Nebraska Medicine and UNMC’s collaboration extends beyond organizational boundaries. Faculty, staff, clinicians, researchers, and administrative teams work closely with colleagues across the University of Nebraska system, the University of Nebraska Foundation, Clarkson College, and other affiliated organizations.
To support that collaboration, Information Technology enabled new Microsoft 365 Cross-Tenant Access Policies, a modern Microsoft capability that improves how our organizations securely share calendar availability and collaborate across institutional Microsoft 365 environments. The Microsoft Cross-Tenant Access Policy is the new standard for sharing free/busy availability, calendars, and MailTips between Microsoft 365 organizations and replaces legacy organization sharing methods.
This modernization allows:
- Improved security and alignment with Microsoft’s current platform architecture
- Simplified cross-organizational collaboration
- Reduced administrative complexity
- A more seamless scheduling experience
“Health care, research, education, and philanthropy increasingly depend on seamless collaboration across organizational boundaries,” said Lisa Bazis, chief information security officer, executive director of enterprise technology. “By modernizing our Microsoft 365 sharing capabilities, we are making it easier for teams to work together while maintaining strong security and privacy controls.”
What is new?
Over the past several weeks, IT implemented Microsoft 365 tenant-to-tenant trust relationships that now allow users to:
- View Free/Busy calendar availability across organizations
- More easily schedule meetings with colleagues outside their home organization
- Reduce the need for manual scheduling coordination
- Improve collaboration across education, research, clinical, and administrative teams
Users are now able to see calendar availability information for colleagues in:
- University of Nebraska (all campuses)
- Nebraska Medicine
- University of Nebraska Foundation
- Clarkson College
- Children’s Nebraska
Availability information is displayed directly within Outlook scheduling tools, making it easier to find meeting times that work for everyone.
No additional access to email, documents, Teams conversations, OneDrive files, or other organizational data is granted through this change. Each organization continues to maintain control over its own security, privacy, and sharing policies.
What will users experience?
For most users, no action is required.
- Outlook scheduling assistant automatically shows availability information for supported partner organizations.
- Scheduling meetings across organizations has become easier and faster.
- Existing collaboration processes continue to work normally.
If users experience issues viewing availability information or scheduling meetings with colleagues in partner organizations, please contact the IT Help Desk at 402-559-7700 or via email.