If you’re committed to using Microsoft 365, here’s a straightforward guide to help you quickly decide where your content should live.

The diagram covers several important decision points. Let’s dive into what each option really means:

1. Individual Content: Use OneDrive

• If you’re working alone, drafting ideas, or just tinkering, OneDrive is the perfect place. It’s private, secure, and built for your personal productivity.
• This also applies if you’re informally collaborating with just one or two colleagues on quick or short-term tasks.
• Important tip: Keep track of your documents! Once a document becomes relevant to a larger team, evolves into an ongoing project, or becomes official, move it out of OneDrive into a dedicated collaboration workspace.
• Another risk: If a user leaves the company, their OneDrive might get deleted, potentially causing important content to be lost.

2. Real-time, Team-based Collaboration: Use Microsoft Teams

• Simply put: If you need quick chats, calls, or ongoing real-time conversations, Teams is your best choice.
• It’s ideal for dynamic projects, brainstorming sessions, or tasks needing frequent interaction.
• Pro tip: Microsoft Teams automatically comes with a SharePoint site and a Microsoft 365 Group, making it the “Jupiter” of the Microsoft 365 system!

Shared Channels in Microsoft Teams

• Need to collaborate closely with another established team, possibly even outside your immediate group? A Teams Shared Channel is perfect.
• Shared Channels simplify cross-team collaboration without creating extra teams or managing complicated permissions. For example, if Sales and Marketing each have their own teams, they can easily collaborate through a shared channel like “Sales Marketing.”

3. Structured or Formal Documentation: Use SharePoint

• If your content is structured, formal, or requires careful version control and metadata, SharePoint is your best friend.
• SharePoint excels at governance, formal approvals, and detailed categorization—particularly useful for compliance or regulatory needs.

4. Shared Calendar or Email-based Collaboration: Use Microsoft 365 Groups

• If your team’s collaboration primarily involves email or shared calendars, Microsoft 365 Groups is a straightforward solution.
• Groups offer similar functionality to Teams but without the real-time chat features. It’s perfect when you prefer to manage collaboration via email rather than continuous messaging.

If you’re still uncertain, Microsoft Teams is a great starting point because it covers most collaboration scenarios. The biggest mistake is ignoring best practices and using OneDrive as your main collaboration hub.

Selecting the right workspace from the start helps streamline collaboration, reduces confusion, and boosts your team’s productivity in Microsoft 365.

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I frequently notice small but impactful improvements we can make in the software we use. This series of articles focuses on how software makers can create better software and, by extension, better companies. Today’s topic is dropdown menus.

In his book Don’t Make Me Think, Steve Krug says:

“As a user, I should never have to devote a millisecond of thought to whether things are clickable or not.”

When it comes to dropdowns, this principle extends to how options are presented to the user. If a dropdown contains predetermined choices, make sure it is wide enough to display all options without trimming, as shown in the figure below.

Principle

The ideal width should be determined by the length of the longest item in your dropdown. This ensures that all items are fully visible without truncation.

Whenever possible, ensure the dropdown is wide enough for all options to show in full (without trimming). Trimming forces users to guess or interpret incomplete options, increasing cognitive load and the likelihood of errors.

Additional Tips

• Sort values logically: For example, sort countries alphabetically in a dropdown list.
• Minimum Usable Width: If your content is longer, and full width is not available, limit the dropdown to 15-20 characters.
• Prioritize frequently used options: Place common choices, like “USA,” at the top of the list.
• Follow sequences where applicable: Arrange options in logical workflows, like ticket resolution steps.
• Use colors and icons: These improve readability and help users distinguish options quickly.
• Include a search function for long lists: When there are many options or visually similar items, a search bar is invaluable.

Here’s an example of a complex yet beautifully designed dropdown from Google Chrome.

Take a closer look at the dropdowns in your software—you’ll likely find opportunities for improvement.

Sensitivity Labels are often one of the overlooked components, but they are vital for information protection and data classification. The beauty of them is they are omnipresent across different workloads, most notably files (in Microsoft Office), email, SharePoint, OneDrive, Teams, Power BI, and much more.

Labels

The first internal discussion you need to have is about defining a proper taxonomy. There are a couple of rules you should consider when thinking about your labels:

1. Label name must be short (2-3 words): Labels are used in several apps, so it has to be something catchy and distinguishable.
2. Group similar labels under the same parent label: This will allow for some labels that are similar and share some settings. It will also allow end-users to more easily narrow and choose the right label.
3. Limit the deployment to 3-5 labels per scope: End users will struggle to memorize and fully understand more than five labels, so try to limit the number of labels you will use.

General Best Practices

Here are some general best practices to consider:

• Update your compliance policies (e.g., ISO, SOC2, HIPAA) with new information about sensitivity labels.
• Publish tooltips along with your label names to help guide users in choosing the right label.
• Publish a more detailed guide on sensitivity labels and data classification in your internal knowledge base.
• Leverage label colors to distinguish between labels.
• Think about how labels will impact:
  • Whether teams are private or public.
  • External sharing.
  • Sharing content with non-members (sharing links).
  • Access reviews.
  • Watermarks in documents.
  • Label restrictions and encryption.
  • Automatic classification.

Sample Sensitivity Labels Taxonomy

Here is a sensitivity labels taxonomy we decided to deploy:

This guide should help streamline the rollout of sensitivity labels in your organization, making it easier to classify, protect, and manage your data across Microsoft 365 workloads.

When you think about it, Microsoft 365 contains vast numbers of documents, mostly generated through Microsoft Office applications like Word, Excel, and PowerPoint. Across companies worldwide, end users are creating dozens of documents every day using these tools. However, one critical step occurs when they begin a document: they need to save it.

When you click ‘Save’ in Microsoft Word, you’re presented with a simple dialog, as shown in the picture below. In most corporations, the default option is to save the document to OneDrive. It’s the easiest choice, and because it’s the default, most users will select it. This leads to documents being stored in a personal OneDrive, essentially your own private corporate space.

The challenge arises when you need to collaborate with colleagues. To do so, you have to share the document, which results in many uniquely shared files across thousands of users in the company who are all facing the same issue: saving documents to their OneDrive. If you click on ‘More options,’ Microsoft Word allows you to save in various other locations. Depending on your setup, these options can include personal OneDrive, corporate OneDrive, multiple SharePoint sites, or Microsoft Teams.

But if you look at the attached picture, you’ll notice that the dialog in Microsoft Word can feel overwhelming.

There are so many options that end users don’t fully understand, making it difficult to choose the right location. That’s why many of them stick with the default option, saving documents to OneDrive. This behavior can severely compromise the security of Microsoft 365, as it creates countless unique documents that must be individually managed.

What can you, as an IT admin or IT organization, do to help your end users?

Here are a few tips you can take from this playbook:

• Train your users to distinguish between OneDrive, a SharePoint site, and a Microsoft Team.
• Teach them how to connect these sites to their OneDrive interface by clicking the ‘Add Shortcut’ option in SharePoint sites or Microsoft Teams.
• Help users configure and pin relevant sites in Microsoft Office (Word, Excel, etc.). This will streamline the saving process and ensure documents are always saved in the correct location.
• Train them to use the ‘Move’ function. Even with preparation, documents may end up in OneDrive, but users can clean up by moving them to the appropriate site.

The benefit of these steps is that if users store their documents in the proper Teams or SharePoint sites, they won’t need to worry about security. For example, if a document is saved in a marketing site, everyone in marketing will have access automatically, without needing specific sharing permissions for each individual. It’s important for users to understand the difference between saving a document in OneDrive—typically for personal use or sharing with specific individuals—and saving it in a shared workspace like a SharePoint site, where it’s meant for broader collaboration.

This will all take time, but you will ensure way better results in the future. In the meanwhile, if you are looking for a Microsoft 365 governance solution, check Syskit Point.

While audiobooks are a relatively newer format compared to paper or digital books, many people haven’t fully embraced them yet.

I personally listen to my audiobooks using my iPhone and AirPods Pro, with Audible as my go-to app. It’s incredibly convenient to have your AirPods with you at all times—you never know when an opportunity to listen to a great book might pop up!

Here are a few situations where I find audiobooks to be a much more practical choice than traditional reading:

1. Driving – It’s obvious that you can’t drive and read a book at the same time, but with audiobooks, you can turn your commute into reading time.
2. Airplanes – There’s a lot of downtime when flying—not just in the air, but also while passing through security, boarding, and waiting for your luggage. While you could read a book, noise-cancelling earphones and an audiobook help eliminate interruptions.
3. Walking or running – Listening to a good book while walking (or running) is a great way to enhance the experience. Just make sure to stay safe and avoid using earphones while biking.
4. Waiting – Whether you’re at the doctor’s office or waiting to pick up a family member, audiobooks are perfect for moments where you can be easily interrupted.
5. Before going to bed – Playing an audiobook for about 15 minutes before bed is a great way to quiet your mind and drift off to sleep.
6. In crowded spaces – Audiobooks are the perfect companion when you want to escape into your own world, even in a noisy, crowded environment.

Wondering what kind of books I listen to? It’s a mix of everything, but I especially enjoy history books and biographies. If you’re looking for a recommendation, here’s an amazing book to start with: The Code Breaker: Jennifer Doudna, Gene Editing, and the Future of the Human Race by Walter Isaacson.

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We’re conducting 45-minute conversations with professionals like you to help us improve our offerings, and in return, you’ll receive a $100 Amazon gift card. Your insights will directly influence the future of Microsoft 365 security.

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We look forward to hearing your valuable insights!

The Hidden Life of Trees by Peter Wohlleben Peter Wohlleben, who spent most of his career managing a forest in Germany, offers an amazing book documenting his findings from years of observing trees and forest ecosystems. This book got me thinking about how trees might have reached an evolutionary stage that is more advanced than our own. Many tree species live long, slow lives and have adopted fascinating ways of thriving by doing things gradually. As a species, we live fast and short lives, so our way of living contrasts sharply with theirs. In this book, Peter explains many interesting and exciting ways trees live their lives. If you love nature, this is a must-read!

Unbroken by Laura Hillenbrand While racing across the Atlantic, Unbroken was a chilling but true story about the survival of naval aviator and Olympic distance runner, Louis Zamperini, whose airplane crashed in the Pacific during World War II. Zamperini survived drifting for 47 days and was then taken to Japan as a prisoner of war (POW). This engaging story of one man’s perseverance shows what we, as human beings, can achieve against all odds. The book also provides detailed insight into the lives of POWs in Japan and sheds light on the dramatic events of the final days of the war in the Pacific.

1491 by Charles C. Mann The history of the Americas started thousands of years before Europeans discovered the continent, but the biggest challenge in telling these stories is the lack of substantial written evidence about pre-Columbian cultures. Mann goes to great lengths to depict the lives of Indigenous populations in North, Central, and South America, debunking some popular myths we’ve developed over time. In this book, you’ll learn more about how Indigenous people viewed Europeans, the cities they built, the ways they treated and affected nature, and how the encounter with Europeans destroyed great civilizations in Central America. It’s quite interesting to read a book that challenges misconceptions from traditional history narratives.

Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World by Jack Weatherford Going into this book, my knowledge of the Mongols was limited to their impact on European history, but this book was an eye-opener. It offers a better understanding of how Genghis Khan rose to power and transformed the Mongols from a nomadic tribe into an empire. Weatherford sheds light on the inner workings of Mongol culture and the strategies Khan used to rally the tribes into his empire.

SPQR by Mary Beard No other historical empire has influenced Western civilization as much as the Roman Empire. Even though Roman history has been extensively documented in books, movies, and documentaries, SPQR questions some of the known theories about the Roman Empire by drawing on contemporary writings from historians like Cicero. Beard seeks to understand the real meaning behind these writings, providing comprehensive insights into Roman politics, leaders, the fight for democracy, and the struggle for power. It’s truly an amazing read.

Some fun sailing stuff: Here are two books if you’re into sailing. These are more like handbooks than casual reading:

• Storm Tactics by Lin and Larry Pardey – An excellent guide on how to prepare your boat and yourself for an oncoming storm.
• World Cruising Routes by Jimmy Cornell – A comprehensive guide detailing sailing routes around the world, providing important information on common weather conditions and helping you prepare for passages at the ideal time of year.

I hope you find some of these interesting to pick up for next summer!

Many organizations struggle to define a framework that balances security needs with ease of use for employees. Over the years and through numerous client engagements, we’ve identified the most common and effective sensitivity labels used in Microsoft 365 deployments.

In this post, I am sharing some of those real-world examples to help guide you in building your own tailored sensitivity label taxonomy. In the next blog post, I wrote a pratical guide on how to deploy sensitivity labels within your company.

Dynamics CRM can be easily customized, it offers numerous options to customize and extend it according to your business needs. However, while it may be tempting to tweak every element to your liking, there are certain challenges you may encounter later that could make those customizations more of a burden than a benefit.

For instance, we decided to replace the out-of-the-box address functionality with a drop-down list of countries. By default, Dynamics CRM offers a free form text field for the Country field. This means that end users can enter variations like “US,” “USA,” or “United States,” even though it’s all the same country.

Allowing users to type any variation of a country name makes any reporting, BI or automations based on geography impossible and there is a higher chance of somebody typing something that is not even a country e.g. “Peckham”.

Our solution for this problem seemed simple and on spot at the time. We replaced the out-of-the-box text field with a drop-down list pre-populated with a standardized list of countries. This not only normalized the data but also allowed us to set up geographical reporting hierarchies (Continent > Region > Country), streamlining our reporting process.

For many years, this solution worked well for us. However, the problems began when we transitioned from Dynamics on-premises to the cloud version of Dynamics CRM. Moving to the cloud brought numerous advantages, such as improved integrations and greater flexibility. We quickly integrated our CRM with tools like Marketo, Salesloft, and Zoominfo, all of which provided rich customer data syncing capabilities.

However, here’s where the hidden pitfalls of customization came to light. All of these third-party tools expect to sync data with the default fields, including the free-form version of the Country field. Since we had customized that field, integrations with these tools became far more complex. We found ourselves needing to allocate extra time and resources to modify integrations to accommodate our custom country field, which was not recognized by the third-party tools.

This made integrations more difficult and sometimes prevented us from easily connecting with other systems we wanted to use. Each new integration required custom development, which added to the complexity and maintenance of our system.

The Takeaway

Think twice before you overly customize your CRM, especially fields of base entities. These seemingly simple customizations can become significant obstacles when you try to integrate with other systems in the future. As we learned the hard way, sticking with standard fields where possible can save time, effort, and headaches in the long run.

In many large hotels, the check-in process remains frustratingly slow. Some guests take their time, and hotels haven’t done much to streamline the process. The staff often takes time processing your documents and credit card, explaining amenities you won’t have time to use, and so on, while you stand there, waiting politely to get on with your business.

While holidaymakers may appreciate knowing what services the spa offers or when happy hour is at the bar, business travelers rarely have time for this. That’s why I was pleasantly surprised by the services offered by Hilton (and likely other hotels as well). Hilton allows you to:

• Check-in and check-out using their app
• Choose your preferred room during check-in
• Use your phone as a key

I understand that many still prefer face-to-face check-ins, but the app-based check-in at Hilton makes the entire experience so much more efficient. This gives Hilton a significant advantage for business travelers, and one can only hope other hotels will adopt this innovation.

Kudos to Hilton!