Forum Discussion
Saving files to SharePoint Online is HARD
It's been a while since I made this post and I'd only think it fair to follow up with it as Microsoft has delivered some real positive improvements in this space.
Files on Demand - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/use-group-policy#FilesOnDemandEnabled
AutoMount Team Sites - https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/onedrive/use-group-policy#AutoMountTeamSites
Save to SharePoint site - https://www.microsoft.com/en-us/microsoft-365/blog/2015/11/09/attachments-in-outlook-2016-ready-for-collaboration/ and much easier when using the two features mentioned above.
Bonus points: Live document collaberation - https://support.office.com/en-us/article/document-collaboration-and-co-authoring-ee1509b4-1f6e-401e-b04a-782d26f564a4
Big thanks to ssquires , LincolnDeMaris , cfiessinger , and anybody else involved with these changes. They were a game changer when they launched and they've been much appreciated by consultants and end-users alike!!
I agree with this 100%.
I work in IT and I STILL bang my head up against the wall when I forget to "start" a document in the right place so that it is easy to move to 365. For full disclosure, yes, I have my SharePoint and Teams document libraries synced with OneDrive, but there are still situations where even with the files being "local" having a mapped drive would still be easier to deal with.
End user Ease of Use/Usability, I believe, should be Microsoft's focus for the next year or so. I love new features, really, I do. I see a new app and I'm like, "OMG! I WANT THAT!" but when once I start digging into it, I realize exactly how hard it would be for an end user to just pick up that new application and start working on it. I love new capablities also, but at the end of the day, what I care about the most is this: How much are my end users going to love this technology that we are rolling out? Are they going to use it? Is it going to make their lives better?
If an application makes life much more complicated, your adoption rates are going to be dismal. Yes, you can "force" them to use a technology, but people are going to hate you for it.
Why was the iPhone so popular? It was stupid easy to use. A baby could pick it up and play a video. I know that Enterprise class systems will always have some degree of complexity to them, but when it comes to end users, they have enough to deal with, give them the easiest way possible to get their job done, and we can go from being the meanies in the IT department to, "Hey, you are my bestest friend!"
I just posted a discussion on the 365 techcommunity regarding a similar situation with the integration of calendaring and tasks; nothing in 365 or Azure is seamlessly integrated, which if it was, would make end users very, very, very, happy, and my teams job that much easier.