PAIT Group’s newest MVP, Joy Apple, was recently a guest on the Cloud Conversations with Ru and Pete podcast. In this episode, Joy shared SharePoint best practices and expert tips on migration and collaboration in Microsoft 365. The unique way Joy communicates the importance of these topics is on display. I have summed up a few highlights from the episode, but I highly recommend pressing play below.
SharePoint - We have come a long way, baby!
SharePoint has come a long way from being a functional tool lacking a smooth user interface to its current role as the linchpin of Microsoft Teams and our corporate intranets. To quote PAIT Group's Chief Strategy Officer, Mark Rackley, “Teams is the gateway drug to SharePoint.” SharePoint Intranets have become more than modern. They are intelligent.
Migration to Microsoft 365
Joy correlates preparing a migration to relocating to a new living space. When we move, most of us go room by room, making piles of what is coming with us and what we really don't need anymore; taking what we need, some of what we want, and reducing clutter as we prepare to move. The key takeaway in this analogy is to resist the urge to lift and shift. Leave the digital clutter where it is, archive what's needed, and only bring our "livin, breathing" content into the new architecture.
If you are looking for more information on preparing to migrate to Microsoft 365, take a look at Actionable Steps for A Successful Migration to Microsoft 365. In this video, Joy and Microsoft 365 Architect, Stephen Wilson, walk through a five-step pre-migration planning process. They explain why each step is important and the pitfalls that can take place when you skip a step. They also address common migration misconceptions.
Clearing up the confusion of Subsites vs. Hubsites
Joy briefly takes us back to how we used to create Intranets leveraging the power of SharePoint. We had site collections where the top-level site and sites branched off into multiple subsites. Joy uses HR as an example to demonstrate the way we formulated URLs.
Those URLs looked this way:
www.xxxxx.com/hr
www.xxxxx.com/hr/benefits
www.xxxxx.com/hr/wellness
www.xxxxx.com/hr/policies
She fast-forwards to the present day and explains that instead of the parent-child relationship for sites, each site is its own parent and can be associated with other "related" sites, essentially creating a hub of sites. The result eliminates rabbit holes of potentially empty or abandoned sites and refocuses the scope of what needs to be delivered. This creates a foundation for effective and scoped search results as well as content rollups and consistent navigation within the hub. By transitioning your nested site collections into hubsites, you are flattening your architecture. Thus, setting your organization up for the new features and functionality that are being rolled out into Microsoft 365.
How you can get more Joy!
Joy delivers a webinar series under her persona, JoyofSharePoint. In this series, Joy covers topics such as Architecture in SharePoint and Teams, Migration to Microsoft 365, tips on helping colleagues stay focused, leveraging collaboration with Microsoft Teams, and so much more. You can watch previous recordings on the PAIT Group Youtube Channel.
You can also follow or Friend Joy on Twitter, LinkedIn, or Instagram. By doing so, you will not only get to share in her fun but discover when her next Live webinar, podcast appearance, and speaking events will be.