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Migrate to Office 365 Now
One small step to cloud, one big leap to Office 365. The key is to look before you leap.
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Contributors
- Joel Markowitz, Principal, Technology Services
- Sean Simpson, Director, Information Technology, City of Surrey
- Benjamin Niaulin, Office 365 MVP, ShareGate & GSoft
- Plus 7 anonymous contributors
Your Challenge
- As Microsoft continues to push Office 365, the transition to Office 365 has likely already been decided, but uncertainty surrounds the starting point and the best path forward.
- The lack of a clear migration process that considers all the relevant risks and opportunities creates significant ambiguity around an Office 365 migration.
- As organizations migrate to Office 365, the change in Office’s licensing structure presents obscurity in spending that could cost the business tens of thousands of unnecessary dollars spent if not approached strategically.
- The fear of overlooking risks regarding the cloud, data, and existing infrastructure threatens to place IT in a position of project paralysis.
Our Advice
Critical Insight
- Many businesses are opting for a one-size-fits-all licensing strategy. Without selecting licensing to suit actual user needs, you will oversupply users and overspend on licensing.
- Jumping into an Office 365 migration project without careful thought of the risks of a cloud migration will lead to project halt and interruption. Intentionally plan in order to expose risk to develop project foresight for a smooth migration.
- A migration to Office 365 represents a significant change in the way users interact with Office. Be careful not to forget about the user as you take on the project. Engage the users consistently for a smooth transition.
Impact and Result
- Start by evaluating the business, users, and infrastructure requirements to ensure that all needs are clearly defined and the best fit-for-purpose migration plan can be decided on.
- Assess the underlying risk associated with a migration to the cloud and build mitigation strategies to counter risk or impending issues and identify project interruptions before they happen.
- Build a roadmap through a logical step-by-step process to outline major milestones and develop a communication plan to engage users throughout the migration. Demonstrate IT’s due diligence by relaying the project findings and results back to the business using Info-Tech’s Office 365 migration plan.
Start here – read the Executive Brief
Read our concise Executive Brief to find out why you should migrate to Office 365 now, review Info-Tech’s methodology, and understand the four ways we can support you in completing this project.
1. Evaluate requirements and licensing
Evaluate the business, user, and infrastructure requirements to ensure that all needs are clearly defined and the best fit-for-purpose migration plan can be decided on.
2. Mitigate key risks of the cloud
Expose key cloud risks across five major areas and build mitigation strategies to counter risk and gain foresight for migration.
3. Build the roadmap
Outline major milestones of migration and build the communication plan to transition users smoothly. Complete the Office 365 migration plan report to present to business stakeholders.
Guided Implementations
This guided implementation is an eight call advisory process.
Guided Implementation #1 - Evaluate requirements and licensing
Call #1 - Scope corporate and project goals for migration and establish metrics for moving forward.
Call #2 - Profile the user community to rightsize licensing.
Call #3 - Walk through the Office 365 Migration Workbook and Office 365 Migration Plan Report.
Guided Implementation #2 - Mitigate key risks of the cloud
Call #1 - Discuss and gain a clear picture of risk and implications of moving services to the cloud.
Call #2 - Gain tangible insight from Info-Tech Analysts to aid in building mitigation strategies to counter and address risks of moving to the cloud.
Guided Implementation #3 - Build the roadmap
Call #1 - Outline major milestones for project completion.
Call #2 - Refine and develop communication plan using the End-User Engagement Template.
Call #3 - Ready to take this project to deployment? Let our Analysts give you experienced and objective insight on how to present the migration plan and explore next steps.
Book Your Workshop
Onsite workshops offer an easy way to accelerate your project. If you are unable to do the project yourself, and a Guided Implementation isn't enough, we offer low-cost onsite delivery of our project workshops. We take you through every phase of your project and ensure that you have a roadmap in place to complete your project successfully.
Module 1: Evaluate Office 365 License Needs
The Purpose
- Review corporate and project goals.
- Review and prioritize relevant services and applications to shape the migration path.
- Review Office 365 license models.
- Profile end users to rightsize licensing.
- Estimate dollar impact of new licensing model.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Corporate goals for Office 365.
- Prioritized migration path of applications.
- Decision on user licensing structure.
- Projected cost of licensing.
Activities
Outputs
Outline corporate and project goals to paint the starting line.
- Clear goals and metrics for migration
Review and prioritize services.
- Prioritized list of applications
Rightsize licensing.
- Effective licensing structure
Module 2: Assess Value, Readiness, and Risks
The Purpose
- Conduct value and readiness assessment of current on-premises services.
- Identify and evaluate risks and challenges.
- Assess IT’s readiness to own and manage Office 365.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Completed value and readiness assessment.
- Current targets for service and deployment models.
- List of perceived risks according to five major risk areas.
- Assessed IT’s readiness to own and manage Office 365.
- Established go/caution/stop for elected Office 365 services.
Activities
Outputs
Assess value and readiness.
- Cloud service appropriateness assessment
Identify key risks.
- Completed risk register
Identify changes in IT skills and roles.
- Reorganization of IT roles
Module 3: Mitigate Risks
The Purpose
- Review Office 365 risks and discuss mitigation strategies.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Completed risks and mitigation strategies report.
Activities
Outputs
Build mitigation strategies.
- Defined roles and responsibilities
Identify key service requests.
- Assigned decision rights
Build workflows.
- List of staffing gaps
Module 4: Build the Roadmap
The Purpose
- Build a timeline of major milestones.
- Plan and prioritize projects to bridge gaps.
- Build a communication plan.
- Review Office 365 strategy and roadmap.
Key Benefits Achieved
- Milestone roadmap.
- Critical path of milestone actions.
- Communication plan.
- Executive report.
Activities
Outputs
Outline major milestones.
- Roadmap plotted projects, decisions, mitigations, and user engagements
Finalize roadmap.
- Finalized roadmap across timeline
Build and refine the communication plan.
- Communication and training plan
