Beware: Don't use MS Whiteboard for shared + long-duration boards

End-users are often creative, and introduce business usages of a digital workplace tool beyond it's actual positioning. Within the scope of Microsoft 365 customers this may result in usage of MS Whiteboard also as presentation platform for Performance Dashboards. Pragmatic reuse of a tool already available via the Microsoft 365 license.

However, the IT and/or workplace adoption department of such Microsoft 365 organization must realize the business continuity risks this introduces: since 2022, Microsoft stores all new MS Whiteboards within the OneDrive of person that started the board (Microsoft reference: Manage data for Microsoft Whiteboard). As long as that person remains in role, there is no lssue. But once the person transitions in the company, or even leaves; then a business continuity and/or compliance risk originates. The board with shared usage and membership is then in the OneDrive of person no longer entitled to the topic; and in case the person left the company his/her OneDrive will be deleted (after a grace period) and the shared (dash)board lost.

Of course both issues can be prevented by conducting proper JML (joiner/mover/leaver) processing, but often this is not applied on OneDrive; as that is a digital workplace capability positioned for personal usage.

Users need 'Use Client Integration Features' permission to launch OneDrive Sync from SharePoint Online library

Business users typical like very much the way-of-working via explorer with files stored in SharePoint libraries. Were we in the past limited to doing that either via IE as browser with 'Open with Explorer', or via setting a Map Network Drive; nowadays the better alternative is to work via OneDrive Sync. Our business users underline that advise. However, some reported that they were unable to execute OneDrive Sync from a specific library, while a colleague could do this successful. My initial suspicions were towards issues with browser (this was actually the case with related user issue, failure to 'Open with Explorer' - there the immediate cause was that person's favorite browser is Chrome iso IE, and Chrome does not support 'Open with Explorer' without additional extensions), automatic Office 365 login not working as it should (recent changed in our tenant from old to new sign-in experience, accompanied by a change from 'Keep Me Signed In' to 'Stay signed in'), inconsistency in the components of the local installed Office 365 suite, missing OneDrive license, ...

However, upon following the investigation route that for colleague it works, I compared their permissions. To observe that the business users for which click on Sync does not launch the OneDrive Sync client, miss the specific permission 'Use Client Integration Features' in their SharePoint authorizations. This is a required permission for a.o. OneDrive Sync launch. Included the permission in their applied Permission Level, and problem resolved.

Beware: SharePoint App usage depends on OneDrive

I recent played around with the SharePoint App on multiple mobile platforms: iOS, Windows Phone 10 (yes, I still have that...). I connected to our SharePoint Online environment (the App also supports to connect to SharePoint 2016 on premises). Although the (navigation in the) UI needs some time to get acquainted, the SharePoint App definite has potential to become a low-barrier anytime/anyplace entrance into SharePoint. Access through the hamburger-menu the content of the SharePoint site collection, pages, list items. And document libraries? Well, yes and no: trying to navigate and open any document library from the menu resulted in an error message about 'missing SharePoint license'; which I'm pretty sure that I possess... However, navigating via 'Site Contents' to the document libraries does work, presents the library view, and allows to open the administrated documents in/via the App.

From user experience perspective this is undesired and also inconsistent behavior. On the one hand, trying to open it from the end-user logical approach via the menu results in an error that you cannot relate; and on the other hand when you navigate via alternative path in the App the document library contents can be accessed.

The question is then foremost why it does not work via the hamburger menu? I derived the answer to this when I tested the SharePoint App on an iPad, as then in the screen I observed a message about trying to start OneDrive to operate the document library from within the App. And current we have not yet enabled OneDrive in our Office 365 tenant. So it not that I do not have a SharePoint (online) license in our tenant, but the OneDrive license.

Bottom-line: productive and user-friendly usage of the new SharePoint App, requires that OneDrive is enabled for you as Office 365 end-user.