MS Communities – Features of a Group Site

Jared Johnson, 27 January 2012

With the launch of the new MS Communities site, I am going to talk about the features of the group sites. A group site is the homepage of each user group, and has among other things news, group events and forums.

The NZ Dynamics CRM xRM User Group homepage

Each group site has its own news page where news articles that can contain text, pictures and even videos are displayed. The latest news is also summarised on the group site homepage.

NZ Dynamics CRM xRM User Group’s news page

Each user group has the capability to create events, these are displayed on the main MS Communities events calendar combined with all the other groups, but each group also has their own calendar which displays only their events. Users can register for these events by clicking on them from either calendar and add them to their personal outlook calendars. Like the news, the user site homepages also displays the next upcoming event and the most recent event that has occurred.

The events calendar

The last feature I am going to talk about today is forums. Each User site has their own custom forums which can be customized by their group leaders, helping to build their community. Latest forum posts are displayed on each user sites homepage and on the MS Communities homepage.  

The NZ Dynamics CRM xRM User Group forums

With these features and more, group sites will help to create an enhanced community atmosphere and aid users of MS Communities.