IT Best Practices for North Way Teams

There are several ways that North Way teams share email, documents, and information.  While there are multiple ways to accomplish working in a shared space, there are some pitfalls that are helpful to avoid.  Here are a few best practices to follow in your team.

Team Passwords

There are may cases where teams need to share a set of passwords to access online resources.  Rather than using an Excel file or common, easily guessable passwords, a password manager would be best.

Best Practices

1. Password Manager - 1Password
   1. Can share passwords with team members
   2. Passwords can be super strong without burdening user
   3. Can be setup to supply 2FA codes

Submit a ticket to HelpDesk if you feel your team would benefit from a passord manager.

Shared Mailbox

A shared mailbox is a great tool to allow end users to contact a team using one email address.  Team members can access emails sent to/from that email address without having to use their personal email addresses.  This allows multiple staff members to participate with requests and keeps that information easily accessible to the rest of the team.

Best Practices:

1. Do not DELETE email, instead ARCHIVE
   1. Deleted emails do not get saved to the Shared Mailbox and are purged after 30 days
2. Establish a folder structure under the Inbox for easily categorizing email as you respond/receive them
   1. Possible Use Cases:
      1. A folder for emails that get addressed weekly, i.e. bill payments are always processed on Friday
      2. A folder for email escalations.  If an email needs to be responded to by a supervisor, these can be set aside for easy reference
      3. A folder for specific tasks done by a specific employee, i.e. new members, refund requests, booking requests, etc.
3. If you need a shared mailbox as the default FROM address, only use the desktop version Outlook.

Shared Microsoft Office Files

Microsoft offers the ability for two or more users to edit Microsoft documents at the same time.  This happens most often with Excel files.

Best Practices:

1. Use a browser to edit Excel/Word files that will be edited by multiple users.  Edits are saved automatically and updated for all users
   1. You can open a file in a browser using OneDrive or Teams

File Management

Best Practices:

1. Always save files to your OneDrive folder
   1. Files will be saved online
   2. Computer problems will not result in deleted or lost files.
2. Never save files to your desktop or downloads folder
   1. In the case of a hardware or software failure, these files may be lost.