{"id":73,"date":"2022-02-21T18:16:48","date_gmt":"2022-02-21T18:16:48","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/localhost\/blog\/?p=73"},"modified":"2022-02-22T08:11:25","modified_gmt":"2022-02-22T08:11:25","slug":"information-scattering-the-unwanted-side-effect-of-migrating-to-microsoft-365","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/localhost\/blog\/information-scattering-the-unwanted-side-effect-of-migrating-to-microsoft-365\/","title":{"rendered":"Information Scattering – the unwanted side effect of migrating to Microsoft 365"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
\"Got<\/figure><\/div>\n\n\n\n

So what is information scattering?<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Searching for information has always felt like lost time for information workers and always will.
Microsoft 365 doesn’t really help much either.
If you follow their recommended<\/a> practices<\/a> when migrating to the Microsoft cloud you will quickly find you have files in not one, but dozens of different places: your own OneDrive, other people’s OneDrive, lots of SharePoint Online sites, Teams ‘files’ tabs, which are actually folders in even more SharePoint sites.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is what we call information scattering<\/strong>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But this is actually the correct thing to do. Why?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Security!! The permissions on these files are correct for where they are – only you can access files on your OneDrive unless you specifically share them with someone else, files in Teams are automatically available to the entire team and for all other special cases where different groups of people need different permissions on the same files, end up in normal SharePoint Online sites and libraries where we can set up the permissions precisely.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So there’s a good reason to follow Microsoft’s recommendations, but the unwanted side effect is information scattering.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Occasionally, some people try migrating all their files to a single SharePoint library, and while that might be technically possible to do, the result is even worse than information scattering. Opening folders in file explorer doesn’t take too long, but using your favorite browser to access such a SharePoint library is considerably slower and none of the interfaces let you jump quickly between folders on different levels – the end result is pure frustration for the users and no benefit whatsoever from the more advanced features SharePoint Online has to offer.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Who suffers?<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

This is especially problematic for users new to Microsoft 365, whether your company or organization has just migrated to M365 or for new employees that have never used M365 before. These users were used to having their files all in the same place – the file explorer. Maybe the files were on their desktop, My Documents folder or on network shares, but they were all available from the same place and it was relatively quick to find them,\u2026 if you know the folder structure.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The problem is just as annoying for information creators as information consumers. After migrating to Microsoft 365 the first two questions users have are: <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Where do I save my files?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Where can I find such-and-such file?<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

Left alone, end users start searching. Is the file I’m looking for already in my OneDrive? \u2026 No.
Maybe it’s in one of the Teams I belong to? \u2026 No, not there either.
It must be in SharePoint then! But which site? \u2026 I could try a search, but I don’t know who would have created the file or its name \u2026 the search suggestions aren’t any help – hold on! Maybe it’s an email attachment ?!?!?!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And 10 minutes later they are still no closer to finding it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Additional problems<\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Eventually, after several weeks of work they may have found most of the locations of the files they need, but if they switch off their PC at night, the next morning they will lose an entire coffee break finding them all again. Then waste more time resetting the ordering and filtering on the folders just as they had them before. People combining office and working from home, the new hybrid norm, face the same problem.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

So many just leave their computers on overnight, but that has its own list of concerns:<\/p>\n\n\n\n