Wait… what group was that document stored in? Is this the latest information or over a year old? Hold on… they’ve created how many sites? Do any of those questions sound familiar? Well, you may be fighting one of Digital Workplace governance’s greatest enemies, unmanaged sprawl of documents, sites and groups!
Sprawl is something that even the finest of digital workplaces have to work with – to some degree. However, the longer sprawl goes unchecked, the more difficult it becomes to remedy it. While this blog will provide a quick overview of why it is important and some of the common issues you may encounter if kept unmanaged, tomorrow we team up with our incredible solutions partner, AvePoint, for a free 1-hour webinar.
If any of the following points resonate with you, this webinar is big win for your digital workplace governance strategy.
Now, let’s take a closer look at what sprawl is and why it matters.
Inside your organization, content, communities, teams, groups, and sites grow over time. This is a positive result of digital adoption. As those digital workspaces grow in usage, volume, and variety, it can be challenging to manage and understand how the technology is leveraged, by whom, and where.
Organizations often have difficulty understanding digital workspaces because they are not given high enough priority at the start. As a result, organizations often only know who created the workspace, when it was created, and what it is used for.
For many organizations, the barrier to better management and support is due to a lack of understanding. Lack of insight leads to the sprawl being classified as “unmanaged sprawl.” Transitioning to “managed sprawl” is the number one focus of effective IT Governance for the Digital Workplace.
For many organizations, the sprawl of Microsoft Teams, SharePoint sites, Yammer communities, and more is unavoidable, and potentially even something to celebrate as it indicates adoption. But unmanaged sprawl leads to many issues.
Every organization is unique, but somethings remains the same, like every organization is at risk of letting sites, teams, communities, and groups get out of hand. Fast-growing businesses are especially at risk of letting this happen because they often have new technology rolled out quickly without planning. They also often don’t have enough resources and expertise to manage the new technology.
While some of these issues may seem self-evident or obvious, fast-paced technology and business landscapes do not always permit us to determine our most significant issues or where the issues originated, often due to time. Even once you identify the issues, some problems may seem simple. However, solving them may take understanding and expertise, which your organization doesn’t have, or sufficient time and attention your organization may not have due to other urgent ongoing business and technology operations.
For these reasons, we have taken the time to share insights on the top and most common issues, in our eBook on the subject. We hope that it helps your organization prioritize and highlight the importance of effectively managing sprawl.
Strong governance is an essential aspect to the strength and stability of modern digital workspaces everywhere. That is why we have multiple ways to help you improve it. Take a look at our eBook for a sprawl specific lessons or if you are looking for a greater discussion around Governance, watch out webinar with AvePoint.
