Governance made easy: Ernsting’s family relies on Teams Manager and External User Manager
Ernsting’s family, one of Germany’s six largest textile retailers, attaches great importance to efficient and user-friendly processes. The previous governance solution for Microsoft 365 was unable to meet these high standards. Following the product presentations of Teams Manager and External User Manager at the M365 Summit 2022, as well as intensive consultation and support from their Solutions2Share contact person, Ernsting’s family decided to migrate to the two apps.
Since then, the company has benefited from an automated process for external user access provided by External User Manager, as well as Teams Manager’s lifecycle management to automatically remove inactive teams.
Ernsting’s family is pleased to have user-friendly and intuitive governance apps for M365 that are easy to use not only for IT administrators but also for their end users. This represents a significant improvement over the previous governance tool.
“Teams Manager is a sophisticated tool that enables us to keep Microsoft Teams under control.“ Michael Schülke, System Administrator Application Management at Ernsting’s family GmbH & Co. KG
Challenges at Ernsting’s family
In 2018, Ernsting’s family switched to Microsoft 365 and immediately realized that they needed a governance solution. Initially, the company used a competing product, which proved to be too complicated to use.
The challenge was to choose a governance solution that was easier and more intuitive to use for all users — not just administrators. The next step was to make the migration from the previous system to Teams Manager and External User Manager as smooth as possible.
Our solution for Ernsting’s family
After Solutions2Share presented Teams Manager at an M365 Summit event, Ernsting’s family put the app through its paces. With a direct contact person at Solutions2Share, Ernsting’s family was then able to determine the perfect solution for them.
From then on, External User Manager would manage access for external users, while Teams Manager would handle automated lifecycle management. Ernsting’s family chose four templates for different team constellations. Of more than 12,500 employees, 1,250 have M365 licenses. The templates help licensed employees form meaningful teams across the company.
Benefit for Ernsting’s family
For Ernsting’s family, the greatest benefit of Teams Manager and External User Manager is their ease of use for the employees who ultimately use the apps. The now better overview and management of teams and external users protects the company from uncontrolled growth in Microsoft 365. Above all, the automatic lifecycle function makes it easier to check which teams can remain and which need to be removed.
