How to Drive Efficiency With Microsoft Teams and SharePoint Integration

One of the advantages of Microsoft Teams is its ability to bring together the functionality of several communication and collaboration products such as Skype, Edge, and SharePoint. With these capabilities combined into a single application, Microsoft 365 creates an effective digital workplace that enables users to seamlessly accomplish a wide range of value-producing tasks.

Users can drive greater efficiency by focusing on integrations between Microsoft Teams and SharePoint that enable capabilities beyond out-of-the-box features. Beneath every Teams channel is a SharePoint site where users can tailor documents and lists for an effective workspace. Users can leverage SharePoint content types, for instance, to improve searching, enforce the accurate capture of metadata, and organize information.

Integrations between Teams and SharePoint don’t have to be overly complicated, but technology leaders should build an information management plan that prescribes the ideal use of tools and establishes consistency across an entire organization. An important component of consistency is the automated provisioning of new Teams and Sites, which can improve the user experience and security of an application by ensuring all necessary governance guidelines boxes are checked.

To drive greater efficiency for your company with Teams and SharePoint integration, follow these four steps:

Establish a program for adoption

Software adoption doesn’t end once you’ve installed an application. Equipping your team with the right tools is the easy part, but teaching them how to use their new capabilities is just as important for successful adoption. A software adoption plan should outline potential obstacles and roadblocks and walk users through how to overcome them.

Communicate best practices

Software adoption is a learning process. Lessons from past adoptions and implementations can help make that process quicker and easier. Build a playbook that includes best practices and potential challenges to using SharePoint and Teams effectively. The playbook should be adaptable so users can add new learnings as they come. Remember that not all insights have to be technical, and encourage users to contribute anything they think their colleagues would find helpful or informative.

Establish standards and templates

Proactively develop and provide common building blocks and design patterns to accelerate implementation. The initial effort of compiling common data sources, standards, or templates for how to use Microsoft Teams and SharePoint allows power users to focus on business processes and value production instead of worrying about the mechanics of the tools.

Combat information silos

When your team relies on a host of apps including Excel, Access, SharePoint, and Teams, it’s natural for power users to create and maintain a “shadow IT” application using the various functionalities available to them. This becomes a problem if that application becomes mission-critical and the one person who knows how to use it is unavailable. To prevent such a scenario, turn individual application expertise into institutional knowledge by making self-service, user-generated solutions into managed software guided by the organization.

Microsoft 365 services offer a powerful array of capabilities, and SharePoint is a natural and complementary addition to the functionalities available in Teams. With the right information management strategy and a well-provisioned software adoption plan, your team can reap all the benefits of an intelligent integration between the two apps.