Challenges

VSE, representing more than 90% of Switzerland’s electricity supply, relies on collaboration with external experts and members. However, the rapid growth of Teams, SharePoint sites, and guest accounts created security and governance risks, putting both productivity and sensitive data at stake.

Key challenges included:

• Selective access required for external partners without exposing internal data
• Complex permission models that were hard to maintain consistently
• Growing scale of Teams and guest accounts leading to inconsistencies
• Security concerns due to unmanaged external access
• Reduced productivity from manual account and guest management## Solutions

Solutions

To address these challenges, VSE partnered with ACE digital solutions AG and implemented EasyLife 365 Collaboration, seamlessly integrated with Microsoft Teams, SharePoint, and Entra ID. The solution introduced automation, lifecycle control, and clear accountability for both internal and external collaboration.

Key capabilities included:

• Structured guest user management with automated cleanup of inactive accounts
• Regular access reviews to validate team memberships, guest permissions, and file-sharing rights
• Lifecycle automation to monitor, archive, or delete unused Teams and sites
• Delegated responsibility, enabling departments and committees to manage their own collaboration spaces under IT oversight
• Standardized governance across all commissions and working groups

Result

With EasyLife 365 Collaboration, VSE achieved secure, efficient, and scalable collaboration across its entire organization.

Key results included:

• Compliance built into permissions, memberships, and guest access
• Significant IT time savings through automated lifecycle management and reviews
• Clear visibility and control over internal and external users across all departments
• Secure collaboration with external experts without risking internal data