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.

Migrate to Office 365 Now – Executive Brief

Migrate to Office 365 Now – Phases 1-3

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.

Migrate to Office 365 Now – Phase 1: Evaluate Requirements and Licensing

Office 365 Migration Plan Report

Office 365 Migration Workbook

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.

Migrate to Office 365 Now – Phase 2: Mitigate Key Risks of the Cloud

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.

Migrate to Office 365 Now – Phase 3: Build the Roadmap

End-User Engagement Template

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

1.1

Outline corporate and project goals to paint the starting line.

Clear goals and metrics for migration

1.2

Review and prioritize services.

Prioritized list of applications

1.3

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

2.1

Assess value and readiness.

Cloud service appropriateness assessment

2.2

Identify key risks.

Completed risk register

2.3

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

3.1

Build mitigation strategies.

Defined roles and responsibilities

3.2

Identify key service requests.

Assigned decision rights

3.3

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

4.1

Outline major milestones.

Roadmap plotted projects, decisions, mitigations, and user engagements

4.2

Finalize roadmap.

Finalized roadmap across timeline

4.3

Build and refine the communication plan.

Communication and training plan

After each Info-Tech experience, we ask our members to quantify the real time savings, monetary impact, and project improvements our research helped them achieve. See our top member experiences for this Blueprint, and what our clients have to say.

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Testimonial

Translational Research In Oncology

Guided Implementation

10/10

$2,000

National Archives and Records Administration

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

Shared Services Canada

Workshop

10/10

$50,000

Positive outcome. Helped us have an essential conversation between all the Directors about where roles and responsibilities lie and bring structure to the way forward.

Corporation Of The City Of Barrie, The

Guided Implementation

9/10

$27,500

I cant say there were worst parts, the knowledge and assistance in getting us started on the right track was very valuable.

AAA Club Alliance, Inc

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

Jeremy is always awesome, and today was no exception. He provided great guidance on our current plan for O365, and on a couple of related issues that came up in the course of the conversation. Always a pleasure!

Rim Architects

Guided Implementation

8/10

$9,265

Having someone to verbally ask the questions I needed answers to.

Pennon Group

Guided Implementation

7/10

N/A

Delta Dental Plan Of Colorado

Guided Implementation

6/10

N/A

Best - Risk areas. Worst - wanted way more in depth/technical discussion.

Manning & Napier Advisors, LLC

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

Lake Simcoe Region Conservation Authority

Guided Implementation

8/10

$2,000

Great knowledgeable support with good ideas on how we should proceed but need to do a couple more couples to define our path/road map forward and our priorities for our first year of this multi year project.

Moore Norman Technology Center

Guided Implementation

9/10

$13,236

Christiana Care

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

Moore Norman Technology Center

Guided Implementation

8/10

$6,618

Best part is the practical orientation toward identifying the most significant and easily identifiable risks. Also, Teodora seems very comfortable with the content and helps us maintain focus well. Worst may be the sense that we're moving very quickly and may be overlooking some significant risks.

Enerflex Ltd.

Workshop

9/10

N/A

John took us on the journey of achieving exactly what we needed to get going on our initiative - establishing a consensus and a roadmap on what we want to do with O365 and in what priority order.

The Invus Group

Guided Implementation

4/10

N/A

The Whiting-Turner Contracting Co.

Guided Implementation

10/10

$13,236

Best part is the information provided and follow up with other experienced analysts. Did not have any negatives from the meeting.

Clark County, WA

Guided Implementation

7/10

$13,236

The advice and tools might save me more than recorded above, I am just not sure yet. I appreciate Teodora's time and sharing some useful tools and her willingness to take technical questions back to the team and provide follow up answers.

Unity Health Care

Guided Implementation

10/10

$13,236

Universal Insurance Managers Inc

Guided Implementation

10/10

$13,236

Johnson & Johnson Insurance Company

Guided Implementation

2/10

N/A

The call was a waste of my time and my engineers time. I needed an evaluation on migrating emailbox from on prem to Office365 and I was told by the analyst that he doesn't have any 3rd party Office365 comparison tools

Alabama Department of Environmental Management

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

ABP Induction

Guided Implementation

6/10

N/A

CF Industries Enterprises Inc

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

Cenveo, Inc.

Guided Implementation

9/10

N/A

Amicus Therapeutics

Guided Implementation

10/10

N/A

Helped us decide how to begin our journey!

Inmarsat Solutions Canada

Guided Implementation

8/10

N/A

Garfield County IT

Guided Implementation

10/10

$13,236

Brad provided tools and direction to proceed with planning.

Unity Health Care

Guided Implementation

10/10

$31,106

Best - having guidance through the blueprint. Worst- nothing bad about the experience.

Wirral University Teaching Hospital NHS Trust

Guided Implementation

6/10

N/A

This was a very early discussion on the topic there is much more to do

Public Utility Commission State Of Oregon

Guided Implementation

10/10

$2,514

Search Code: 79261
Published: December 7, 2015
Last Revised: May 31, 2016

TAGS:

Office 365, O365, office migration, Microsoft, licensing, move, migrate, migration, cloud, risk, planning, roadmap, value, readiness, integration, Office 365 compliance, exchange, on-premises, 0365

Migrate to Office 365 Now

Contributors

Your Challenge

Our Advice

Critical Insight

Impact and Result

Research & Tools

Start here – read the Executive Brief

1. Evaluate requirements and licensing

2. Mitigate key risks of the cloud

3. Build the roadmap

Guided Implementations

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.

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.

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.

Onsite Workshop

Book Your Workshop

Module 1: Evaluate Office 365 License Needs

The Purpose

Key Benefits Achieved

Activities

Outputs

Module 2: Assess Value, Readiness, and Risks

The Purpose

Key Benefits Achieved

Activities

Outputs

Module 3: Mitigate Risks

The Purpose

Key Benefits Achieved

Activities

Outputs

Module 4: Build the Roadmap

The Purpose

Key Benefits Achieved

Activities

Outputs

Member Testimonials

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

Testimonial

End-User Computing Applications Map

Company

Partner With Us

Become a Member

Member Resources

How We Deliver