Administration
Teams: when to split the organisation
Splitting too early gets in the way; splitting late leaves everyone seeing everything.
Teams separate who sees what. With five people they are overhead; with forty and three departments they are necessary. The signal is the answer to one question: is anyone seeing something they should not?
| Situation | Teams | Why |
|---|---|---|
| Under ten people, everyone does everything | No | Splitting makes sharing templates and contacts harder |
| Departments with different sensitive material | Yes | HR has no need to see purchasing, or the reverse |
| Several sites or clients with their own teams | Yes, one per site or client | It is also what lets you scope an auditor's access |
| Clients who compete with each other | Mandatory | Not convenience: it is third-party information |
Important
If you hold documents for competing clients, one team per client is not an organisational preference. Broad permissions there expose a third party's information without their authorisation.
What stays shared anyway
Worth knowing
Start without teams and add them when someone asks why they can see something. Splitting later is easier than merging what was split too far.
›Can someone be in two teams?
Yes, and it is normal for coordinators.
›Does an administrator see every team?
Yes. Which is why there should be two, not nine.
›Can a case move between teams?
Yes, keeping its history.
A real case
The situation
A 25-person firm serves two clients in the same sector.
What you do
- Creates one team per client
- Scopes each account manager's permissions
What you get
No manager sees documents belonging to the client that competes with theirs.
The situation
Everyone sees everything and there are now forty people.
What you do
- Separates into teams according to the work
What you get
Each one sees their own.
The situation
The organisation is split and templates have to be duplicated.
What you do
- Considers whether permissions would have sufficed
What you get
The structure does not multiply without reason.
The situation
One team needs to see another's work occasionally.
What you do
- Grants access to the specific file
What you get
The exception does not break the separation.
The situation
Reports have to be added up by hand across teams.
What you do
- Queries the whole from above
What you get
The overall picture exists.
The situation
It was separated out of caution and now it gets in the way.
What you do
- Revisits the decision with usage data
What you get
The structure matches how people work.
This article answers
- when to create teams
- separate work by department
- everyone sees every case
- organise teams by site or by area