We are thrilled to share with you that Powell Teams is now Powell Governance, marking our expanded focus on Microsoft 365!

Expect documentation to be reflect this change in the coming days. For more information, please have a look at this article.

Introduction

Clicking on a template card on the template directory page allows you to modify template settings at any time. 

When you edit a template, you can configure all of its business and governance rules.

Template general information

The first tab of the template edition shows the template's general information. The top of the page shows the template's name, description, image, and URL (template URL can be used to redirect users to an external URL when creating a workspace).

All of this information can be edited by Powell Governance administrators.
The size of the image of a template is 294x160 px.

Reference team settings

This tab allows you to define the content and the organization of a team created based on this Template.

Configuring the associated Team

Associated Team shows you the team model assigned during the template creation form. Click "change" to change the associated team model for your Template.

The section on the right side of the page defines the settings from the team model for new Microsoft Teams created based on this Template. Activate a checkbox to include settings or deactivate a checkbox to exclude it. To apply changes re-synchronize the Team settings. 

The screenshot visualizes the most common configuration to clone settings. Keep in mind that "Settings" also includes Office 365 Group configuration. To prevent guest users from joining the team use this documentation from Microsoft. 

If your Team used as a reference team in your Template has been deleted, you will need to choose another team from the list. 

Last synchronization result

When you sync a team in a Powell Governance template, you have an overview of all channels, tabs, and team settings included in your Template to help companies with multiple administrators better understand what is included in the Powell Governance template at a specific time.

The section highlighted in the image below shows the last synchronization result. 

Private channel configuration in a team template

If any of your reference team channels is a private one, you will be able to configure it in your Powell Governance template. Click on the three dots menu at the right side of the channel line to edit the channel configuration.

After the team creation, the team creator or requester will be the owner of this private channel. However, you can configure the users you want to set up as private channel owners or members while editing the track:

In this example, the owner of the private channel will be "Anaïs Fivemin" even if he is not the owner of the created Team. The creator or requester of the Team will also be added to this private channel.

Private channel members will be "Jim Sand" & "Raphaël Pannier".

It is possible to add a ZIP file that contains documents into a private channel. As private channels are based on dedicated SharePoint sites, private channel documents cannot be managed in the team-attached files. It should be managed for each private channel of the team like that. 

To add documents, just add your ZIP file from the dedicated part of the private channel configuration panel.

To upload a ZIP, you need to match the following structure:

• ZIP name: No constraints
• Root folder name: private channel name
• Sub folders or documents: No constraints

⚠️ OneNote in private channels:

Note that for now, due to the last architectural changes on SharePoint, if you have a OneNote configured in a private channel of your reference team, the OneNote will be populated into the SharePoint site of the team and not the SharePoint site of the private channel.

Tab configuration in a team template

You can modify the settings and add additional configuration to the tabs in the channels after the team sync.

You can decide to keep the reference to the team model used for the Template or change the configuration of the tab to target other content.

All applications configured in the reference team of your template will be automatically included in your new teams. The tabs from the reference team in your template will be replicated and implemented in your new teams, ensuring a consistent experience across all your Microsoft Teams spaces.

Customizable apps: Word, Excel, PowerPoint, OneNote, Planner, PDF, Site, SharePoint sites, Project or List.

The list of channels displays each channel with its tabs and applications. To configure the tab, you can click on the edit button next to the tab. 

1. Keep the initial configuration - Option "No."

If you keep the same configuration -  in the tab of a newly created team,  you will have displayed a document, an existing tab in the reference team model of that Template. 

In that case, If there is a modification made in the document in any of the two teams, the change will be applied in both documents/teams. 

2. Modify the configuration - Option Yes

You have two configuration override options that let you put a URL that will send the users to specific content. 

• Link to an existing document: You need to put just a link to an existing document that can be stored anywhere (absolute URL)

• Link to a document in the created Team - refers to a document already existing in the Team. This functionality can be used only if you upload a zip file into a template. You have to refer to the doc that exists in the zip (relative URL)

How to configure a relative URL?
For a document added to the created team use the following path :

shared documents/channel name/document name. pptx

How to configure

• Word
  • Option 1: Link to an existing document - Absolute URL to the document
  • Option 2: Link to a document in the created Team - Relative URL to the document (relative to the Team created)
    
    
• Excel
  • Option 1: Link to an existing document - Absolute URL to the document
  • Option 2: Link to a document in the created Team - Relative URL to the document (relative to the Team created)
    
    
• PowerPoint
  • Option 1: Link to an existing document - Absolute URL to the document
  • Option 2: Link to a document in the created Team - Relative URL to the document (relative to the Team created)
    
    
• OneNote
  • Option 1: Link to an existing notebook  - absolute URL to the notebook
  • Option 2: You can create a new OneNote in the Team
    
    
• Planner
  You can synchronize a Planner Plan with all the associated tasks.
  When a new team based on the team template is created, you will have everything configured with all the tasks available. You can immediately start to work. 
  • Option 1: Copy an existing plan - Title of the plan (will be suffixed by the name of the created Team) and choose the plan from the list.
  • Option 2: Create a new plan - Title of the plan (will be suffixed by the name of the created Team)
  • Option 3: Link to an existing plan - Select a plan from the list (This option will only link another plan into the tabs. Powell Governance don't edit the original planner permissions. Some users of your new workspaces could not have the permissions to access to it. It will be the same if you keep the original planner of your reference team.)
    
    
• PDF
  • Option 1: Link to an existing document - absolute URL to the document
  • Option 2: Link to a document in the created team - relative URL to a document (relative to the Team created).

• Site
  • Option 1: Absolute URL to the website
    
    
• SharePoint (page or list)
  • Option 1: Link to an existing SharePoint page or list - absolute URL to a Sharepoint  page or list
  • Option 2: Link to a SharePoint page or list in the created Team - relative URL to a Sharepoint page or list (relative to the team created). If you want to redirect to the home page of the new SharePoint site associated with the team, you can only add "/home.aspx".
    
    
• Dynamics
  • Option 1: The URL to a dynamics page
• List
  
  • Option 1: Create a new List- Title of the plan (will be suffixed by the name of the created Team)
  • Option 2: Link to an existing List - Select a List from the drop-down list
• Project
  • Option 1: Link to an existing Project - Select a List from the drop-down list

For the second option, requiring a relative URL: When you use a relative URL to target a document in the newly created team, the document must exist and be uploaded through the feature "Default Content" in the Powell Governance template. View the next section "Associated documents" for more information. 

Associated Documents

You can upload default content in a Files tab through a team template.

• Go to the files tab in Teams and click on "Open in Sharepoint". Then click on "download." 
• You will have your zip file downloaded on the desktop, which you can upload in a Powell Governance template. 
• Then go to team Template settings and upload the ZIP file using an upload feature.  
• In the associated documents section, click on the button "upload a ZIP" and choose a zip file you downloaded recently. 

The zip structure will be based on the initial names of the channels. (if you change the name of a channel in Teams, it will still keep the channel's original name).

To upload a ZIP, you need to match the following structure:

• ZIP name: No constraints
• Root folder(s) name(s): team channel names
• Sub folders or documents: No constraints

The existing zip file in the template settings can be downloaded directly on the desktop with the "download" button. 

As the ZIP file is downloaded, you will be able to 

• use/upload it for a different Powell Governance template
• re-configure it and re-upload it to the same Template
• re-configure it and re-upload it to a different template

Configuring a site design

A Microsoft Team is part of a Microsoft 365 Group. A SharePoint Online Site Collection is automatically created to host the document library for Teams when creating a Microsoft Team. 

To integrate the SharePoint Site into your overall information architecture, you can use a Default team site or a Site design. 

Site design 

Checking "Site Design" into the template edition wizard allows you to associate one of your Sharepoint site designs to the team within the creation. 

Learn more about Site design here. 

Site designs are provisioning is limited to 30 actions maximum.

Governance

In this section, you configure the governance policies of your Team Template. 

This includes:

• Naming convention
• Approval Workflow
• Company policy
• Sensitivity label
• Tags
• Privacy settings
• Expiration date
• Automations
• Template lock

Naming Convention

Naming conventions automatically add important information to the Team name and enforce naming schemes defined in an organization's policies. In Powell Governance, you create a Naming Policy with different rules. 

There are three options for the configuration of Naming conventions. 

1. The default choice is to not use a naming policy for your Team.

2. Use an existing naming convention. Click on the radio button "Use an existing one" and choose the naming policy from the dropdown list. Every naming convention created is available in this list.

3. Create a new naming convention.

How to create a new naming convention

Create a naming convention in the Global administration menu or the template Governance configuration. 

Click "Create a new one." Discover how to create one on the naming conventions article. 

Approval Workflow

You have two options

• Yes
• No

1) Yes: You can add people as approvers by using the search box; when you turn on the approval feature by selecting "yes," you can add people as approvers by using the search box. You can also select the direct manager of the user as an approver for team creation.

If the manager is not found in the AD, then all Powell Governance administrators 
are designated as approvers for the team creation.

You also can keep the approver as an owner of the Team. 

As you set multiple approvers, take into consideration that: the first person who validates or refuses the team creation, acts for all other approvers. Consequently, as soon as the request is approved or declined by one person, the rest of the approvers will not be able to see the request any longer.

2) No - By choosing this option, team creation will be automatic after a user fills the team creation wizard using this template. 

For more information regarding the Approval workflow, visit the page Manage Approval Workflow.

Administrators can activate an option to send approval requests to approvers in Microsoft Teams chat. All requestors will receive a message when the request is made. They will be able to accept, deny, or see more information about the team creation request. 

Whenever the request is accepted or denied, the requester will be notified too. All approvers will also be notified about the new status of this request.

It is possible to define a default language for the notification card if the Microsoft Teams language of the user is not supported by Powell Governance (English, Dutch, Korean, Japanese, German, Russian).

Sensitivity labels

Apply sensitivity labels to your teams at the creation to maintain a unified governed environment based on those labels.

To apply sensitivity labels on groups and SharePoint sites, please check the Microsoft documentation.

Select your existing sensitivity labels (only the ones that can be associated to sites and groups are visible in Powell Governance).

Note that some other governance configuration of your template may be impacted as the privacy and the external users access. Sensitivity labels always override the other configuration.

Privacy

Define the privacy setting for teams created based on this Template

• To create private teams only choose the option "Private".
• To create public teams, choose the option "Public".
• To give users a choice during the team creation process, choose "Let the user choose."

Be aware of the consequences and differences between public and private teams. 

Enforce privacy based on the User Stories you use for Microsoft Teams. Use public teams for community or transparent teams while work primarily happens in private teams most of the time.

Company policy

To associate a company policy with a template, you have to select the one you want in your template configuration wizard's "Governance" tab.

Classification 

You can apply a Microsoft Classification to your Template. If you have no classification configured for Microsoft 365 Groups, the section is hidden.

More information about Microsoft classification: https://docs.microsoft.com/en-us/office365/enterprise/powershell/manage-office-365-groups-with-powershell#create-classifications-for-office-groups-in-your-organization​

Tags

You categorize teams by adding tags to the Template. Users can use these tags as refiners on the user dashboard.

Users can choose tags during the Team's creation process from the dropdown list or keep the default values. 
When you add a tag to your naming convention, it appears automatically. 

In "Categorize your teams with tags," you define default values. Users can change values during the team creation process. 

To add or create additional tags, click on the search box. Choose a tag from the list or click "CREATE" to create a new tag. 

A tag added in this section is not used in the naming convention. 

Mandatory: Click the Checkbox "Mandatory" to define any tag as mandatory. Every user selecting a mandatory tag is obliged to choose a value for this tag. Tags not set as mandatory are allowed to have empty values. 

Admin only: Administrators can choose to make tags only available for them in the back office, the tags will not be shown to end-users

Use only tags with a value to either users or IT. Avoid unnecessary tags as too many fields in a form complicate adoption. 

Create a workspace that describes the use of admin-created tags in the creation form. 

Find out more about tags on the page Tags and Refiners. 

Expiration Date

Set an expiration delay for the created Team. 

For example, the user chose 90 days, which means that workspace created based on this template will expire in 90 days. 

To find out more about expired teams, visit the page Reports.

Automation

You can associate your automation with your team template. 

Create your automation on the automation page in the menu, and then choose the created automation from the dropdown list shown in the image below.   

You can add various automation to your Template.

Locked template

If you don't want to let the team owners change the template of their team after the creation, you can still activate the following feature. Once activated, only Powell Governance administrators can change the template of the team associated with this template.

Owners & Members

Define external users and default Team owners and members. The selected default owners and members are automatically added to every Team created via this Template.

Audience

Choose who can use this Template during the team creation process. The option "Everyone" is the default configuration. All users can use this template when enabled. 

To target the template to specific users and hide it for others, choose "Specific users." Select an existing audience/profile from the dropdown list. 

An audience/profile can be created for a single person or a group of people. Groups are defined either via group membership or based on Microsoft 365 profile properties. How to create profiles is described here: Manage audience targeting for templates. 

External users 

If you select the option "NO," it won't be possible to add external users as default members into the default members of the template. Respectfully, the end-users won't be able to add external users in the creation wizard for the team creator/requester. Furthermore, it will not be possible either to add external users after the Team is created in the Microsoft Teams interface. 

This feature has no relation with the Microsoft Teams settings. If you allow external users in Powell Governance, you also have to allow it at the Microsoft Teams level. Otherwise, it will not work.

Users cannot remove default owners and members during the Team's creation or edition process. 

Azure Active Directory groups 

Administrators can add Azure Active Directory groups to the default owners or members. 

The group will be decomposed only when a new team will be created based on the template. When users are added or removed from the Azure Active Directory groups, you will not need to edit your team template; the change will be automatically applied to the next new teams based on the Template.

The "Sales and Marketing" Azure Active Directory group has been added in the tab Default team's owners in the image below. 

Click the little arrow to see the two options

1. You can expand this group
2. No - you can leave it as is

The image below shows the result of the first option—the case when you expand the group. 

Check the Create a team page to see how default members/owners look in the team creation wizard and how Azure Active Directory groups are added to the team. 

Minimum number of owners and members

Enter the number of minimum members and minimum owners for your team. Every time a user uses this template, they have to add at least the minimum number of owners and members to the team during the team's creation process. 

Add at least two owners to have a fallback alternative if one isn't available.  

Add a minimum number of members to reduce team sprawl as it isn't possible to create teams for a single user or to collaborate with only two participants. You should explain the best alternatives during team education.