Looking for Microsoft 365 best practices for a large dynamic company group
Looking for Microsoft 365 best practices for a large dynamic company group
I'm a Microsoft 365 admin trying to figure out the best architecture for a company-wide group (100+ users) and I'm wondering if there's a better approach than what I'm currently doing.
What I need
I want a single company group that can:
- Automatically include users through dynamic membership
- Share SharePoint sites, files, OneDrive content, Teams resources, etc.
- Allow sending company-wide emails
- Allow sending required Outlook meeting invitations (not optional)
- Have moderation/approval for announcements, meeting invites, or posts
- Allow certain trusted users to bypass approval while everyone else requires approval
- Scale as employees are hired/terminated automatically
Current setup
1. Dynamic Distribution List
- Used for company-wide emails and Outlook meeting invites.
- Membership is dynamic using an Exchange recipient filter based on US users.
2. Private Microsoft 365 Group
- Used for SharePoint, file sharing, and collaboration.
- Membership is dynamic through an Entra ID Dynamic Membership Rule.
- I had to use PowerShell to configure some permissions because the portal didn't support everything I needed.
Problems I'm running into
- I now have two separate groups that should always contain the same people.
- The Dynamic Distribution List works well for email/meetings but doesn't provide SharePoint, Teams, or file collaboration.
- The Microsoft 365 Group provides collaboration but doesn't seem to support everything I need for company-wide communication.
- I haven't found a clean way to have approvers/moderators, while allowing a few designated people to post or send meeting invites without requiring approval.
- I also haven't found a good way to make Outlook meeting requests "required" from the sender side other than relying on attendees not changing their RSVP.
My questions
- Is there a better Microsoft 365 architecture for this?
- Should I be using a Dynamic Distribution List, a Microsoft 365 Group, a Mail-enabled Security Group, Teams, Viva Engage, or something else?
- Is there a supported way to have dynamic membership + SharePoint + company email + moderated announcements/meeting invites all in one solution?
- How do large organizations typically handle company-wide communications while keeping membership automatic?
- Is maintaining two dynamic groups (one for collaboration and one for email) simply the recommended approach?
I'd love to hear how other Microsoft 365 admins have solved this in production. Thanks!