A leading real estate investment trust gets the best From their M365 investment
A Case Study in Increasing M365 ROI
The Microsoft 365 ecosystem is complex, vast, and rapidly evolving. With so many applications and features available, it can be challenging to ensure that you’re getting the best return on your investment.
A leading real estate investment trust, with over 1500 employees and hundreds of residential and commercial properties across Canada, sought to unify their collaboration tools into a single Microsoft 365 environment.
Key Findings
Only 28% of the 177 SharePoint sites were actively used
Over 125,000 files stored by procurement were rarely accessed
Over 75 Power Apps were built, but most remained inactive for over a year
The Challenge
The real estate investment trust faced significant challenges in their Microsoft 365 environment, impacting collaboration and engagement.
While some users had already embraced Microsoft 365, the goal was to further enhance synergy, increase user engagement, and improve governance across the organization. The existing setup, combining Microsoft 365 and legacy systems, required modernization to create a cohesive and scalable user experience.
Key issues identified included:
- Underutilization of features: Despite the implementation of Microsoft 365, many features were underutilized, particularly in OneDrive and SharePoint.
- Governance and change management: There was a lack of effective governance and change management, leading to inconsistent usage and poor data management.
- No clear communication channels: The organization had an intranet, however it served merely as a landing page without following best practices.
- Limited automation: The existing Power Apps were outdated and difficult to find.
The Solution
Elantis assessed the real estate investment trust’s current Microsoft 365 environment to develop a comprehensive strategy that would optimize employee collaboration, enhance productivity, and ensure sustainable growth. The focus was on unifying SharePoint, Teams, OneDrive, and the Power Platform, alongside implementing robust governance practices.
Elantis conducted an extensive review of the organization’s Microsoft 365 environment, focusing on:
- Collaboration and file management through SharePoint, Teams, and OneDrive.
- Usage of the Power Platform.
- Existing governance structures.
The assessment included:
- Analysis of user engagement and content management.
- Evaluation of governance and security protocols.
- Identification of areas for improvement and potential quick wins.
- Recommendations for enhancing user experience and operational efficiency.
Key Findings
The results of the assessment revealed significant areas for the organization to enhance their Microsoft 365 environment, save costs, and improve collaboration. A few highlights are shown below.
SharePoint and Teams Usage
- There was minimal engagement with SharePoint, outside of Microsoft Teams.
- Only 28% of the 177 SharePoint sites were actively used.
- A large volume of files was stored by the procurement department, but over 125,000 files were rarely, if ever, accessed.
- Microsoft Teams was primarily used for chat, with little utilization of channels for document collaboration.
Power Platform Development
- Over 75 Power Apps had been built but most were inactive for over a year.
- Many apps were better suited to Microsoft Forms, which could reduce development time.
- There was no governance in place for Power App development – no directory existed for easy app identification and no standard naming conventions existed. Many apps lacked ownership or were abandoned.
Intranet and Content Management
- An outdated, department-based intranet was failing to foster community and culture.
- The intranet was developed with a third-party SharePoint add-in that was causing poor site performance and provided little additional functionality for the licensing cost.
- The content lacked metadata and was largely unstructured.
- Microsoft Viva was not set up and SharePoint’s out-of-the-box capabilities were underutilized
Governance and Adoption
- Overall adoption of Microsoft 365 features was low.
- The environment lacked structured governance and data management.
- There were potential security and compliance risks due to a lack of data loss prevention and records management.
Empowered with this information, the real estate investment trust implemented many of the recommendations, improving governance, increasing user engagement, and maximizing their investment in Microsoft technologies.
M365 Assessment Includes
Collaboration and file management
Automation
Analytics
Records management, security, and governance
AI functionality
Quick Bites: Your 30 Second Summary
Our Comprehensive Assessment Provided:
Overall Summary Score: Combining application reviews with industry benchmarks and Microsoft 365 best practices.
Application Maturity Score: Evaluated adherence to best practices and benchmarks against industry peers.
Basic Marks: Rated key practices influencing adoption and consistency on a 1-5 scale.
Detailed Findings: Analysed admin center data, offering insights and improvement roadmaps.
Roadmap of Recommendations: Provided scoped actions for enhancing efficiency and effectiveness.
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