In this article I will share what I would recommend to configure on every new Microsoft 365 Tenant.
The Challenge: Why Many Microsoft 365 Tenants Become Unmanageable and Inefficient Over Time
Many organizations adopting Microsoft 365 quickly discover that while the platform offers immense power, its default configuration often leaves crucial features disabled. These “dormant” functionalities, designed to enhance data governance, search capabilities, content management, and user experience, remain untapped. The real problem arises when a tenant matures: as users populate SharePoint sites and OneDrive accounts with vast amounts of information, and as collaboration intensifies, attempts to enable these critical features become incredibly complex, disruptive, and even risky. Retrofitting governance, re-indexing content, or restructuring information architecture on an existing, data-rich tenant can lead to compliance headaches, data inconsistencies, user frustration, and significant administrative overhead. SharePoint administrators frequently struggle with the technical debt accrued from these missed initial configurations, spending countless hours trying to bring order to an environment that could have been optimally set up from day one.
Consider the following.
Ownerless resources
Having an owner for every Microsoft 365 resource should be enforced from day one.
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This step is an essential prerequisite for the other governance features. I have an article explaining ownerless Microsoft 365 groups policy in details and more KBAs regarding ownerless SharePoint resources.
Oversharing in SharePoint
Oversharing in SharePoint is a serious problem. The earlier you start addressing it – the easier you life as SharePoint engineer. Here are some thought: Control Oversharing in SharePoint Online: Smarter Access Management in Microsoft 365
User profiles to Term Store mapping
There is an OotB misconfiguration in Microsoft 365 User Profiles mapping to Term Store Metadata. Here is the KBA how to configure User Profiles correctly.
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Why this approach?
- Relatability: It immediately speaks to the pain points experienced by many SharePoint admins (“unmanageable,” “inefficient,” “struggling with it,” “technical debt”).
- Highlights the “Why”: It explains why these features are off and why it’s a problem to turn them on later.
- Emphasizes Proactivity: It sets the stage for your solution, which is about proactive setup.
- Strong Call to Action (Implied): It makes the reader understand that your KBA will provide the solution to avoid these common pitfalls.