We launched several new features to make ShareGate an even more robust management solution for Microsoft 365, and we celebrated with a live event! Find out what we unveiled and get answers to the most-asked attendee questions.
Let’s face it, manually maintaining an organized and secure Microsoft 365 environment is time consuming. IT teams spend tons of time with PowerShell or Power Automate, exporting inflexible reports, and responding to a mountain of tickets from end users.
IT ends up stuck in a state of constantly being reactive rather than proactive. They’re constantly fighting fires as they arise instead of governing their tenant based on best practices or working on value-add projects.
As distributed work becomes more and more common, the reliance on digital workspaces like Microsoft 365 will increase as well. Making sure those workspaces are organized and secure is crucial.
IT teams can manage all of that manually. But it’s not the best use of their time.
ShareGate wants to help IT teams manage Microsoft 365 more efficiently by empowering end users to create and manage their own resources with IT’s guardrails in place, automating repetitive and time-consuming tasks, and guiding the implementation of governance best practices. The best part? ShareGate is an out-of-the-box solution with a user-friendly UI that can help you find and fix issues in minutes.
For years, ShareGate has been adding more management features, and with this launch we’re packing even more management power to help free up IT’s time. We were so excited about these new features that we threw a live launch event, RISE UP, to celebrate and show them off.
You can watch RISE UP on demand anytime you’d like to get all the details. If you’d rather a condensed recap, keep reading!
Table of contents
ShareGate’s new Microsoft 365 management features
We started RISE UP by discussing ShareGate’s evolution. For a long time, ShareGate was known primarily as a SharePoint migration tool—for good reason, we have a great migration tool! But ShareGate has been adding more and more features to help IT teams manage and automate their day-to-day administrative tasks for SharePoint, Microsoft 365 Groups, and Teams before, during, and after they migrate.
So, we don’t think of ShareGate as a migration tool anymore, but as an out-of-the-box management solution for Microsoft 365. And with this new launch, we feel this is truer than ever.
Speaking of, let’s dive into these new features and how they’ll help your IT team!
- Provisioning – Give IT the ability to create customizable Teams templates so that end users can create the teams they need following your policies.
- The ShareGate end-user app – Provide end users with their own workspace where they can easily see the teams they own and are a part of as well as create teams with your templates.
- Cloud copy – Move teams or channels within or across tenants all on the web.
- Communication sites management – Get visibility into your SharePoint communication sites as well as your Microsoft 365 Groups and Teams through the ShareGate Manage page.
- New and updated reports – Save and export reports based on your favorite filters.
All of these new features help IT teams work more efficiently and increase productivity—both for end users who can more easily work in Microsoft 365 with IT’s guardrails in place and for IT who can stop fighting fires and responding to end user requests and focus on value add projects instead.
Microsoft MVP and ShareGate Head of Product Benjamin Niaulin walked through each of these new features—how they work, what their use cases are, and how they look in ShareGate.
Ben also took time to explain how they fit with our other tried and true Microsoft 365 management features, such as our built-in and custom reports, permissions management, and automation, like our inactive and orphaned teams detection and external sharing and guest access reviews.
A ShareGate client case study
Throughout RISE UP, we also had Astrid Gibbon, Communications Systems Manager at Oxford Instruments and a ShareGate client, discuss her experience using our solution to manage her organization’s Microsoft 365 tenant. Her insights and sincerity blew us away, and even got Ben a little emotional!
Astrid started using ShareGate for a migration project, but when she noticed the “Manage” button in the solution, she discovered that she had 107 orphaned teams—and that ShareGate could help her find owners for or remove those teams quickly and easily. From there, she started using ShareGate’s management features to organize and secure her Microsoft 365 environment.
Below is just one clip of Astrid’s interview, watch RISE UP on demand to see more.
ShareGate and Microsoft 365 management Q&A
During RISE UP, we had more than 250 questions and comments. Ben spent time answering some of those questions live, but we didn’t have time to answer all of them.
So, we wanted to pick out a few of the most-asked and most-relevant questions and answer them in this blog to ensure you have all the information you need.
If you have a question that isn’t listed here, don’t be shy—reach out to us!
Types of questions
General ShareGate questions
Q: How much is ShareGate? Is it a subscription?
A: The ShareGate license is a yearly subscription and it includes everything we’re talking about today! With your subscription you get everything you need for big migrations and everyday content management, all in one solution. And the current pricing isn’t changing.
Q: Is a Global Admin account required to use ShareGate’s management features? Do you have to have Teams admin privileges?
A: A Global Admin account is required to first consent ShareGate management. Once this is done, other admins will have access to it.
Q: Do these new features work with GCC tenants?
A: Unfortunately, they don’t. The same limitations we currently have for GCC still apply.
Q: Is Teams management still limited to tenants with fewer than 10,000 sites?
A: Yes, but we’re working to remove this limitation. Stay tuned!
Q: Does ShareGate’s Microsoft 365 management help with managing Guests?
A: Yes, you can manage Guest access and external sharing links with ShareGate management. You can take actions as the admin or choose automated collaboration with owners that will ask them to review and resolve guests and links.
Q: Is there a way to make requests for future functionality on ShareGate?
A: Yes, please reach out to us with your amazing ideas!
ShareGate Provisioning questions
Q: Could you define “provisioning”?
A: In general when discussion IT infrastructure, provisioning is one step of the deployment process in which you determine an enterprise-wide approach to conceptualizing, deploying, and managing the full range of IT system resources. ShareGate Provisioning allows you to create templates that ensure your organization’s Teams provisioning always meets your security standards but also allows flexibility within and between departments. Learn more about ShareGate’s Provisioning.
Q: Do you have any guides or resources for rolling out your Provisioning feature within our tenants?
A: We have tons of Provisioning resources in our documentation center. You can also always reach out to our Customer Success team and they would be happy to walk you through how to implement this (or any other) feature!
Q: What happens when a team has fewer than the required number of owners?
A: We help to enforce the minimum number of owners at creation with our customizable Teams provisioning templates. If a team happens to lose its owner(s), ShareGate will alert you to this new orphaned team and suggest members who could be made the new team owner.
Q: Are there any AADP P2 requirements to use ShareGate’s new Provisioning feature?
A: Nope!
ShareGate end-user app questions
Q: For the ShareGate end-user app, do we give the end user UI to team owners only or all end users?
A: The ShareGate end-user app is for all end users, so anyone can create new teams and see which teams they own or are a member of. But it only become available to end users once the admins chooses to make it available to them.
Q: For end users to run their own reports or provision teams in the end user app, what kind of settings/permissions need to be enabled in the tenant?
A: First, you have to consent to connect your tenant on ShareGate management using a Global Admin role (after that any admin can use it). Then to make the app available to your end users, a Teams Admin must review and grant permissions to the ShareGate end-user app directly in the Teams Admin center. Then pin the ShareGate end-user app in Teams for all users.
Q: Will the ShareGate end-user app have a workflow to send to admins for approval of creation? Can you restrict it to only certain end users?
A: No, at the moment, it’s an automatic workflow for all end users. Approval is one of our next solutions, we’re collecting feedback to prioritize it. Let us know how and why you would want to use it.
ShareGate Cloud copy questions
Q: Does Cloud copy allow turning off the client that started the process or does it need to stay connected to internet?
A: Cloud copy is purely on the web, there’s no installation of any kind—and that’s the beauty of it! It makes copying things and moving them around in your tenant to restructure fast, simple, and doable by anyone on your team with access to ShareGate.
Q: With the Cloud copy feature, can you copy the content of a team and move it anywhere? What about chat history?
A: Chat history will be moved, too! Everything in the Team and its corresponding SharePoint site, including channels, conversations, tabs, apps, planner plans, and settings, will be moved when you use Cloud copy.
Q: Will Cloud copying teams move it exactly as it is without the ability to manipulate any changes? Specifically, will private channels remain private or can that be changed as well?
A: Teams will be moved with the same channels, chats, files, etc., but you will be able to change the team’s name and privacy status when moving it with Cloud copy.
ShareGate Communication sites management questions
Q: Will we see reporting or provisioning for SharePoint communication sites any time soon?
A: Reporting on communication sites is already available on ShareGate management and with the migration tool. Provisioning for SharePoint sites is currently on the ShareGate roadmap. We would love to have provisioning for communication sites as well, we’re collecting feedback to understand the need better. Tell us what you’d like to see!
If you’re a current ShareGate customer and you’d like some help leveraging these or any of our management features, check out our weekly Ask the Expert webinar hosted by our Customer Success team every Tuesday at 1pm ET.
If you’re not a customer and you’d like more information, you can book a demo anytime!
