SharePoint or MS Teams

[Harry1980]

We have office365 and with that we get SharePoint and Teams. I have been tasked in school to somehow try to get our school shared area (staff shared) to be available online (or parts of it available online). My thoughts are that I can either use SharePoint or MS Teams. I don’t have much experience using them.

 

I just want peoples’ thoughts on this as they may have much more experience or have already implemented this. I want to know which one would be better to use in my situation? The pros and cons for using either one.

 

Is there any backup available just in case files/folders are deleted or corrupted? Any suggestions or advice will be mostly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance.

[DalekSec]

If you create a MS Team it creates a Sharepoint site for that Team.

 

Teams has tons of other benefits such as calling etc also!

[E_G_R2]

You want to begin with a communications site not a team site. A communication site is the recommended site for an intranet.

[NetwM]

If you create a MS Team it creates a Sharepoint site for that Team.

 

Teams has tons of other benefits such as calling etc also!

 

hello,

 

we don't have office 365 at our school but if some teachers want to sign up for free teams using school emails and communicate with each other. can it be done or you have to sign up for office 365 first.

 

Thanks

[techy32]

I am also curious to know about going with Teams or SharePoint.... We have just signed up for office 365... Will be interesting to know people's view here...

[NetwM]

I am also curious to know about going with Teams or SharePoint.... We have just signed up for office 365... Will be interesting to know people's view here...

 

Me as well, have you moved your email office 365? or you have hybrid setup already.

[TechMonkey]

We have office365 and with that we get SharePoint and Teams. I have been tasked in school to somehow try to get our school shared area (staff shared) to be available online (or parts of it available online). My thoughts are that I can either use SharePoint or MS Teams. I don’t have much experience using them.

 

I just want peoples’ thoughts on this as they may have much more experience or have already implemented this. I want to know which one would be better to use in my situation? The pros and cons for using either one.

 

Is there any backup available just in case files/folders are deleted or corrupted? Any suggestions or advice will be mostly appreciated.

 

Thanks in advance.

 

First you need to think of the reason for the sharing and how people want to access it.

 

Two ideas I gave the school were:

 

1) Make a team for each Department/Faculty/area. THey then transfer their shared documents in to that and manage it. Head of said area manages it. If something needs to be pushed wider then it can be submitted to be added to a Staff team where forms, policies, etc are put. Whole school staff notices, reminders or questions can be published here.

Pros:

Their area, if they clog it up it is theirs to organise.

They have ownership of it.

Less chance of, Whoops I moved the folder into a different folder or Whoops, I deleted a different departments folders.

Management are encouraged to get things submitted to them, rather than go hunting for it

Ready made meeting system and departmental groups.

More obvious where documents are.

 

Cons:

Siloed information. Staff need to 'get' the idea that to allow others see a document then it needs to go up the chain.

Some head of departments will not cope or understand adding staff and keeping the area tidy.

Management have less of an oversight

Mappings more complicated as it depends on how many Teams they are part of.

 

2) Sharepoint Document library set up. Mimics your current drive. Can be setup to map via various means.

Pros

If you get the mapping sorted, not much change in work flows. People are comfortable

Easy to navigate.

Can search as a whole

Management can hunt through and check what department output is like.

Simple mapping as one mapping for everyone

 

Cons

Turns into the usual dumping ground

No ownership so documents go there to die.

 

I proposed number one, but ended up with two as it would have been to big a step for staff here. It is a massive workflow change. Things like departmental meeting minutes need to be submitted to someone, rather than just saved to a folder and them go get them. Alternative is SMT are members of every department team, but that gets old very quickly. I proposed that the Team should be self contained, if they want to discuss Game of Thrones and cat gifs, then so be it, just like a department staff room/office. Management liked the idea as it made it a more formal process, but it wasn't enough to win them over.

 

Effectively, Sharepoint one small step in the right direction keeping a lot of what staff know. Teams, one giant leap, using some of what they know but a lot of what they don't

 

I'm hoping now a core of staff have been forced to use Teams and see the benefit, we may be able to to plan a migration from one dumping area to Teams. Our other issue is where we are a smaller schools, who teaches some subjects can change yearly, so there isn't really a department. Though that could be a benefit as the Head of Subject could add those that are teaching this year, remove those that aren't and everyone would have groups to use.

Edited April 29, 2020 by TechMonkey

[GreyWhirly]

Am following this thread as in a similar position to the OP .... thanks @TechMonkey for your description of options ... really useful stuff!

[NetwM]

Hi

 

Can someone tell me if you don't have office 365 but some teachers want to sign up for free teams using school emails and communicate with each other, possible ?

 

Thanks

[techy32]

Me as well, have you moved your email office 365? or you have hybrid setup already.

We haven't moved to office 365 yet. We are still using exchange server as we are not allowed to go on site until further notice and I don't want to mess with something remotely. All our staff are accessing the system remotely at this crucial time.

[techy32]

This will be useful for all of us who are in the process of setting up office 365 or Gsuite

http://www.edugeek.net/forums/cloud-services/215025-dfe-confirms-2-000-funding-get-you-set-up-office-365-g-suite.html#post1839805

[techy32]

Hi

 

Can someone tell me if you don't have office 365 but some teachers want to sign up for free teams using school emails and communicate with each other, possible ?

 

Thanks

You can simply sign up for office 365 which is free and now funded by DfE to setup basic setup/user sync. Please see my post above for more info... Let me know if you need more info as we have just set it up using DfE fund.