Forum Discussion
SharePoint Online Deployment Advice
I'm trying to keep my head above water keeping up with all the new SharePoint developments and how that could change our approach in moving to Office 365. We've been using SharePoint for over 10 years and have a lot of baggage, all of which I inherited. While it would be simpler for me just to migrate sites to SharePoint Online and tweak what needs to be fixed, I don't think that is the best approach for the company. I ramped up and spent all weekend reading and I don't think I'm any closer to an answer. I have an approach in mind, so I would love some feedback as my dog wasn't much help.
1.I'm bummed out that our default tenant site is a Team Site, as that is not the experience I would want people to start with on mobile devices and tablets...in addition to it being pink. I read an article by a power user detailing how to delete the site and recreate it using the Communication Site template, until Microsoft found out about it and took steps to prevent that. Any suggestions on an alternative? Do I just redirect the default site to a new Communication Site?
2.For public and shared content sites, I'm thinking of creating Communication Sites (again for mobile devices and tablets). But even for PC users, rather than creating standard SharePoint sites that switch from classic to new when you open document libraries or switch when you navigate to a new Team Site, I'm thinking it would be better to start with the new experience and just have it switch to classic when an unsupported list or library is accessed. I think this would serve better to end-users that MOST of their experience is new, rather than flip-flopping between the two. Any thoughts on this?
3.The original approach for each Department site was for subsites as you travel down the hierarchy of Divisions, Regions and Territories, but now subsites are apparently old school.
a. For public and shared content, I was thinking of Communication Sites, one for the Department and one for each Division, then Hub-bing Divisions to the Department (did I just coin a new phrase?).
b. I'm not sure if there is a need for Region Team Sites, but I was thinking of new Team Sites, one for each Division then one for each Territory, Hub-bing Territories to their respective Division. I took Department out of this mix as each generally has their own way of doing things.
Any thoughts on this?
4.Before we unleash thousands of users into Office 365, I was thinking it would be better if I create all the Team Sites for at least the structure of the company, where I can apply a sensible naming convention, associate these with Office 365 Teams and include these in the navigation of the "intranet". I also figured that if users already have something to play with upon accessing Office 365 for the first time, this should eliminate hundreds of "test" groups from being created then further thousands from being created named every way under the sun. Am I overthinking this?
I would appreciate any advice. I would hate to start out with classic SharePoint just for the sake of feeling more comfortable with it, only for it to take Microsoft a few more years to update the entire experience, then having everyone freak out later because everything changed.
1 Reply
- My recommendation is: get an independent consultant who specialises in SharePoint Online and Office 365 in general (that's what I do in Australia). As much as you know SharePoint having used it for years, the reality is that how you do things in Office 365 is quite different.
Trying to do this yourself generally doesn't lead to a good outcome as you're not armed with all the knowledge and information around the ins and outs of SharePoint Online.
As you've called out you can read tons of articles, and this thread itself may get a bunch of replies and opinions - which will help but not necessarily leave you closer to finding the right solution.
And there is no one right way - it's different for every organisation.
One thing I would say that you're right on is point 4: go and create the O365 Groups for all of the organisation-based tams in the company as that way you can control it.
Outside of that, get an Office 365 consultant to understand your current SharePoint environment and how the organisation works to then figure out what components and approach is right.
