Kent Björner is a consultant and team lead for the M365 group at Softronic. Kent has been working here for just over 7 years. In this interview, you’ll get to know him a little better and learn about his experiences with document management, how to make the most of SharePoint and Teams, and the common mistakes most companies make.
Kent started working with SharePoint as early as 2007. It was more of a coincidence that he chose that path, since he was offered the opportunity to write his thesis on SharePoint 2007 and was subsequently offered a job there.
- SharePoint is a fantastic product to work with—if you use it the right way. But a common mistake companies make is simply letting their employees start using the product without clear guidelines or training on how to use SharePoint—or Teams, for that matter.
Kent says that SharePoint and Teams are relatively easy to start using, but if you don’t have a clear structure, things can get messy and it becomes difficult to find what you’re looking for.
- As a result, if you don’t have any kind of training, it can lead to some people disliking it because they don’t really know how to work efficiently and smoothly with the tools.
Another thing he often notices is that many people believe SharePoint can solve everything, and they use it for things it isn’t suited for. It’s also common to end up in a situation where you end up breaking it.
As an M365 consultant, my days often consist of a wide variety of tasks, ranging from third-line support cases to meeting with clients and working on projects.
- Since I have several ongoing client projects, I need to be able to juggle multiple tasks at once. It’s fun and challenging. Sometimes I work on-site at the client’s office, and sometimes remotely. It varies a bit depending on the client and the project.
Challenges with the document structure
Many customers face challenges when it comes to “cleaning up” their document structure, and Kent believes it’s important to consider the following points:
- Conduct a department-by-department review of how each department works and what features and products they use within M365, or whether they also use external products (shadow IT).
- Develop clear guidelines on how to use Teams, SharePoint, and OneDrive so that people know when to use each tool and where to save different types of files.
- Train your users and keep in mind that there are different levels of users—some need basic training, while others may require more advanced training designed for power users and super admins. These training sessions can also be a good starting point for identifying and building a network of power users and super admins within your company.
Use SharePoint and Teams Wisely
When it comes to how users or companies can work smarter and more efficiently in SharePoint and Teams, Kent believes it’s especially important to focus on compliance—that is, to ensure you have a process in place that manually or automatically deletes old data so you don’t end up saving everything.
Kent doesn’t think you should prevent users from creating Teams on their own, but it’s important to have a good approval process for creating Teams so that you can gather a little more metadata about the team. This allows you to assign more than one owner and set an end date based on your needs. For example, you can do this using PowerApps.
- Feel free to use metadata and tags to categorize documents and sites in SharePoint based on sensitivity and other criteria. This will facilitate the implementation of AI/CoPilot. I also think it’s a good idea to create a “Power User” group, consisting of people who embrace change and new features, so they can share their experiences and help their colleagues.
By creating power user groups, IT gains an extension of its reach within the organization that can provide assistance.
- For example, they could hold meetings 3–4 times a year to discuss new features that are coming or have been introduced recently. This can help the IT department understand which features may have a positive or negative impact on different groups within the company.
AI is changing everything
AI influences almost everything about how we view digitalization and how we work. Kent believes that AI will likely become the gateway to most document management processes.
- You will no longer have to switch between different systems; instead, you will use AI to search for all your documents rather than searching manually. This, in turn, will make it extremely important to have lifecycle management, tagging, and designated owners for documents and workspaces.
Work and Leisure
Kent likes his job and thinks the best thing about Softronic is the freedom it offers and the opportunity to work on a wide variety of projects.
- I never have a boring day—sometimes I’m working on a project with my colleagues, and sometimes I work independently. It’s rare to have two days that are exactly the same, which I really appreciate—and that’s probably one of the reasons I’ve stayed at Softronic for so long.
He enjoys the balance between work and leisure and loves going out for walks.
- It’s both relaxing and helps me think clearly. I also like going to the gym, even though I don’t go as often anymore.
In the evenings, he likes to relax and play PlayStation; he loves that almost as much as he loves SharePoint.