Groups are an integral part of your digital workplace. They determine your members access to different areas, provide them with subscriptions to content and Channels, and can even give them access to the Control Panel under the right circumstances. Groups let you safeguard your content, ensure consistent communication, and empower your members. Today we'll take a deep dive on some of their functions, and offer some tips on using Groups effectively. 

The most important thing to know about Groups in Igloo is that members can be part of as many Groups as they need to be in order to get the Access, Subscriptions, and Roles that they should have. There's no limit to their members, and your digital workplace can have as many Groups as you like, letting you create a nuanced structure that supports people in your Igloo. 

Types of Groups

There are three kinds of Groups in your digital workplace: System Groups, Member Groups, and Space Groups. System Groups are essential. They're the backbone of your digital workplace, with the Members Group governing who has access at all, and the Administrators Group providing access to the people who run your Igloo. 

Member Groups are managed by Workplace Administrators, and are great for large scale groups of members, like office locations or large departments. We also see them used for interdisciplinary groups, and groups who aren't governed by Space Administrators. Boards are a popular Member Group. They need access and subscriptions all over the digital workplace, but never quite in the same way as the people who work there every day. 

Finally, Spaces have their own Groups of members and administrators. Your Space Administrators can create their own Space Groups to add layers of access and subscriptions in their Space. This lets them set up subscriptions for new projects, populate Members widgets with subsets of their team, and restrict access to sensitive materials to specific members. That last one is especially popular in Human Resources Spaces, or Spaces that manage patient data. 

Using Groups

Every Group needs a purpose. It needs to provide Access, Subscriptions, Roles, address a widget, something. The first part of using Groups is establishing that purpose and creating the corresponding rule in your Igloo. During implementation, it's worth making notes on the functions of various Groups to make them easier to review during any updates in the future. Once Access rules have been created and Subscriptions and Roles have been assigned, it's time to add members. The Group interface can handle ad hoc assignments, but for larger scale implementations, it is vastly easier to use the Bulk Member Upload function to add people to all of their Groups at once. The Bulk Upload can update existing members as well as adding new ones, so with a properly configured input, it can save a lot of time. 

Changing Groups

Invariably your digital workplace will become more complex, and when it does, you'll need to review the Group structure. It may be that certain Groups have outlived their usefulness, or that several work better consolidated into a single one. You can move members between Groups as you please. The platform won't notify them, and they'll immediately inherit the Access, Subscriptions, and Roles of their new Groups. This lets you manage powerful revisions as an Administrator without directly impacting your members. 

In addition to managing Access, strong Groups can play a key role in your adoption strategy. Ensuring that members are getting the right notifications and seeing content that's relevant to them is an essential function of Groups, and empowering people through Roles can make it easier to do what they need to in your digital workplace. 

If you have other questions about Groups, Access, or best practices, you can leave a comment here, or ask a question in the Community area.