If you belong to any number of Microsoft or information technology related circles, Groups is probably a word that holds more meaning to you than your average bear. To the everyday person, a group is a collection of something — people or otherwise — that fit a set of certain criteria. You may have a group of people at work with whom you communicate. You may belong to a local fitness or recreation group. However, for those who have chosen to work in the sphere that is technology, software, and enterprise collaboration, Groups is quite a different animal.
Here at AvePoint we decided to develop a software that could manage the pain points of groups, while still retaining all the reasons why we use groups to begin with. With AvePoint’s latest web application, GroupHub, you can get the most out of your groups experience.
GroupHub has two main jobs. First, it allows users to harness the full power of Office 365 by providing a simple and organized interface for users to interact with their Groups.
The second job of GroupHub is enabling administrators to effectively manage their Office 365 Groups, regardless of the amount of governance and control required by the organization. For organizations who find the Microsoft-provided Groups management features sufficient, GroupHub eliminates the sometimes unbearable need to work with complicated PowerShell scripts by providing a simple user interface for admins to configure those group management settings. For organizations that need even more governance over Group creation and management, GroupHub integrates directly with Governance Automation Online’s group provisioning, classification and lifecycle services.
GroupHub offers more than just management of your Groups as well. With GroupHub from AvePoint, it’s beary easy to create new groups without even leaving the GroupHub interface. If the GroupHub admin has allowed native Office 365 Group Creation, the user will only be able to initiate the process if they have the rights to create Office 365 Groups. If the organization has configured the native “classification” option for groups, GroupHub will allow the requestor to select a classification when creating the group. Although creating an Office 365 Group with “hidden membership” is only possible in Office 365 through PowerShell, GroupHub allows the requestor to specify that option when creating a private group.
Another pawsitively awesome feature offered by GroupHub is the ability to create its namesake – Hubs – or collections of Groups for easy access. While the property filter is extremely useful, users may want to frequently return to a filtered list of groups that meet specific criteria. The result of any filter can be saved as a Hub. Users can name their Hubs anything they want and, once created, the hubs will be accessible just below the list of built-in views. Users can even “pin” a Hub to make it the default view that they see when they access the GroupHub application. Best of all, for Hubs that are built on filters, any new groups that are created or newly-tagged with metadata that matches the Hub settings will automatically show up in the Hub with no further action by the Hub owner. Hubs can also be created from hand-picked groups rather than defined criteria. Users can create this type of Hub by using the “Create Hub” option in GroupHub.
Furthermore, GroupHub offers a mobile-friendly design, so if you’re ever in a situation where you’re not at your desk and still need access to your Hubs, we’ve got you covered. The GroupHub application is built using what is known as “responsive design” meaning that you can harness the full power of GroupHub from any mobile device with a web browser, so even on the go, you can get all of the honey of Office 365 Groups without any of the bees.
For those of you who are at Ignite, be sure to stop by booth 301 to learn more about GroupHub along with all our other products and services to make your collaboration the best it can possibly be. Also, be on the lookout for yours truly at Ignite! Get a group hug with GroupHub!
