SharePoint, business OneDrive and Teams: one place per thing.
Where is the quote, who can reach it, and where do I put my own draft. Three questions, three fixed answers.
Short answer
SharePoint, OneDrive and Teams are the three places for files in Microsoft 365. OneDrive is for your own work, SharePoint for the files of a department or the whole company, and Teams is the window where you talk with a group and reach those files. Jevana designs the layout with you, moves the old network drive across and sets who may reach what.
What belongs where
| Place | For what | Whose | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| OneDrive | Your own work and drafts | One person's | A quote you are still writing |
| SharePoint | Files the company needs | A department's or the organisation's | Contracts, templates, the staff handbook |
| Teams | Discussion and working together on something current | A group's | The project for a client, with chat and files |
Behind every team in Teams sits a SharePoint site. Files in a team are therefore in SharePoint, even if you do not see it.
From network drive to SharePoint
- 01
See what is there
How much, how old, who uses what. A large part of every old drive has not been opened for years.
- 02
Lay it out
Together with the people who use it. Per department or per process, not per person.
- 03
Permissions
Groups get access, not loose names. Then it still holds when someone changes role.
- 04
Move across
With dates and authors kept. The archive goes separately, read-only.
- 05
Get used to it
The old drive stays visible for a while without write access. Then it goes off.
When this comes up
- There are forty teams, thirty of them with one message from 2022
- Nobody knows whether the latest version is in the mail, on the drive or in Teams
- A former employee turns out to still reach the client folders
- The server at the office has to go and the drive has to go somewhere
Questions
SharePoint or OneDrive: what do you use for what?
OneDrive is for files that are yours alone, SharePoint for files that belong to the organisation. A rule of thumb: if a colleague would need this file when you are ill tomorrow, it belongs in SharePoint. Files in OneDrive disappear in time when the employee leaves. Files in SharePoint stay with the department.
How do you move a folder structure from a server to SharePoint?
Not one to one. A network drive usually has deep folders with permissions per folder; SharePoint works better with a few sites and few levels. We first map what is there and who uses it, design a layout and then move across with the dates kept. What has not been opened for years goes to an archive.
How do you stop teams multiplying in Teams?
By agreeing who may create a team and when. By default everyone can, and then you get a new team for every discussion. We set it so that a small group creates teams, with a fixed naming scheme and an owner. Teams with no activity are asked after an agreed period whether they can go.
Can we share files with people outside the company?
Yes, and it is better than mailing an attachment. You share a link to a file or folder, only for the named person, who has to confirm with a code. The link can expire. We set from which sites sharing with outsiders is allowed, so the client folder can do it and the staff folder cannot.
Is business OneDrive the same as the OneDrive I have at home?
The name and the workings look alike, but they are two services. Business OneDrive belongs to your work account, is managed by the organisation and falls under the business terms. The personal OneDrive belongs to a private account. Work files do not belong in the personal version; it sits outside any backup and control.
Goes well with
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Migration to Microsoft 365
Moving mail, calendars and files from Google Workspace, an Exchange server or another environment.
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Microsoft 365 backup
A daily copy of mail, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams, outside Microsoft, with a retention period you choose.
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JevanaFiles
Just your files: store, sync and share, on our own hardware. Built on Nextcloud.
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Microsoft 365 management
Accounts, licences, security and Microsoft's changes kept up, for a fixed fee.
From the knowledge base
-
How long must a Dutch company keep its business records?
Seven years for the accounts, four weeks for a job application. The Dutch periods side by side, and what they mean for email and backups.
-
Nextcloud vs OneDrive: what is the difference?
Nextcloud and OneDrive both store and sync files. The difference is who runs the server.
-
Is OneDrive a backup? The difference between syncing and backing up
Syncing copies your mistakes too. What OneDrive, Google Drive and Dropbox do and do not bring back, and what a real backup does.
-
SharePoint or a network drive: where do you keep your company files?
The drive at the office, a NAS or SharePoint. What each does well, where it falls short and when a combination is the sensible choice.
Tell us what you run.
An introduction costs nothing. You talk straight away to one of the two people who will actually do the work.
or email info@jevana.systems