraries each. Often in the SharePoint site we add the document libraries to the home page using a quick links webpart for navigation. We will then add this to the Team as a tab.
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"?
If you think that each channel has a folder in the default "Documents" library and all files shared in the channel through attaching or dropping in images get added to this folder with no option to place in folders this is what I mean by messy, from a formal document management point of view. You cannot move the channel folders to another document library so for some big teams that have 200,000 files do I really want to add there files alongside shared images or attachments?
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?
Correct - Permission management is then a lot easier.
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.
"Shared with me" in OneDrive might be useful, also I would encourage users that are regularly accessing files to sync them with the OneDrive Sync client for easy access.
Don't create a central repository, it will get out of hand with inheritance. Site collection per business team is the way to go, even without Microsoft Teams.
Hi all,
first of all thanks a lot to all of you for sharing your experience and thoughts on this with me. It's also good to see that others are dealing with similar questions.
If you think that each channel has a folder in the default "Documents" library and all files shared in the channel through attaching or dropping in images get added to this folder with no option to place in folders this is what I mean by messy, from a formal document management point of view. You cannot move the channel folders to another document library so for some big teams that have 200,000 files do I really want to add there files alongside shared images or attachments?
Thanks, I guess you mean that files and folders stored with each channel's folder get mixed up with files that are shared directly in the conversation in Teams and might become messy. I haven't thought of this before but will take it into consideration.
"Shared with me" in OneDrive might be useful, also I would encourage users that are regularly accessing files to sync them with the OneDrive Sync client for easy access.
Thanks. I am still looking for an option to kind of pin or bookmark i.e. a link to shared folder directly in Teams. If would be great if users were able to add links to shared folders or files directly in Teams, i.e. accessible over the "Files" on the left menu pane to achieve the following. This way users could access i.e. shared folders from other departments directly from with Teams by clicking shortcuts.
It still seems to me that currently the only way to achieve this is to either bookmark the shared links in a browser (that is: the user has to leave the Teams app) or by setting up additional document libraries for other departments that can be added as additional tabs (that is: the user knows that she finds the shared folder within that additional document library) to my own team.
Microsoft should definitely add an option to add links shared in SharePoint as cloud storage within the Files pane in Teams!
Don't create a central repository, it will get out of hand with inheritance. Site collection per business team is the way to go, even without Microsoft Teams.
Thanks, I guess that's were all of us are definitely agree. No more central folder shared by everyone in the company. To be honest, I'm also not sure if I'm getting a little lost in some old-fashioned thinking by myself in general. Speaking for myself I actually never have to regularly access a particular folder from another department. I mostly pin documents I work with directly to my office applications and in case I loose access I'd know whom to ask to gain access again.
Best Regards
Michael
