Microsoft 365 Support: Collaboration , Teams, SharePoint, Microsoft 365 with OneDrive for Microsoft

Microsoft 365 Support is used by IT Support and Managed IT Service providers for empowering collaboration, remote co working and communication. 

Collaborating Microsoft 365, SharePoint Development, Teams & OneDrive 

Microsoft is the most common technology used by businesses and organizations worldwide. Microsoft 365, SharePoint Development, Exchange email is synonymous with employees.

Storing Documents, Emails and Presentations in SharePoint Online VS OneDrive

So when should you store your files in SharePoint online versus OneDrive for business?

If you use Microsoft 365 or Teams this is especially important for you as well SharePoint and OneDrive are both places for you to store files. 

But why do we need two places to keep stuff in Microsoft (office) 365 and how do they relate to Teams seemingly a third place to store your files. 

Well, SharePoint and OneDrive have notably different reasons to use them and you should employ them in the way that they're really meant to be used. That's right you want to use them both and it's not difficult at all to juggle the two. Once you know how to use them you'll never go back and if you're using shared files in Microsoft Outlook groups Yammer or

Microsoft  teams you're using SharePoint online in the background the files tab in each app is actually a SharePoint document library in the background and you just happen to be accessing it and editing files through a different interface but it's still a team site plain and simple so when I reference SharePoint online it's also applicable to files in outlook groups yammer and Microsoft teams.

SharePoint similarities with OneDrive

First let's talk about what's similar between the two. Both OneDrive and SharePoint have the same underlying design and features. In fact OneDrive is actually just a single SharePoint document library in a single SharePoint site with a different logo.

They both support many of the same features editing Office files Microsoft Word Excel PowerPoint and OneNote via office for the web and file sizes up to 100 gigabytes. 

Co-authoring simultaneous editing version history file sharing both internal and external mobile device access and syncing files to your computers and phones they're also both accessible from

Microsoft Teams with SharePoint 

OneDrive is what's used when you share files in a private chat. The main feature difference OneDrive doesn't have metadata which isn't really necessary in your OneDrive because you generally know your own folder hierarchy. 

When to use OneDrive, OneDrive with SharePoint and Teams

OneDrive is meant for personal storage work or school related files but files that are personal to you.  Each person in your organization gets their own OneDrive. Each Office365 account usually comes with at least one terabyte (TB) of  storage space which is plenty. 

OneDrive is perfect for two types of files. First ones that you only want for you likely personal files that just shouldn't be shared. Second drafts of files that you're not ready to move into SharePoint Online or into teams yet for collaborative input or reviews.

Your OneDrive should have a whole bunch of folders at the top level and not many files. The Microsoft 365 files should be in a folder somewhere but that's personal preference. There are slide decks from teams conferences to manage blog posts and videos in OneDrive. Other Microsoft 365 include health insurance and benefits files for work my OneNote notebook for taking general notes.

When you are ready to copy files and folders to Microsoft Teams to share with colleagues for input you can keep the original copy of the files in OneDrive for history based on personal preference.

Now you can collaborate in OneDrive with Microsoft 365, SharePoint and Microsoft Teams. It is generally not recommended sharing all the files or folder at higher level because it quickly becomes a permissions nightmare. 

Collaborating Microsoft Apps with OneDrive  

Especially confusing with a group of people each sharing individual files from their own OneDrive as you all work and collaborate at work and school. Tt makes things much easier if you upload and collaborate on a central SharePoint or Microsoft Teams location. 

Also to note when someone leaves the organization their OneDrive is typically retired within 30 days. When Microsoft Teams is using OneDrive space to collaborate with colleagues, it will be critical to know you will not be happy to find one morning that user files are missing.

Disadvantages of OneDrive Collaboration

That's one reason enough to really not use OneDrive to collaborate with the Team too much. With Microsoft 365 saving files specific to your OneDrive or drafting files you plan to move to SharePoint or Teams for input, reviews or simply make them available to your team. 

OneDrive is your personal storage space if you don't need any of these criteria use SharePoint. SharePoint is best to use in two ways for collaborating on colleagues files with others and for publishing files for everyone to see. 

SharePoint Intranet and Team sites are great for collaborating while Communication sites are perfect for publishing Team sites generally have few users but most if not all have reading and editing access. 

This provides smooth collaboration and less hinderance with permission restrictions. Team sites are great for getting work done together. They're also the file location behind Microsoft 365 groups including Outlook, Teams, Yammer communities and Power BI. 

Each member of the group automatically has edit access in to the private Intranet. To put it simply SharePoint team sites are for the team's stuff Communication sites are usually accessible to almost everyone in the organization. The administrators provide staff  with read and write access. 

Microsoft 365 admins generally have to upload edit and delete published shared files, communication sites and locations which makes up your SharePoint Intranet. 

A good example is corporate policies listing the people who write and maintain those files, can update the permissions when necessary but most visitors to the site visit to read content and don't require access to edit sites.

SharePoint Communication sites are for everyone. When it comes to juggling the two apps, collaborating with OneDrive and SharePoint there's a simple set of guidelines to follow or in other words documents (or presentation or spreadsheets) circle of life. 

Feel free to start drafting your files in OneDrive for business and when you're ready move the files to the SharePoint Team site where colleagues will provide input for and review. You could also draft the file right in the Team site and leave it there for visibility of the team and to bring them later in to review the file. 

After the review of the team is completed its ready to publish the file to the SharePoint communication site. If it's meant for wide distribution or to a Team site it's like a template for team specific documentation or for your team. To keep a working copy in your team site so updates are easy to make and kept files and folder private, while your teams works on revisions. 

Conclusion

Now all of that said this is just a suggestion it's not so much prescription as it is inspiration your organization. Your organization, colleagues, staff and users may do things differently with Microsoft 365, Teams and SharePoint for OneDrive but most of them use some sort of version of the idea as a foundation. 

OneDrive storage can be used to customize to your needs and take your Team to the next level and how you might improve how you all work with SharePoint, OneDrive and their integration with teams.

At first it might seem complex but to put it most simply you'll find yourself bouncing between OneDrive and SharePoint Team sites and SharePoint communication sites in Microsoft (office) 365. Most businesses use a MSP (Managed Service Provider) or IT services provider for their Microsoft, Teams, Azure and Dynamics requirement.

I'm curious how you and your organization juggle OneDrive and SharePoint and teams for that matter and if you'd like to hear more about my document circle of life idea there's actually much more detail to the concept.