With this release, IT admins can guarantee that the right people approve the creation of newly provisioned teams and sites, ensuring that every workspace created serves a purpose aligned with business needs and always has someone to approve them.
More often than not, teams (and the SharePoint content associated with those teams) reach the end of their lifecycle looking different from how they started. That’s because business needs change; users find new ways to work to address challenges, and processes adapt and improve over time.
This logic makes it crucial for IT to keep track of their environments’ evolution closely from start to finish. It’s even more vital in self-serve environments, where organizations need solid policies and guardrails to ensure safe collaboration and compliance. At the same time, end users want their workspaces up and running as quickly as possible to complete their daily work.
That’s why ShareGate is rolling out a new feature: Multiple approvers and provisioning notifications. In this article, you’ll learn how to use this innovation to foster collaboration between IT, owners, managers, and users, building a secure Microsoft 365 tenant and enabling swift workspace creation to boost productivity. Let’s get to it!
Table of contents
- The importance of collaboration between IT and end users in Microsoft 365
- Multiple approvers and provisioning notifications with ShareGate
- ShareGate’s Multiple approvers feature in action
- Explore scenarios: How this feature takes provisioning to the next level
- Other lifecycle management features in ShareGate
The importance of collaboration between IT and end users in Microsoft 365
We can’t stress it enough: true productivity, innovation, and impressive results are born from collaboration in Microsoft 365.
The tools and apps available in Microsoft 365 are designed to empower end users and IT to do their best work seamlessly together—and this is all the more critical in self-serve environments, which we think is the way to go when managing Microsoft 365.
There are some caveats, though.
First, IT and users should communicate constantly to understand each other’s needs. After all, employees know best how they work, and IT has the know-how to keep everything secure.
Then, there’s governance—which contains all the steps to manage permissions, mitigate sprawl and security risks, retain content, and monitor the tenant. One key element is provisioning, which defines the ground rules for users to create and manage workspaces. This way, you can rest assured your tenant is in good hands.
Multiple approvers and provisioning notifications with ShareGate
🥁 Drumroll, please! ShareGate is one step further in delivering our promise for next-gen digital workspace provisioning.
We’re launching our Multiple approvers and provisioning notifications feature, helping you meet IT governance needs with end-user needs for agility and autonomy.
What is it?
This feature lets IT admins ensure the right people approve the creation of newly provisioned teams and sites.
How it works
When a new team or site is created from a specific template, assigned approvers will get notified in the end-user app to approve or deny the new workspace request. Also, we’re adding notifications in the ShareGate end-user app, so approvers know when requests are in and can take action immediately—users are also notified if their workspace was approved or denied.
By enabling Multiple approvers, you’ll be addressing some potentially stressful issues in Microsoft 365 workspace management, such as:
- Duplicate workspaces and content
- Workspaces with inappropriate names
- Workspaces with wrong owners
- Teams without the proper security settings
- Workspaces creation requests left waiting because of absent approvers
Why we love it
One thing that excites us is how this feature makes it easier for IT to collaborate with end users in all stages of their projects.
In many cases, IT and end users collaborate only at the end of a workspace’s lifecycle—for example, when IT asks owners to archive a team when a project is over. Now, ShareGate is making end-to-end collaboration more viable, bringing IT and users together to build compliant, secure, and relevant workspaces from conception to expiry.
Plus, with Multiple approvers, IT can delegate the power to approve or deny a request to the people who know best—managers and the more knowledgeable users in the workspace.
Finally, automating the approval process will save precious IT time by skipping the step of double-checking with managers or leads if a workspace is needed and by avoiding sprawl since IT admins won’t have to deal with useless teams or sites being created everywhere all the time.
ShareGate’s Multiple approvers feature in action
Curious about how this new experience will look for IT admins, end users, and assigned approvers? Check it out:
From the admin side
- When creating a new provisioning template, toggle on “Require approval.”
- Add as many people as you want as approvers. We recommend from 2 to 5 so as not to dilute the approval authority within the workspace.
- You can also change and remove the approvers in an existing template.
From the end user side
- Select the desired template from the list available on the ShareGate end-user app.
- Once you’ve filled in the template for your new team or site, an approval request will be sent.
- In your list of workspaces, you’ll see this new team as “pending approval.”
- You’ll be notified when your workspace’s creation is approved or denied.
From the assigned approver side
All assigned approvers will be notified of a team or site creation request in the chatbot and through a banner in the ShareGate end-user app.
- Under “Provisioning,” you’ll see a tab of requests with the list of pending workspace creations.
- From there, the assigned approver can take action and approve or deny the workspace creation.
Once one approver takes the request, it’s done: the others won’t need to take any action.
TIP: Turn self-serve off on your main Microsoft 365 settings and hide the option for site creation in the SharePoint admin center. We’re all about self-service in Microsoft 365, but leaving it on while using ShareGate’s provisioning features means end users will see two buttons (one on Microsoft default, one on ShareGate) which can be confusing. So, we recommend enforcing ShareGate as the only option for provisioning teams and sites. This way, you’ll leverage provisioning to the max, enforcing governance with your dynamic templates while enhancing collaboration.
Explore scenarios: How this feature takes provisioning to the next level
As you may know already, we at ShareGate are always listening to users and customers about issues they face and concerns they have. Multiple approvers is a result of this conversation: a solution that leverages automation for provisioning and safe collaboration, all based on real life.
Here are some scenarios this new feature applies to:
Usual approvers are out of the office
☹️ Workspace creation requests might be left waiting because the designated approver is on vacation, sick leave, or absent from work for any other reason.
😀 With multiple approvers, there’s always someone to reply to requests, avoiding delays and ensuring business continuity.
You set up Power Automate workflows manually
☹️ Many IT admins use Power Automate workflows to set up tenant approval processes. But, it takes time and know-how to set them up and update them to fit the organization’s changing needs.
😀 ShareGate’s Multiple approvers feature simplifies and automates this process, saving IT time to focus on more strategic tasks.
Workspace and content creation is generating sprawl issues
☹️ Without a proper governance strategy, you’ll give way to a serious productivity killer: sprawl. When users create workspaces without restraints, they’ll eventually have trouble finding what they need, they’ll ask IT for help, and getting work done will be as hard as ever.
😀 But with Multiple approvers, you’ll ensure only relevant teams and sites are created, making your environment cleaner.
IT is losing control over the environment
☹️ IT not only has a tough time keeping track of all the workspaces created in the tenant, but they’re also unsure whether or not those new teams or sites should be approved. After all, owners and managers are the ones who know what the workspace needs, right?
😀 With Multiple approvers, IT regains control over the environment, collaborating with those best suited to review incoming requests.
Other lifecycle management features in ShareGate
Of course, ShareGate’s Multiple approvers isn’t the only feature that can help you manage your workspace lifecycle. ShareGate is the true out-of-the-box Microsoft 365 management solution that makes IT as simple as ever. Check out other features that can make a difference in your lifecycle management strategies:
- Full tenant visibility. You have one centralized location to get all the information you need to manage Teams and SharePoint effectively.
- Automated governance. Keep your environment organized with automated policies that are constantly informed by daily tenant monitoring.
- Clean up inactive teams. Instantly spot inactive teams and learn why new teams are created and how they’re being used.
- Engage with owners. Communicate with owners automatically so they take action on their workspaces, reducing sprawl and keeping data secure.
Efficiency and compliance from start to finish
Being efficient while managing the content lifecycle only happens when you do it from start to finish. That’s when you’ll be 100% sure you’ll empower end users to make their environment more relevant and clean while keeping everything safe and compliant from the get-go.
And to make it happen, there’s no sidestepping automation.
Features such as Multiple approvers—as many others available with ShareGate—are pivotal to building true efficiency and end-to-end collaboration. Once you try it, there’s no going back to manual.
What do you think about our new Multiple approvers and provisioning notifications feature? Let us know by leaving a comment! We’d love to hear your thoughts and suggestions.
