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MICROSOFT 365 AT SFU

Last updated: Tue, 27 Feb 2024 8:47 AM

What's Next?

This year we are prioritizing the implementation of Exchange Online at SFU. This will move our current SFU email system to a Microsoft cloud version with new features, such as:

  • Access to email calendars in MS Teams to help schedule team meetings.
  • Availability of the Planner app in MS Teams for personal/teamwork planning.
  • Using email events in Power Automate workflows (e.g. triggering an approval process when a new email arrives to an inbox).

We'll also prioritize the enrichment of the overall M365 platform with additional security and controls to prepare for future services. This includes Sharepoint Online as a service and the assessment of additonal communication features in MS Teams. To help the university community, the integration of add-ins for M365 apps (such as Word, Excel, and Powerpoint) will also become available as a service offering.

Frequently Asked Questions

(New) When will MS Teams become available for students?

We're excited about the SFU community's interest in using MS Teams to help students engage and learn digitally. Unfortunately, MS Teams for student learning will remain unavailable until SFU is ready to adopt this tool as a learning an teaching platform.

For now, we encourage you to explore SFU Canvas as the university's primary student learning and online engagement solution.

Will Microsoft Teams and OneDrive replace SFU Vault?

IT Services has launched OneDrive and MS Teams for file collaboration and storage within the university. SFU is implementing MS Teams (for faculty, staff, and graduate students) and OneDrive (for all SFU users) as a replacement for SFU Vault. When that implementation is complete, the SFU Vault service will be deprecated. At that time, support will be provided for those who need help moving to alternative solutions.

We encourage you to explore MS Teams (for faculty, staff, and graduate students) and OneDrive (for all SFU users), which are new services that serve as modern file sharing and collaboration platforms at SFU. For more information, and steps on how to migrate files from SFU Vault, visit the page on SFU Vault migration.

What is the relationship between Teams, SharePoint Online, and SharePoint On-Premises?

Teams & SharePoint Online

  • When you create a team in MS Teams, a Teams connected team/channel site gets automatically created in SharePoint Online. 
  • This site is used as a file repository by MS Teams. When you click on the 'Files' tab within team channels, the files you see are either stored in your Teams connected site or Teams connected channel sites.

SharePoint Online and SharePoint On-Premises

  • SharePoint Online and SharePoint On-Premises are two distinct, separate services. There is no linkages or direct communication between the two services.
  • SharePoint Online site links will always start with "https://1sfu.sharepoint.com".
  • SharePoint On-Premises site links will always start with "https://sharepoint.sfu.ca".

I am currently using SharePoint On-Premises, should I start using SharePoint online?

If your department already has a SharePoint site at SFU, we recommend that you continuing using SFU's SharePoint on-premises service until SharePoint Online is introduced in 2023.

At this time, support for SharePoint Online is limited to MS Teams. This includes the SharePoint Online document library connected to a team, but does not extend to any further customization of a SharePoint Online site.

Need help? Please see our collection of FAQs or visit the how-to guides.

For additional assistance, contact the IT Service Desk at it-servicedesk@sfu.ca or 778-782-8888.