Microsoft Teams and SharePoint: Optimising Collaboration for Your Australian Team

The Common Microsoft Teams Problems

If any of these sound familiar, your Teams environment needs attention. These issues compound over time and become increasingly difficult to resolve:

• Team sprawl: Dozens or hundreds of Teams nobody actively uses, many with no identifiable owner, and nobody with authority to delete them
• Document chaos: Files scattered across Teams channels, SharePoint sites, OneDrive, email attachments, and local drives—often with multiple versions in different locations
• Permission confusion: Nobody knows who can access what. Users are added to Teams for "temporary" projects and never removed. External sharing happens without oversight
• Search failure: You know a document exists somewhere, but Teams search cannot find it because of poor naming, inconsistent metadata, or files buried in obscure channels
• External sharing risks: Sensitive documents shared with external guests who should no longer have access. No visibility into what has been shared externally
• Notification overload: Constant Teams notifications across too many channels mean important messages get missed in the noise
• Meeting fatigue: Teams meetings for everything, with no clear distinction between when to meet versus when to message

Understanding Teams and SharePoint Architecture

Before optimising, understand how these tools connect. Every Microsoft Team creates an underlying Microsoft 365 Group and SharePoint site. Files shared in Teams channels are actually stored in SharePoint document libraries. This means Teams governance is SharePoint governance—and vice versa. Understanding this architecture helps you design effective structures and avoid the trap of treating them as separate tools.

Where Files Actually Live

• OneDrive: Personal cloud storage for individual users. Use for drafts, personal files, and work-in-progress not yet ready to share
• Teams channels (Files tab): Stored in the SharePoint site associated with that Team. Use for files the whole team needs
• SharePoint document libraries: Same underlying storage as Teams Files, but can be accessed directly through SharePoint for more advanced features
• Chat file sharing: Stored in the sender's OneDrive. Avoid for important documents as they are hard to find later

Planning Your Team Structure

The single most impactful decision is how you structure Teams. There is no universal right answer—choose based on how your organisation actually works:

• Department-based: One Team per department (Sales, Marketing, Operations, Finance). Best for stable organisations where most work happens within departments. Simple to manage but can create silos.
• Project-based: One Team per project or engagement. Best for project-centric businesses like construction, consulting, or agencies. Creates cleaner separation but requires lifecycle management.
• Client-based: One Team per major client. Common in professional services firms like legal, accounting, and consulting. Excellent for collaboration but requires careful external sharing controls.
• Hybrid approach: Department Teams for ongoing operations, plus project or client Teams for specific initiatives. Most flexible but requires clear governance to prevent confusion.

Channel Strategy Within Teams

Channels organise conversations and files within a Team. Use standard channels for topics the whole Team needs. Use private channels sparingly—they create separate SharePoint sites and complicate permissions. Shared channels (for cross-organisation collaboration) require careful planning. A common pattern: General channel for announcements, topic-based channels for different workstreams, and one channel per major project or initiative.

SharePoint Document Organisation

Effective document management in SharePoint (and therefore Teams) requires intentional design. These principles apply whether you access files through Teams or directly through SharePoint:

1. Use metadata instead of folder trees: Deep folder hierarchies are the number one cause of "can't find documents" complaints. SharePoint metadata (columns like document type, project, status, client) enables powerful filtering and views without burying files five folders deep.
2. Standardise document libraries: Create consistent library structures across Teams. If every department Team has different folders, users cannot transfer knowledge when they move teams.
3. Enable versioning: SharePoint automatically tracks document versions. Enable major versions at minimum, with the option to restore previous versions. This eliminates "Final_v2_FINAL_reviewed.docx" naming.
4. Create views for common needs: Build SharePoint views that filter and sort documents for specific purposes—"My recent documents", "Documents pending review", "Files modified this week".
5. Implement naming conventions: Even with metadata, consistent naming helps. Define conventions for document titles and communicate them to all staff.
6. Set retention policies: Use Microsoft 365 retention policies to automatically manage document lifecycle—archive or delete documents after defined periods based on document type or sensitivity.

Teams Governance Controls

Governance controls in the Microsoft 365 Admin Center and Azure AD prevent chaos before it starts. Implement these controls progressively:

1. Control Team creation: By default, all users can create Teams—leading to sprawl. Limit creation to specific security groups (IT, department heads) while providing a request process for others.
2. Naming conventions: Enforce Team naming conventions through Azure AD policies. Prefixes like "PRJ-" for projects or "CLIENT-" for client Teams make purpose immediately clear.
3. Set expiration policies: Configure automatic expiration for Teams without activity. Owners receive renewal reminders; inactive Teams are automatically deleted or archived.
4. Require owners: Every Team should have at least two owners who are accountable for membership, content, and lifecycle. Orphaned Teams without active owners cause governance nightmares.
5. Guest access policies: Define who can invite external guests, which Teams allow guests, and how long guest access persists. Review guest access quarterly.
6. Sensitivity labels: Use Microsoft Purview sensitivity labels to classify Teams (Public, Internal, Confidential, Highly Confidential) and automatically enforce protection policies.
7. External sharing controls: Configure SharePoint sharing settings to control what can be shared externally and require authentication for external access.

Microsoft Teams Tips for Better Productivity

Beyond structure and governance, these practical tips help teams work more effectively:

• @mention strategically: Only @mention people who need to act on a message. @mentioning channels sends notifications to everyone—use sparingly.
• Use message subjects: For important posts, add a subject line to make messages scannable in notifications and search.
• Set status and do not disturb: Use status settings to signal availability. Enable Focus time and Do Not Disturb to protect deep work.
• Reduce notification noise: Mute inactive channels. Adjust notification settings per channel based on importance.
• Pin important tabs: Add frequently-used documents, apps, or websites as tabs in relevant channels for quick access.
• Use Teams for meetings, not just chat: Record meetings, use transcription for searchable records, and post meeting notes in the relevant channel.
• Search effectively: Use search filters and modifiers. Combine keywords with "from:", "in:", and date filters to find content faster.

Cleaning Up Existing Team Sprawl

If your environment already has sprawl, systematic cleanup is essential before governance improvements will stick:

1. Audit existing Teams: Generate a Teams inventory report from the admin center. Identify owner, member count, last activity date, and creation date for each Team.
2. Identify candidates for cleanup: Flag Teams with no activity in 90+ days, no clear owner, duplicate purposes, or completed projects.
3. Contact owners before action: Give owners 30 days notice before archiving or deleting. Many "inactive" Teams are actually still needed.
4. Archive, do not delete: Archive rather than delete preserves history and content while removing from active view. Archived Teams can be restored.
5. Merge duplicates: Where multiple Teams serve similar purposes, consolidate into one and archive the others.
6. Establish ongoing governance: After cleanup, implement the governance controls above to prevent recurrence.

Teams and SharePoint Security Considerations

Collaboration tools create security risks without proper controls. Beyond governance policies, consider these security configurations:

• Conditional Access: Require compliant devices or specific locations for accessing sensitive Teams and SharePoint content.
• Data Loss Prevention: Configure DLP policies to detect and prevent sharing of sensitive content like credit card numbers or personal identifiers.
• Audit logging: Enable and monitor audit logs for sensitive Teams. Review who is accessing, sharing, and downloading content.
• External sharing reports: Regularly review what content is shared externally and with whom. Revoke stale external access.
• Sensitivity labels: Apply labels that encrypt content, restrict downloads, or prevent external sharing based on classification.

Training and Change Management

Technology changes fail without user adoption. When implementing Teams and SharePoint improvements, invest in training and communication:

• Role-based training: Different users need different skills. Team owners need governance training; regular users need daily productivity tips.
• Champions network: Identify enthusiastic users in each department to help colleagues and provide feedback.
• Quick reference guides: Create one-page guides for common tasks: "How to find documents", "When to create a Team vs channel", "How to share externally safely".
• Regular tips and reminders: Share monthly Teams tips via a dedicated channel or newsletter.
• Measure adoption: Track Teams and SharePoint usage through admin center reports. Identify departments or users who need additional support.