University IT M365 Teams Pilot Wraps up Dec. 1

The need for collaboration is common across the many roles that we in the Stanford community hold. However, individuals affiliated with the university often experience challenges around sharing information easily and securely with colleagues in the hospitals who don’t have a SUNetID.

Now, the answer may be at hand. Microsoft 365 (M365) apps —including Teams and SharePoint — can be leveraged for cross-affiliate collaboration without the need for multiple IDs. Those with a Teams account can log into the platform in their home tenant* and access resources in other tenants where they’ve been invited as a guest.

University IT (UIT) has been piloting Teams and other M365 tools with groups comprised of employees from Stanford University, Stanford Health Care (SHC), and Stanford Children’s Health (SCH). The pilot kicked off in September and is set to wrap up Dec. 1. (Please note: As the pilot is reaching the end, it’s closed to new participants.)

Results from the pilot and other aspects of this discovery phase will be used to inform a decision about Microsoft Teams as an additional product offering at the university — including what processes, security, and device management requirements must be implemented. The details of a rollout plan for the university will be shared in the first quarter of 2023.

Slack, Zoom, and Google Drive will continue to be the university's preferred collaboration platforms, and the introduction of Teams will not impact their availability.

Teams is already available across SHC following an Oct. 31, 2022, launch led by Stanford Medicine’s Technology and Digital Solutions.

What is Teams?

Teams offers a secure chat-centered workspace, a video meeting experience, and integration with all Microsoft applications and services.​ The platform can be accessed via the desktop or mobile app and online through a web browser.

Accessing Teams without an account

Anyone can join a Teams meeting anytime, from any device, whether or not they have a Teams account. Those without an account should follow these steps to join as a guest. Although they can be a participant, external users will not have all of the capabilities available to those with an account.

* A Microsoft tenant is a set of services assigned to an organization and is typically associated with a domain name, such as @stanford.edu or @stanfordhealthcare.org. In simpler terms, think of “tenant” as a piece of the cloud with an organization’s name on it.

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