The fact that many companies have chosen Office 365 as their cloud platform might suggest that most, if not all, have a reliable management structure. Unfortunately, this is usually not the case.
In his latest article on Microsoft Consulting firm Solutions Engineer Hunter Willis discusses why the digital transformation process has been difficult for businesses in all industries and then offers a possible solution.
What resulted was a great debate between well-respected players in the Office 365 space on Twitter. We've rounded up some of the most interesting answers and thoughts for you.
The beginning
Things started innocently enough with Hunter tweeting his article and asking for answers:
However, the debate escalated when CMO and Microsoft Dux MVP Raymond Sy quoted Hunter and responded to his assertion that Exchange administrators should be responsible for a company's Office 365 deployment:
In the article, Hunter substantiated his case for Exchange administrators by saying that they generally "already have some experience in IT team responsibilities" and "extensive knowledge in accessing services, licensing and integration of applications in Microsoft environments".
SharePoint admins
However, Dux wasn't alone in advocating for SharePoint admins to manage Office 365. Daniel Anderson and Office Apps and Services MVP Trevor Seward both voiced their support:
SharePoint serves as the file storage and management engine for many applications in Office 365 . As a result, much of the content security of the entire Office 365 platform relies on SharePoint permissions, something SharePoint admins are pretty familiar with.
Collaboration is the solution
Despite strong arguments in favor of management of Office 365 by Exchange and SharePoint administrators individually, the vast majority of discussion leaders argued that managing an Office 365 deployment should be a collaborative effort.
In a perfect world, a team of Exchange and SharePoint administrators would perform this function perfectly. However, they will have to make a big joint effort in terms of strategy and planning, in order to achieve a result.
Office 365 administrators
One could also simply create an admin function or an Office 365 team dedicated to full-time governance. Option suggested by several people:
Unfortunately, for many companies, a single "Office 365 admin" who owns all the apps would struggle to understand each app well enough to be able to strategize and lead a team effectively. Additionally, this Office 365 admin may have some proficiency with one of the platform's applications. So my question is, which traditional admin role would be best suited to the new Office 365 admin role?
Finally, the discussion leaders simply suggested that the CIO should have the final responsibility for the management of Office 365 with Al Rafay Consulting Chicago:
Of course, in most cases, a company's CIO should have the final say on major Office 365 changes or decisions. But depending on the size of the company, that person probably wouldn't have the time to manage the application on a daily basis. Additionally, many CIOs are detached from day-to-day processes and teams typically receive little or no operational guidance. What can be an asset for teams that have been working together for a long time, can however create confusion within teams who are still trying to understand how to use the tools.
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