How to create a powerful Expertise Directory in Microsoft 365

How do you create a powerful Expertise Directory in Microsoft 365?

This blog will show you how Atlas overcomes the limitations outlined and transforms the standard Employee Directory into an Expertise Directory in Microsoft 365, enabling employees to find colleagues with specific skills or insights that can help them with their work.

• First, do more with Atlas
• Evolve into an Expertise Directory
• Maintaining an effective Expertise Directory 
• Why invest in specialized apps?

First, do more with the Atlas 

Atlas enables the creation of intuitive and powerful employee search experiences, allowing users to search attributes within the SharePoint user profile, including those synchronized from Entra ID. Additionally, you can apply various search scopes to make it easier to find people by attributes such as Department, while also offering filters for Title and Location as shown in the example below. 

Hovering over a user's picture triggers the standard Microsoft pop-up, revealing additional details like contact info, their role in the organization, and other attributes. The display cards are configurable to allow different views of content to, for example, enable users to directly call, email or chat with colleagues. 

Scopes and filters help avoid ranking problems by reducing the results shown to users, ensuring a consistent search experience in both Teams and SharePoint interfaces. 

The directory can also be integrated into Atlas pages to automatically show department members for a given department or on location pages to display staff based at a particular site or on subject pages, experts in that subject. 

Next, evolve into an Expertise Directory

An Expertise Directory is a specialized directory that focuses on capturing and showcasing employees' areas of expertise. It provides a comprehensive overview of the skills, knowledge, and experience possessed by individuals within the organization. 

An Expertise Directory allows users to search for experts based on specific keywords or topics, making it easier to find the right person for a particular task or project. By leveraging the Expertise Directory, organizations can tap into the collective expertise of their workforce and facilitate knowledge sharing. 

To implement this in Atlas and enhance your users' experience with SharePoint and Teams, we offer three options: 

1. Organizations using Entra ID to consolidate employee data (i.e. by adding custom properties) can sync that data with SharePoint user profiles using the Atlas Entra ID Connector, making it searchable in Atlas. If additional data is stored directly in SharePoint user profiles, it can also be made available for Atlas search. This allows us to enhance search experiences by delivering expertise-related queries using either of these Microsoft repositories. 
2. For organizations that prefer not to use those repositories due to the IT administration they require, we suggest using a SharePoint list for storing content. Lists are simple to set up and manage, and Atlas search webparts can be configured to search for and display the content. 
3. For organizations that have already invested in tools to manage expertise data, like an HR or LMS platform, we can alternatively offer connectors to facilitate enterprise search across that content. 

Regardless of the method, we can present this data in Atlas through our People Directory, allowing easy searches and the ability to explore connections—such as finding others who went to Harvard like Simon or who else are licensed to practice law in Florida like Peter. 

Then maintain the Expertise Directory 

To maintain an effective Expertise Directory in Microsoft 365, consider the following best practices: 

• Encourage employees to provide detailed descriptions of their skills, expertise, and experience. 

• Make it easy for employees to update their profiles. 

• Implement a system for verifying and validating employee expertise information. 

• Regularly review and remove outdated or obsolete profiles to keep the directory up to date. 

• Continuously seek feedback from users to identify areas for improvement and address any issues or challenges. 

Why invest in specialized apps to enhance these directories? 

Investing in specialized apps  in Microsoft 365 provides several benefits: 

• Improved search functionality and accuracy, enabling users to find experts more efficiently. 

• Advanced filtering and sorting options to refine search results and identify the most relevant experts. 

• Integration with external platforms or databases to access a wider pool of expertise. 
• Enhanced user experience and interface customization to align with specific organizational needs. 

Conclusion on creating a powerful expertise directory in M365

In conclusion, companies can gain significant advantages by adopting specialized applications such as Atlas and its Expertise Directory. These solutions aid in networking employees and pinpointing internal specialists, promoting teamwork, innovation, and the exchange of knowledge when properly implemented. By using the Expertise Directory for improved communication and for finding specific experts, it offers essential tools that enhance collaboration and harness the collective skills of employees, ultimately boosting productivity and success.