The Microsoft 365 Governance Showdown: How ProvisionPoint Stacks Up Against the Competition

Microsoft 365 makes it incredibly easy for organizations to collaborate. Employees can create Teams, SharePoint sites, Microsoft 365 Groups, and other workspaces to share information and get work done. 

But that flexibility creates a governance challenge. 

As Microsoft 365 environments grow, organizations can quickly find themselves managing thousands of workspaces, complex permissions, external users, inconsistent configurations, and sites that no longer have clear owners or purposes. 

The question is no longer simply How do we enable collaboration? 

It is How do we enable collaboration without losing control? 

There are several approaches organizations take to Microsoft 365 governance, from relying on Microsoft's native capabilities to deploying enterprise governance platforms, specialized provisioning tools, or building their own solution. 

Each approach has advantages, but they also come with different levels of automation, flexibility, complexity, and administrative effort. 

Option 1: Microsoft Native Governance 

Who it is: The governance, security, provisioning, permissions, and lifecycle capabilities available throughout the Microsoft 365 ecosystem. 

For many organizations, Microsoft itself is the natural starting point. The tools are already part of the ecosystem, and administrators can use Microsoft 365, Entra ID, SharePoint, Teams, Purview, and other services to establish different governance controls. 

What it does well: 

• Native to the Microsoft 365 ecosystem 
• Core security and compliance capabilities 
• Permissions and identity management 
• Retention and lifecycle capabilities 
• No additional third-party governance platform required 

Where it falls short: 

Having governance capabilities available and having a consistent governance process are two different things.  Microsoft 365 governance capabilities are distributed across different services and administrative interfaces. Organizations may need to combine policies, configurations, workflows, permissions, and administrative processes to achieve the governance model they want. The challenge becomes greater as the use of Microsoft 365 grows. 

IT teams can find themselves manually provisioning workspaces, managing permissions, reviewing guest users, monitoring inactive environments, and responding to requests from users who need access or new collaboration spaces. 

Microsoft's native expiration policies can also be limiting for organizations that want different lifecycle rules for different types of workspaces. 

ProvisionPoint advantage: 

ProvisionPoint brings Microsoft 365 governance, provisioning, and permissions management into a centralized solution. 

Organizations can automate the creation of Microsoft Teams, SharePoint sites, and Microsoft 365 Groups through governed self-service request and approval processes. Naming conventions, configurations, governance policies, and access controls can be applied from the moment a workspace is created. 

ProvisionPoint can also apply different lifecycle policies to different types of workspaces, helping organizations manage what happens after those environments have been created. Instead of replacing Microsoft 365's governance capabilities, ProvisionPoint helps organizations make them easier to implement and manage consistently. 

Option 2: The Enterprise Governance Platform 

Who it is: Large governance and security platforms designed to manage information, access, compliance, and risk across multiple enterprise systems. 

These solutions are typically designed for organizations with complex governance requirements that extend well beyond Microsoft 365. 

What it does well: 

• Broad enterprise governance capabilities 
• Cross-platform visibility 
• Advanced security and compliance functionality 
• Extensive policy management 
• Designed for large, complex organizations 

Where it falls short: 

More capability can also mean more complexity. Enterprise governance platforms can require significant implementation, configuration, specialist knowledge, and ongoing administration. 

For an organization primarily trying to answer questions such as Who has access to this SharePoint site?, How do we standardize the creation of Teams?, or How do we automatically manage inactive workspaces?, a large enterprise governance platform may introduce more infrastructure than the problem requires. 

Organizations can end up implementing a broad governance ecosystem when their immediate challenge is maintaining control of Microsoft 365. 

ProvisionPoint advantage: 

ProvisionPoint is purpose-built around Microsoft 365 governance. 

It provides centralized governance and permissions management across SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft 365 Groups while allowing organizations to automate common governance activities. 

That makes it possible to introduce stronger governance without turning Microsoft 365 administration into another large enterprise transformation project. 

Option 3: The Provisioning Specialist 

Who it is: Third-party Microsoft 365 solutions primarily designed to automate the creation of Teams, SharePoint sites, Microsoft 365 Groups, and other workspaces. 

These tools address one of the most common Microsoft 365 administration problems: repetitive provisioning requests. 

What it does well: 

• Automated workspace creation 
• Self-service requests 
• Approval workflows 
• Standardized templates 
• Reduced manual Site creation 

Where it falls short: 

Provisioning is only the beginning of the workspace lifecycle. A Team may be perfectly governed when it is created. Twelve months later, its owners may have left the organization, external users may have been added, permissions may have changed, and the project it was created for may have ended. 

Organizations therefore need to think beyond: 

How should this workspace be created? 

They also need to ask: 

Who owns it now? 

Who has access? 

Is it still being used? 

Does it still comply with our policies? 

Should it be renewed, archived, or removed? 

A solution focused primarily on provisioning may not address those ongoing governance requirements. 

ProvisionPoint advantage: 

ProvisionPoint combines provisioning with ongoing Microsoft 365 governance. 

Organizations can standardize workspace creation while also applying lifecycle and compliance policies that help maintain governance after creation. 

Workspaces can be governed according to their purpose rather than treating every Team or SharePoint site exactly the same. 

That helps organizations move from workspace provisioning to workspace lifecycle governance. 

Option 4: The DIY Approach 

Who it is: Organizations building their own Microsoft 365 governance processes using Power Automate, PowerShell, Microsoft Graph, SharePoint, scripts, APIs, and other internal tools. 

For organizations with experienced Microsoft 365 teams, building governance internally can initially seem like an inexpensive and highly flexible option. 

What it does well: 

• Highly customizable 
• Can address organization-specific requirements 
• Uses technologies the organization may already own 
• Gives IT complete control over the solution 
• No need to purchase another governance product 

Where it falls short: 

The initial build is only part of the cost. Custom governance solutions need to be designed, developed, tested, documented, maintained, and updated as Microsoft 365 changes. 

A simple provisioning workflow can gradually expand into approval processes, naming policies, lifecycle rules, permission reporting, guest-user reviews, notifications, and compliance requirements. Eventually, the organization is maintaining its own Microsoft 365 governance application. 

There is also a knowledge-retention risk. If the people who designed the scripts and workflows leave the organization, IT may inherit a business-critical governance system that few people fully understand. 

ProvisionPoint advantage: 

ProvisionPoint provides purpose-built Microsoft 365 governance without requiring organizations to develop and maintain their own platform. 

Organizations can automate common governance processes while still configuring policies around their own business requirements. 

Instead of dedicating technical resources to maintaining scripts, workflows, APIs, and custom applications, IT can focus on defining the policies and controls that should govern Microsoft 365. 

What Makes ProvisionPoint Different? 

The challenge with Microsoft 365 governance isn't simply creating rules. 

It is applying those rules consistently across an environment that is constantly changing. 

ProvisionPoint combines governance, provisioning, permissions management, auditing, and controlled self-service across Microsoft 365. 

With ProvisionPoint, organizations can: 

• Centralize Microsoft 365 governance — manage SharePoint, Microsoft Teams, and Microsoft 365 Groups through a centralized interface. 
• Automate provisioning — allow users to request the resources they need while IT maintains control through templates, approvals, naming conventions, and governance policies. 
• Understand permissions — discover direct, inherited, and group-based permissions and identify potential access risks. 
• Manage permissions at scale — identify permission changes and perform bulk management rather than reviewing workspaces individually. 
• Apply lifecycle policies — establish different lifecycle requirements for different types of workspaces and automate actions as they reach the end of their useful life. 
• Improve auditing and compliance — run permission reports and track membership and access changes to make security reviews and audit requests easier. 
• Enable controlled self-service — allow authorized site and content owners to handle appropriate governance and access tasks while IT maintains centralized oversight. 
• Reduce IT workload — automate repetitive provisioning and governance activities instead of requiring administrators to manually manage every workspace. 

The Bottom Line 

Microsoft 365 already provides organizations with powerful collaboration, security, and governance capabilities. 

The challenge is applying those capabilities consistently as the environment grows. 

Microsoft's native tools provide the underlying foundation. Enterprise governance platforms provide broad capabilities across complex technology environments. Provisioning specialists simplify workspace creation. DIY solutions provide customization and control. 

ProvisionPoint takes a different approach. 

By bringing governance, provisioning, permissions management, lifecycle controls, and controlled self-service together, ProvisionPoint helps organizations govern Microsoft 365 throughout the workspace lifecycle. 

That means organizations can give employees the freedom to collaborate while giving IT and security teams the visibility and control they need. 

Instead of choosing between self-service and governance, organizations can have both. 

Ready to Take Control of Microsoft 365 Governance? 

See how ProvisionPoint from SnapOn Software can help your organization automate provisioning, manage permissions, strengthen governance, and reduce the administrative burden of managing Microsoft 365.