The Microsoft Teams Integration With Sharepoint: Understanding The Basics
The integration of Microsoft Teams and SharePoint has redefined collaborative and document management practices in businesses.
In this article, we will share the specifics of how this integration optimises organisational workflows, enhances team collaboration, and streamlines document management.
Understanding The Platforms
Before we delve into the specifics of integrating the platforms, let’s take a quick glance at both Teams and SharePoint to understand them a little more.
Microsoft Teams: The Hub For Teamwork
Microsoft Teams, a part of the Microsoft 365 suite, is more than just a communication tool.
It’s a multifaceted platform that combines chat, video meetings, file storage, and application integration, designed to foster teamwork in a virtual environment.
Teams facilitate real-time collaboration, making it easier for remote and distributed teams to stay connected and productive.
Teams removes communication silos, bringing conversations, content, and tools into dedicated digital workspaces to improve collaboration, especially for remote and distributed teams.
SharePoint: A Robust Content Services Platform
SharePoint, another critical component of Microsoft 365, is widely recognised for its document management capabilities.
However, its functionality extends to creating customisable websites, automating workflows, and managing content.
While recognised primarily for document management, SharePoint offers robust content services capabilities, including customisable intranets and team sites, enterprise content management, automation through workflows and Power Automate, and integrations with Microsoft 365 apps.
With advanced features beyond basic file sharing and storage, SharePoint helps manage and connect content across the organisation.
The Integration: A Synergistic Relationship
The integration of Microsoft Teams and SharePoint brings together communication and information management into a cohesive ecosystem. This integration is not just about accessing SharePoint documents from within Teams but about creating a seamless workflow where communication and information retrieval happen in tandem.
Together, Teams and SharePoint create a unified collaboration powerhouse within Microsoft 365.
Teams provides a virtual workspace for team engagement, while SharePoint enables structured content management behind the scenes.
This integration brings together communication, content, and customisations into interconnected Team workspaces.
Let’s take a look at the key benefits of the integration:
- Streamlined Collaboration: When a team is created in Microsoft Teams, a corresponding SharePoint site is automatically generated. This site is not just a repository for files but serves as the backbone of the team’s document management system. The integration ensures that documents shared in Teams are stored in SharePoint, providing a unified platform for document storage and retrieval. With Teams, SharePoint, and their 300+ app integrations, common business workflows can be embedded directly into Team workspaces to avoid app-switching. Approvals, proposals, support tickets, and more can move seamlessly between integrated apps.
- Improved Document Co-Authoring: The true power of this integration lies in its ability to facilitate real-time collaboration. Documents stored in SharePoint can be accessed and edited simultaneously by team members in Teams. This feature not only improves efficiency but also ensures that team members are always working on the latest version of a document. Native integration empowers Teams users to collaborate on SharePoint-stored files in real-time, avoiding version chaos. Co-authoring abilities reduce emailing files back and forth, helping teams stay in sync.
- Communication and Knowledge: Teams and SharePoint serve complementary purposes in communication and knowledge sharing. While Teams is ideal for real-time communication, SharePoint excels in the long-term storage of information. Integrating these platforms means that users can communicate effectively in Teams while leveraging SharePoint for the organised dissemination of information. Whether searching from Teams or SharePoint, the unified Microsoft Search provides a single index to retrieve results across both platforms. This consistency means the info is found fast regardless of where it’s saved.
- Customisation And Integration: The integration offers extensive customisation options, allowing businesses to tailor the platforms to their specific needs. SharePoint pages can be added as tabs in Teams, providing direct access to important resources. This level of integration ensures that users have the necessary tools at their fingertips, enhancing overall productivity. From encryption to data loss prevention and retention policies, SharePoint protections extend to SharePoint files shared within Teams channels and chats. Uniform identity and access management controls who can access what.
Deployment Best Practices
Effective rollout of Microsoft Teams and SharePoint integration requires upfront planning and ongoing support. Key areas to focus on include:
- Structure Sites Thoughtfully: Map workflows and construct SharePoint sites to directly support them. Ensure structure aligns between SharePoint libraries and Teams channels.
- Clean Up Existing File Shares: Take inventory of legacy file shares and clean up content before transitioning to SharePoint libraries. Organise with metadata and govern with appropriate controls.
- Prioritise Change Management: Drive adoption through training programs and community engagement. Support site owners with resources and address transitional needs.
- Limit Network Bandwidth Drain: Enable Teams caching to reduce VPN strain for remote workers. Throttle upload speeds for optimal video performance.
Our Final Word
The integration of Microsoft Teams and SharePoint transforms digital collaboration by unifying communication hubs to break down silos, streamlining workflows for content creation/sharing, enabling secure document co-authoring capabilities, and allowing teams to assemble customisable building blocks that match their needs.
This embedded functionality optimises modern work by empowering teams to construct tailored workspaces with the precise tools to collaborate efficiently together.
As an innovation leader, Microsoft is positioned to further this convergence between productivity platforms and content collaboration – delivering solutions that accelerate business while keeping experiences intuitive.
Ready to find out how platforms like Teams and SharePoint can benefit your business? Get in touch with us for a chat.