Managing Group Workspaces

Documents being used centrally within a School, Professional Service, or for collaboration will be generally be stored on Microsoft Teams or University Group Workspace.

Group Workspace is a legacy simple file storage service which has been largely superseded by OneDrive and MS Teams that provide modern features for collaboration. Only one version of documents are saved by default in Group Workspace, unlike at least the last 30 versions of documents saved in OneDrive or MS Teams. It is highly recommended that Group Workspace is no longer used for any new document requirements.

Duties of a Group Workspace Manager

Group Workspace managers are needed as a point of contact for IT Services if there are any issues with the Group Workspace, they are also the people we will accept instructions from regarding changes to the Group Workspace. There are also several other tasks that Group Workspace managers need to carry out.

Manage group membership changes

You manage membership via Outlook, please see the Managing Group Workspace Membership above for more details. Ensuring appropriate access is granted based on the classification of the data contained within the group as per Information Governance Policy 3 - Information categories and controls. The group manager can also add or remove members of the managers group. We strongly recommend that there are at least 2 managers for each Group Workspace.

Manage utilisation

To ensure that the Group Workspace does not grow too large without of date files and ensure that users handle and process information in accordance with the Information Categories and Controls Policy.

Request deletion

Once a Group Workspace and its files are no longer required, the contents of the Group Workspace must be deleted. A request can be raised via the IT Services Service Desk for the Group Workspace to be deleted.

Being Contacted by IT Services

Group Workspace managers are IT Services primary point of contact regarding Group Workspaces. Managers may be contacted for several reasons:

  • IT Services maintains reports on Group Workspace use, including identifying old/unused Group Workspaces. After 450 days of inactivity, defined by whether any files in the Group Workspace have been modified, IT Services may contact the managers to ask if the Group Workspace is no longer required
  • A Group Workspace that has been identified as having no current active users
  • Additionally, we may contact the members of the Read/Write group for a Group Workspace when it has been identified as having no managers, to request that a colleague be nominated, or volunteer, to be a manager for the Group Workspace
  • A Group Workspace that has been identified as having only one manager to request at least one additional manager is assigned

Automatic Group Workspace Deletion

In some circumstance’s IT Services will automatically delete old, unused, Group Workspaces. The current conditions for automatic deletion are listed below. ALL conditions must be met:

  • Unused for at least 450 days
  • No Manager
  • No members of the Read/Write group

Login to O365 Webmail ‌

  • Login to O365 Webmail using the link below.
  • Click on the Settings icon (cog) on the top right-hand side of the menu bar
  • From the drop-down Settings menu, scroll to the bottom and select ‘View all Outlook settings’ option. This will open a new pop-up box

General

  • Click General in the drop down menu of the left hand side of your screen, then select Distribution groups

Groups

  • This will display all the groups you belong to and all the groups you own

Add / Remove

  • Under groups you own, double click on the group you want to add/remove access on
  • Then click on membership on the left. Here you can add and remove members as necessary. When finished, ensure that you 'save' any changes

Additional resources

Use the link below for information on how to connect to group workspaces 

Connecting to a workspace