What different types of Workspace are available in ConneX?

ConneX includes a number of different Atlas workspace options which provide different functionality for different collaborative scenarios. For those not familiar with the different workspace templates available, they are explained here.

Each type of workspace has one or more Workspace Templates, which may determine a number of things about the workspace:

• Whether the workspace is based on a SharePoint Site or Communications Site
• Whether the workspace is supported by Microsoft Teams or a Microsoft 365 Group
• Availability of specific features and components inline with SharePoint

Depending on your Atlas package you should have a minimum of three types of workspace available:

• Knowledge
• Communication
• Collaboration

You may also have an additional workspace type, Legal, if you have purchased this as part of your Atlas package. Please note that your organisation may have restricted access to all of the described templates during implementation.

In this article:

• Workspace template options
• Communication Workspaces
• Knowledge Workspaces
  • Knowledge Workspace (Teams)
  • Knowledge Workspace (SharePoint)
  • Choosing a Knowledge Workspace template
• Collaboration Workspaces
• Legal Workspaces
• ConneX Studio
• Who can see and create Workspaces in ConneX?

Workspace template options

To see the available Workspace templates you can simply start creating a site via ConneX. In the first step you will be asked which type of workspace you'd like to create, and presented with a number of options:

After choosing the type of workspace you need to choose or confirm the Workspace Template you want to use. For example, when creating Knowledge Workspaces you will usually have two template options, whereas for Communication you will only have one option. These will be explained in more detail throughout this article to help you understand which type of Workspace is best for your needs.

Communication Workspaces

Atlas Communication Workspaces are essentially the Atlas hubs for News, Events and other information you want to promote to users. You can create multiple Communication Workspaces if you need to, or you can create and tag all the content in a single workspace and use the Atlas Taxonomy (tags) to pull the right content into other workspaces. 

Once you have created the workspace it will initially be available only to the users specified as the Members and Owners in ConneX, unless made public. When sufficient content has been created that you are happy to go live to your whole organisation, you can follow the steps at this link to give everyone read permissions: Allow all internal users to view a Communications workspace

Knowledge Workspaces

Atlas helps you to collate knowledge for your end-users landing in specific "Knowledge Workspaces" intended for a particular topic, client or any other subject relevant to your business. You can have many knowledge workspaces in your organisation, each of them managed by the Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) or Content Owners and each of them displaying content relevant to their expert area wherever the content originates.

Knowledge Workspace (Teams associated)

This template provisions an Atlas Knowledge Workspace backed by a 365 Group (and associated permissions structure) and has a Microsoft Team associated to it. This allows users to create content in Atlas for the organisation to consume, but also to work collaboratively in Teams with the benefit of the same Global Metadata options found in Atlas itself. As a 365 Group-based workload, the workspace will also be provisioned with various shared resources, including; a shared Calendar & Mailbox, Planner and OneNote. The Atlas workspace and Microsoft Team share the same SharePoint document library so that documents can be collaborated on in Teams then made visible to all users in Atlas, only made visible when published, or hidden using SharePoint permissions.

Knowledge Workspace (365 Group only)

This template provisions an Atlas Knowledge Workspace backed by a 365 Group (and associated permissions structure), but does not come with an associated Microsoft Team. This allows users to create content in Atlas for the organisation to consume outside of Teams through the browser. As a 365 Group-based workload, the workspace will also be provisioned with various shared resources, including; a shared Calendar & Mailbox, Planner and OneNote. The Atlas workspace and Microsoft Team share the same SharePoint document library so that documents can be collaborated on in Teams then made visible to all users in Atlas, only made visible when published, or hidden using SharePoint permissions.

A Team can be added to this workspace/site later on through the SharePoint Admin portal. We do not know if Microsoft may withdraw this option in the future.

Knowledge Workspace (SharePoint)

This template provisions an Atlas Knowledge Workspace but instead of being based on 365 Group permissions structure, it sits within a SharePoint site - so users will not have access to the various shared resources which come in 365 Groups. Files are accessed through Atlas while emails and other shared resources are accessed through Outlook or their respective apps.

Choosing a Knowledge Workspace template

If your team wants to collaborate in a persistent chat environment and/or use embedded apps, use the "Knowledge Workspace (Teams)" template in ConneX and ensure that the users have Microsoft Teams installed on their devices. We also recommend some basic training on Teams if it is new to users.

If Teams is not in-scope within your organisation, use the (Knowledge Workspace 365 Group) in order to take advantage of the additional toolset.

If your IT Department or other senior technical stakeholders have advised to use SharePoint site permissions structure over 365 Group permissions, use the Knowledge Workspace (SharePoint).

We generally recommend using the "Knowledge Workspace (Teams)" template and giving users access to Teams as it allows them to be much more collaborative, ensures all conversations are visible to the whole team and allows conversations to be started around specific documents.

Collaboration Workspaces

If you still need to create Microsoft Teams once you have deployed Atlas you should always create them using ConneX rather than directly through the Teams app. Collaboration Workspaces are essentially Atlas-ready Microsoft Team, with the Atlas Global Metadata applied in the Files area, enhancing the ability to classify documents within Teams which by default do not have Atlas metadata tags available.

The main difference between a Collaboration Workspace and a Knowledge Workspace is the type of workspace they belong too and the out-of-the-box design which comes with the landing page. For example if one client workspace is Collaboration template it will not be grouped together with other client workspaces created from the Knowledge workspace templates.

Legal Workspaces

Legal Workspaces are a type of Atlas Workspace designed with Legal Matter Management in mind. Just like the "Knowledge Workspace (Teams)" template, provisioning a Legal Workspace provisions an Atlas Knowledge Workspace backed by a Microsoft Team.

If you have this additional workspace type available in your tenant please contact your CSA for further information.

ConneX Studio

ConneX Studio is a premium paid-for feature in Atlas which provides the ability for Atlas Users to create, save and provision their own workspace templates. You can also create your own types of workspace unique to you for additional grouping. Please see the articles below for more detailed information on ConneX Studio.

• ConneX Studio overview
• Create custom workspace templates using ConneX Studio
• Manage workspace templates in ConneX Studio

Who can see and create Workspaces in ConneX?

Group name *	Purpose **
Atlas ConneX Enterprise Administrators	Can view and manage (including delete) all workspaces indexed by ConneX. This group does not give access to the workspaces and their content. Membership of this group should be limited to very few accounts, typically those already in Global Tenant Admin or SharePoint Tenant Admin role.
Atlas ConneX Users	Can access the ConneX interface and view workspaces according to the users own individual ownerships and memberships of those workspaces. Typically, all users would be added here at minimum, although it is recommended to add everyone to the “All Teams Creators” group below.
Atlas ConneX Creators	Can access the ConneX interface and view workspaces according to the users own individual ownerships and memberships to those workspaces. Can create any type of new Atlas Workspaces. Typically reserved for the main Atlas Administrators and power users.
Atlas ConneX All Teams Creators	Can access the ConneX interface and view workspaces according to their own individual ownerships and memberships of those workspaces. Can create new Atlas Collaboration Workspaces. It is recommended that all users are added here at minimum, to encourage and drive creation of Teams (using Atlas Collaboration Workspaces) through a governed approach.
Atlas ConneX Communication Workspace Creators	Can access the ConneX interface and view workspaces according to the users own individual ownerships and memberships to those workspaces. Can create new Atlas Communication Workspaces. Typically reserved for users with Internal Comms responsibilities.
Atlas ConneX Knowledge Workspace Creators	Can access the ConneX interface and view workspaces according to the users own individual ownerships and memberships to those workspaces. Can create new Atlas Knowledge Workspaces. Often used for users that create workspaces for departments, center-of-excellence, practice areas, subject matter areas, etc.
Atlas ConneX Legal Workspace Creators	Can access the ConneX interface and view workspaces according to the users own individual ownerships and memberships to those workspaces. Can create new Atlas Legal Workspaces. Typically reserved for users within the internal legal team. Note: only relevant for organisations that have the Atlas add-on features for Legal Teams.

* Please note that depending on your initial version of Atlas, you may see the group names refer to either “Connect” or “Connex” – both of which are valid names.

** The “Purpose” refers to the actions available for Members of the group. Owners of the group can only manage the Members.