When working in a team or on a project, you tend to communicate with the same group of people via email or Microsoft Teams on a regular basis. You would normally add each person one at a time when you communicate with them, which is time consuming and could result in you forgetting to add someone if it’s a big group.
Microsoft 365 groups are designed to help you communicate more effectively. A group can be created for each project or team that you regularly engage with. Once this group is set up, you can send emails, communicate via Teams, collaborate on documents, and schedule meetings. This ensures that all the relevant people receive the same information, with the same permissions access. Basically, it is like a shared mailbox and distribution list rolled into one.
This offering is easy to set up and manage. It also complements Microsoft Teams, which is already being used for communication and collaboration across campus.
Managing Microsoft 365 Groups
Most of the administrative settings in Microsoft 365 groups are managed in the backend by ICTS. List owners can
- Manage group membership
- Select whether a group should be public or private
- Create the group name
- Allow external emails to be sent to group
All other functionality such as moderation is managed by ICTS.
Feature |
Microsoft 365 Groups |
Create a mailing list |
Create your own group directly in Outlook. If you’re more comfortable getting help to do this, please either log an online call with the IT Helpdesk, or send an email to icts-helpdesk@uct.ac.za. In your request, please provide:
Whether you create it yourself or get help, list owners
Outlook.com is the best option to manage you groups once it has been created.
List owners can view and manage all their groups at https://outlook.office.com/people/group/owner. |
Public vs private |
Groups are automatically made private upon creation. This ensures that only group members can see what is happening in the group. If you need to create a group that is visible to everyone at UCT, you must log a call with the IT Helpdesk and provide a motivation for this requirement. |
Manage members |
For a complete list of members in a group, check Groups on Outlook.com instead of the Outlook desktop client. Outlook Web App lists all members per group, while the Outlook desktop client only lists the first 100 group members, whereas Outlook Web App shows the complete list.
List owners can view and manage all their groups at https://outlook.office.com/people/group/owner. |
Only group owners can manually add members to a list. Before adding a member, always make sure that the person is not already on the Members list. A complete list of members can be found on Outlook Web App.
For bulk uploads, please either log an online call with the IT Helpdesk, or send an email to icts-helpdesk@uct.ac.za. In your request, please provide the list of members’ email addresses to be added. |
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Only list owners can remove members.
For bulk removals, please either log an online call with the IT Helpdesk, or send an email to icts-helpdesk@uct.ac.za. In your request, please provide the list of members’ email addresses to be added. |
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Unsubscribe to a list/group |
Follow these instructions to leave a group you’re currently part of. External members will need to send an email to icts-helpdesk@uct.ac.za to be removed from the mailing list. |
Subscribe to a list/group |
Follow these instructions to join a group you’re keen to be a part of. |
Delete a list/group |
If a group is no longer needed, you can delete it following these instructions. It is important to note that when you delete a group, you’re removing all the information related to this group. This includes:
Deleted groups can, however, be recovered up until 30 days after the date it was deleted. Where there is no list owner, please either log an online call with the IT Helpdesk, or send an email to icts-helpdesk@uct.ac.za. The Head of Department will need to authorise this request. |
Manage subscription requests |
List owners will receive an email notification when a new member wants to subscribe to their group. You can either choose to accept or reject the request. |
Manage senders |
Moderation has been turned on for all mailing lists, excluding those where owners opted to turn moderation off. This ensures that only the list owner(s) and members who have rights to email the group without moderation, can send to the group without requiring approval. Emails sent by all other members will be moderated and either released or rejected by the list owner or moderator. List owners can log a call with the IT Helpdesk to verify who the current moderators are, and either add or remove individuals. Please either log an online call or send an email to icts-helpdesk@uct.ac.za. In your request, please provide the list of members’ email addresses to be added or removed. |
Ban from subscribing |
Only list owners and moderators are able to release messages sent by any member of the group. |
Maximum message size allowed |
The maximum size for an email sent via groups is 36MB. The maximum size of an email that can be received is 35MB. This is applicable to internal and external members. |
Archiving |
All emails sent to the group are automatically stored in the group’s mailbox. It is recommended that emails in these mailboxes are not deleted to ensure there is a reference of all emails sent via the group. Please either log an online call with the IT Helpdesk or send an email to icts-helpdesk@uct.ac.za if a member accidently deletes emails in the group mailbox. |
Contact the list owner or the list moderators directly |
You can see who the list owner is of a particular group by navigating to Outlook.com.
If the list is private, please either log an online call with the IT Helpdesk or send an email to icts-helpdesk@uct.ac.za to be added to the list. |
Set up your mailing list(s) to send appointment requests |
You can still send meeting invites to a group. Instead of adding each member’s email address separately, enter the group email address. This should only be used when all group members are required to attend the meeting. |
Manage spam and attachments |
This is done automatically by our spam filtering service, Mimecast, and Microsoft Exchange online protection. |
Change a mailing list's subscription |
Once a group name is created, it along with the email address can only be changed afterwards via the IT Helpdesk. Please either log an online call with the IT Helpdesk or send an email to icts-helpdesk@uct.ac.za and indicate what updates are required. |
Copy of email sent to sender’s mailbox |
Everyone in the group except the sender receives a copy of the email. The sender can, either add their email address in the BCC field, or check the group mailbox, to ensure the email was successfully delivered. |
Non-delivery report |
You will receive an email. |
Set up your group and start engaging
If your team or group regularly communicates via email or needs a shared mailbox, then we recommend that you set up your group in Outlook. If Microsoft Teams is your preferred method of working, then set up a dedicated team.
Only UCT staff members are able to create Microsoft 365 groups.
Manage your Microsoft 365 group in Outlook |
Work with Microsoft 365 groups |
Note: a group can be edited at any time, but the group’s name can only be changed by the IT Helpdesk. |
When to use Groups: |
When not to use Groups: |
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Group creation
Only create a group when you need to, always ensuring that a similar group does not already exist. UCT policies only allow private groups to be created. This ensures that all content is only accessible to those who are owners or members. It is therefore important that only applicable people be added to your groups, i.e. those working on dedicated deliverables.
Group management
It is important that each group has at least two owners. This is helpful when moderating emails and managing admin tasks. This also prevents a group from being without a list owner if the person leaves UCT.
Group owners are responsible for ensuring that membership is maintained, by removing and adding members, as well as assigning access, as required.
File management
All files saved in groups are saved in SharePoint. These files are accessible to all members. It is therefore important that confidential and personal information should not be stored here. Rather save it in on Teams or in a folder that is only accessible to the people who need to view it.
View our best practices for managing files on Microsoft Teams, which has similar principles in Microsoft 365 Groups.
Known issues
Sender does not receive a copy of the email that was sent to Microsoft 365 groups
When you send an email to your group it is successfully delivered to all members except your mailbox. ICTS is currently investigation this with Microsoft.
In the meantime, please either BCC your email address when sending emails or check your group’s mailbox in Outlook or Outlook.com to see if the email was successfully delivered