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Modernising IT

External Access

Enhancing collaborative working and communications with external colleagues.

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MS Teams Guest Access enhances collaborative working and communications with external colleagues when using Microsoft Teams.

University colleagues are now able to invite external guests to join their Microsoft Teams. This new functionality allows all the Teams tools to be used with external colleagues including chat, meetings and document sharing in a safe and secure manner, in one easy to use application.

           

What types of collaboration are available?

External Access

This lets you find, call, and chat and set up meetings with Teams users in other domains (For example, another University or corporate partner). However, external users have no access to your organisation’s teams, channels, or team resources such as files.

Guest Access

This enables the creation of Teams workspaces that support collaborative activity with both internal and external colleagues. It lets team owners with Guest Access add individual external guests to teams and channels. This means guests, with a relevant email account, can collaborate as a full team member with the same access to team chats, meetings, documents, and files.

 

Are there controls available?

Are there controls available?

Team owners have controls over who can access information and can restrict access, especially information that may need to be protected because of privacy, value, ownership, or because it is highly restricted.

This is of particular relevance for many research projects, teaching and other work involving the potential disclosure of personal identity. Control of access to information is a critical security matter for all organisations, including those who work in partnership with the University.

What responsibilities come with Guest Access?

Approval to enable Guest Access for a team is subject to formal acceptance by the Team site owner of important responsibilities on behalf of the University. These include:

  • Managing who has access to the Team site.
  • Inviting guests to the Team site.
  • Ensuring that guests are who they say they are.
  • Ensuring information in the Team site is secure.

These responsibilities are specified in detail on a downloadable PDF at Responsibilities of a Teams site owner (The University of Manchester).

Microsoft Teams is part of the Microsoft 365 suite of applications that provides a space to chat, hold meetings, make calls, and share files.

More information about Microsoft Teams is available on our Microsoft Teams webpage.

How to request Guest Access

The ability to provide access to shared files is only available to Users who requested Guest Access. Please use these forms to request Guest Access:

 

Further Information