Governance Automation: Control processes securely and efficiently

Why is governance automation a must in Microsoft 365?

Without clear Microsoft 365 governance rules, these problems can quickly arise:

• hundreds of uncontrolled teams and groups,
• external guests with unlimited access,
• lack of evidence for audits,
• high manual effort for IT departments.

In many companies, the number of teams, groups, and guests is growing continuously without central control. This leads to security risks, confusing structures, and difficult compliance checks.

Governance automation solves these problems by automatically applying rules and processes.

In this blog article, I’ll show you everything you need to know about governance automation, the challenges, and successful implementation. I will also give you practical recommendations for introducing and implementing automated governance processes in Microsoft 365.

Governance automation tools such as Teams Manager and External User Manager support IT admins with governance automation. Find out more about their functions and how they help you to manage Microsoft 365 efficiently in this article.

What is governance automation?

Governance automation is the automated management and enforcement of policies in Microsoft 365, with the aim of reducing manual processes and relieving IT administrators.

With Governance automation, companies can ensure that their Microsoft 365 environment is managed according to predefined rules without the need for IT teams to constantly intervene.

Examples:

• New teams are only created using templates.
• Every guest access account is given an expiration date.
• Inactive teams are automatically archived after a defined period of time.
• Permissions are checked regularly.

The result: less manual work, more security, and full compliance.

What governance problems do IT administrators face?

Without an automated governance strategy, Microsoft 365 environments quickly get out of control. It administrators face the following challenges:

• Uncontrolled growth of teams and groups: Without clear guidelines, unstructured and redundant teams are created, making it difficult to maintain an overview.
• Increased security risks: Lack of control over external users, sensitive documents and authorizations leads to data protection problems.
• High administrative overhead: IT admins have to deal with recurring tasks such as provisioning teams, removing external users or managing naming conventions.
• Difficulties in adhering to compliance guidelines: Companies have to comply with legal requirements, which is costly without automated processes.

What are the benefits of automated governance?

IT administrators and companies benefit from these advantages of governance automation:

• Time savings: IT administrators spend less time on manual controls.
• Standardization: All teams and groups follow the same rules.
• Security: External access runs automatically, security gaps can be minimized, and sensitive data can be protected.
• Compliance: Compliance requirements can be enforced automatically and audit processes can be simplified.

In which areas should you automate governance?

You should automate governance in the following areas:

1. Automated team creation/provisioning: Who is allowed to create teams and groups? With which templates?
2. Lifecycle management: Automatic archiving or deletion of inactive teams and groups.
3. Naming conventions: Uniform rules for clear and searchable team names.
4. Guest management: Approval workflows, expiration dates, regular reviews.
5. Permission management: Clearly define roles, regularly check access.
6. Compliance and security policies: Automatic enforcement of security policies and access controls, compliance with applicable guidelines.
7. Automated reports: Automated reports for internal and external audits.

1. Automated team creation / provisioning

The creation of new teams can be automated by using defined templates and rules. This ensures that teams are created with a uniform structure, the desired authorizations and naming conventions.

You can find more on this topic in our blog posts on Microsoft 365 provisioning, Microsoft Teams provisioning and SharePoint provisioning.

2. Lifecycle management

Governance automation enables the automatic archiving or deletion of teams or groups according to predefined rules. Automated lifecycle management prevents uncontrolled growth, security issues and inefficiencies.

Learn more about lifecycles and best practices here: Microsoft 365 Group and Microsoft Teams Lifecycle Management

3. Naming conventions

Teams and groups can be named automatically according to defined rules. Enforcing naming conventions provides a better overview and structure.

Learn more about naming conventions here: Microsoft Teams Naming Conventions Best Practices

4. Guest management

Unmanaged guest users often pose a security risk. Automated processes can ensure that guest access is managed automatically, only exists for a predefined period of time and is then deactivated or removed again.

5. Permission management

Governance automation allows permissions to be automatically assigned or withdrawn according to role or function. This prevents users from gaining uncontrolled access to sensitive data.

6. Compliance and security policies

Automated governance processes can ensure that security policies and access controls are automatically enforced, the creation of unauthorized teams or groups is prevented and all users comply with applicable policies. Regulatory requirements can thus be implemented more easily and the risk of security breaches reduced.

7. Automated reports

Through regular audits and automatically generated reports, IT admins gain detailed insights into the use and security of Microsoft 365.

How to implement governance automation?

The native functions of Microsoft 365 are often limited and require manual intervention to ensure Microsoft 365 and Microsoft Teams governance. Automated solutions such as Teams Manager and External User Manager offer more comprehensive support here.

What can native M365 functions do and where do tools such as Teams Manager and EUM help?

	Native M365 functions	Tools like Teams Manager and External User Manager
Teams Provisioning	Limited templates	Automated rules and workflows
Lifecycle Management	Basic deletion policies	Advanced workflows with notifications
Naming Conventions	Manual control by IT	Automatic application of policies
Guest Management	Manual removal of guests	Advanced workflows with notifications
Roles & Permissions	Manual adjustments by admins	Automatic role-based assignments
Compliance	Limited protection mechanisms	Automatic application of policies
Reporting	Limited standard reports	Automated reports with detailed analytics

How does Teams Manager support governance automation?

Teams Manager helps you manage teams and groups in Microsoft 365 in a structured way:

• Templates and approvals for new teams
• Automatic naming conventions
• Lifecycle rules for archiving & deletion
• Classifications by department or sensitivity

Result: Order, less uncontrolled growth, lower IT overhead.

Learn more about the Teams Manager features for automated governance in our Teams Manager Basics blog post.

How does External User Manager support governance automation?

External User Manager (EUM) provides IT administrators with automated features for guest user management in Microsoft 365:

• Onboarding process
• Approval workflow
• Access management
• Lifecycles for guest access
• Automatic review and deletion of inactive guests
• Audit reports at the touch of a button

Result: Secure and transparent management of external users without manual effort.

Manual procedures and workload are significantly reduced by automating External User Manager.

How do you successfully implement governance automation?

1. Analyze the current situation
2. Define your goals
3. Choose the right tools
4. Start implementation of automated governance
5. Implement governance automation best practices
6. Regular review and optimization

Step 1: Analyze the current situation

Analyze your current governance strategy and identify weaknesses in the areas of lifecycle management, guest management, authorizations, compliance, naming conventions and reporting. Review existing processes and document where manual intervention is currently required.

Step 2: Define your goals

Determine which processes should be automated. This may include the following:

• Provisioning of M365 groups and teams
• Archiving or deletion of inactive teams and groups
• Automatic management and removal of guests
• Automatic assignment of roles and rights
• Enforcement of security and naming policies
• Automatic generation of usage and audit reports

Step 3: Choose the right tools

Decide whether you want to use native Microsoft 365 functions or governance automation tools such as Teams Manager and External User Manager. While Microsoft 365 offers basic functions, specialized tools enable deeper automation and better control.

Step 4: Start implementation of automated governance

Start with a step-by-step implementation of the automation:

• Test the automation in a test group first.
• Customize workflows to adapt them to specific company guidelines.
• Make sure everyone involved is trained and understands the new processes.

Step 5: Implement governance automation best practices

Use these best practices for optimal governance automation:

• Implement automated naming conventions for teams to ensure consistency.
• Conduct regular audits to control guest users to minimize security risks.
• Implement lifecycle management with clear archiving and deletion guidelines for a tidy environment.
• Assign predefined authorizations automatically so that users only receive the necessary rights.
• Integrate compliance requirements into automation processes to avoid violations.
• Automate reporting to have complete transparency about the use of Microsoft 365 at all times.

Step 6: Regular review and optimization

Monitor your automation and optimize it regularly:

• Use automated reports to ensure that all governance guidelines are adhered to.
• Perform regular reviews of automated processes.
• Adapt rules to new business requirements and Microsoft 365 updates

Frequently asked questions about governance automation in M365

Governance automation ensures efficiency and compliance

Governance automation is the key to a secure, standardized, and efficient Microsoft 365 environment.

Companies that do not automate governance processes face challenges such as uncontrolled teams, security risks, and high manual effort.

With Teams Manager and External User Manager, you not only set rules, you automate them.

This saves time, increases security, and ensures full compliance.

Book a demo now and see the benefits for your governance automation: