Integrating Governance into Microsoft Teams 

Microsoft Teams has proven itself an invaluable tool for the business with numerous features and functionalities designed to make life easier and collaboration more efficient. It’s the single most downloaded Microsoft app, globally, with 30.79 million downloads in the second quarter of 2022 alone, outstripping Microsoft Word and Microsoft Outlook by significant amounts. As the application grows in popularity and use case, it makes sense for organizations to ensure that it operates within its governance, risk, and compliance (GRC) mandates. 

It’s important to ensure that the roles, policies, responsibilities, and processes that control how an organization’s teams work together and how the impact of their operations GRC are clearly defined. Even more so today – the risks that come with digital operations and with shared data across multiple jurisdictions have to be carefully managed to ensure that the organization, it’s people, and its data are protected and in line with a growing body of regulations worldwide. 

Here are some key factors to consider when it comes to integrating governance into your Microsoft Teams architecture: 

1 – Microsoft Teams forms part of your governance infrastructure – as a tool that’s so ubiquitous and shared so widely across the organization, its use cases and applications have to be clearly managed and considered when building any kind of governance strategy. This platform is an inherent part of your business infrastructure and so it has to be protected and managed in line with best practice governance processes and procedures. Otherwise, you run the risk of complex silos, limited visibility, poor communication and fractured decision-making. 

2 – Take advantage of Microsoft’s constant evolution of applications and toolkits designed specifically to support organizations in their GRC endeavours. You can use the wide range of developer tools and services to build your own governance applications and processes into your Microsoft Teams and M365 ecosystem. These tools are also designed to help you integrate Microsoft Teams architectures and capabilities into rigorous GRC environments without compromising on your compliance mandates. 

3 – Leverage the entire Microsoft 365 bouquet of services to influence your approach to governance. From SharePoint to Planner to Outlook to Groups (and beyond) you can create governance processes that align business communication and collaboration at every touchpoint. You may require support in implementing strict controls throughout your teams and your platforms as this can become a complex web woven out of sites, groups, files and more. It’s worth collaborating with a third-party company that specializes in Microsoft ecosystems and technologies, as they can build a clear roadmap within your business and ensure every point is met. 

4 – Don’t forget the security. As it stands, the current cybercrime landscape is extremely high risk. The threats have evolved considerably, and cyberhacks are sophisticated and determined. A single vulnerability can bring an entire system to its knees, effectively shredding GRC on the way. Fortunately, Microsoft’s ecosystem is layered with intense security throughout, but you still need to ensure that every app and touchpoint is as secure as possible. 

Mint has extensive expertise working within the Microsoft ecosystem, and in ensuring that Microsoft applications are aligned with rigorous GRC protocols and capable of handling intense demand. We can help you to integrate governance throughout your Microsoft Teams and into every other part of your Microsoft 365 ecosystem. We can help you minimize the complexity and the risks while still getting the most from your M365 investment. 

Visit our recent two-part series we unpacked best practices when it came to governance within Microsoft Teams and provided a clear roadmap to building robust policies and approaches to take your Microsoft Teams governance further.  

Get in touch, and we’ll get you started. 

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