What's new?
We are excited to announce an update to our iWorkplace app, Smart Provisioning. In addition to reflecting Microsoft’s best practice recommendations, we have introduced several new features and retired those that no longer align with Microsoft.
What's Changing:
- Register Changes
- Changes to Smart Provisioning Settings
- Functionality Changes
What's no longer being supported:
- Creating classic sites
- Creating classic SharePoint Apps
What do you need to do?
Please ensure you’ve added the following app registration permission: ‘TeamMember.ReadWrite.All'
Why is this necessary?
This update also addresses a related concern where some users are intermittently not being designated as Team Owners in Teams. The root of this issue lies in a concurrent step during provisioning that assigns both a Team Owner and a Team Member – a crucial requirement to ensure users have access to Planner.
Please note that the change will happen outside business hours (between 5pm-8am Mon-Fri) and could involve up to 20 minutes down-time.
In the event a rollback is required, we will return Smart Provisioning the previous version and let you know.
If this requires going through your Change Advisory Board (CAB), please let us know by responding to this email or reaching out to our Customer Success Team at [email protected].
Register Changes
Progress and Progress Page columns – A new progress page & column will help track the progress of provisioning, replacing the former link and progress columns.
Smart Provisioning Settings
Modern Look and Feel – The settings interface has been updated to reflect modern functionality and now includes a link to our manuals via the help icon as well as helpful tool tips to support you as you progress through the settings.
Select a content type to get started – You will need to select a content type before you can adjust the settings, ensuring you are always editing settings for the correct type.
Tabs in Smart Provisioning Settings Team Security Tab
O365 Groups and Teams > Team Security – The renamed Team Security tab delivers the same settings and functions as the formerly named O365 Groups and Teams tab and more! From the Team Security Tab you can:
- Create team with site
- Team Group Permissions
- Only apply team groups when the site is created
- Select when to apply permissions
Administration Tab
Managed links – Managed Links, and other link content types are now available by default and can easily be added or removed from the Teams Register.
Parent URL – We no longer support classic sites and the path of modern sites cannot be controlled making this setting obsolete.
Remove Event Receivers – Event Receivers are no longer used in Smart Provisioning.
Webhook expiry date – Smart Provisioning will automatically renew the webhooks if it detects they are within 15 days of the expiry date (they have a 30 day expiry period). This detail has been included for support purposes.
Actions Tab
PowerShell Scripts – Are no longer supported due to security concerns, duplicated functionality and the ongoing maintenance of these scripts.
Call Webhooks - This is a new function that will allow Smart Provisioning to call an external API and send the same information as was previously sent to the PowerShell scripts. This will allow you to have greater control over these functions and create opportunities for LOB integrations.
SharePoint Security Tab
Group names – the display name will be used for the group name.
Disable Scripting – Scripting is no longer required for iWorkplace apps however may still be required for backward compatibility with other, older, 3rd party apps. This functionality will remain in place until Microsoft drops support for these apps in April 2026.
Functionality Changes
Can copy list items and library contents – Smart Provisioning supports the copying of folders and files in libraries as well as list items from the template to the new site.
The configuration of Planner boards and tasks will be unsupported - you will still be able to provision Planner boards/tabs, but they will have the 'Setup as new' button
Teams tab configuration no longer supported for a number of apps in line with Microsoft’s recommendations.
Communications sites are officially supported by Smart Provisioning
Status change permissions - 06 Deleted now removes all access for all accounts. The only exceptions are the primary site owner and when the Teams Owners have Site Admin rights.
What's no longer being supported
Creating classic sites
Microsoft have dropped OOTB support for creating most classic site designs as such they can no longer be created via Smart Provisioning.
Existing classic sites may still be managed and retrofitted.
Creating classic SharePoint Apps
Smart Provisioning will no longer support the activation of SharePoint hosted and Provider hosted apps.
- Microsoft have already deprecated classic SharePoint Apps in Nov 2023 and support will be dropped completely in April 2026.
- These apps will still be copied to the new site, and an attempt will be made to activate them, but it’s likely this will fail for most apps.
