Microsoft Office 365 fits the way you work today and tomorrow. Beginning with Word, Excel, PowerPoint and Outlook, Office 365 provides all the familiar Office applications you know, along with a dynamic set of secure cloud connected tools that help you communicate, collaborate and get more done, quicker than ever before.
All the tools you need are in one place, and easy to use with a subscription based pricing model.
1) Why choose Office 365 over any other Cloud Productivity SaaS offering?
Deliver your best work with the latest version of Office Online, always up-to-date and available to install as an x86/x64 Desktop Suite.
Use and access Office on virtually any device, from anywhere in the world.
Store, sync, and share files with OneDrive for Business, and/or SharePoint Team Sites.
Stay connected and communicate with business-class email, via Exchange Online.
Work better together with online meetings and conferencing, using Microsoft Teams.
Trust a financially-backed 99.9% uptime guarantee from none other than Microsoft Corporation.
2) What if my business requires a 'fully-fledged all-in-one' Enterprise Suite offering?
Welcome to Microsoft 365 Enterprise - these plans not only mirror the traditional Office 365 E3/E5 plans but also add in a Windows 10 Enterprise license along with EMS features.
These plans would be an "upgrade" from the Office 365 E3/E5 plans and include critical security features like AIP (Azure Information Protection), Office 365 ATP (Advanced Threat Protection), and Microsoft Intune.
There is also a new F1 plan within M365 Enterprise that is designed for users who need limited access to M365 services.
These plans allow users to fully manage their desktop infrastructure either on-premise or in the cloud.
3) Steps to a successful Office 365 Migration
Once you’ve made the decision to migrate your OS and software requirements over to Office 365 you should consider the following as you plan for the migration.
Step 1: Pre-Planning
Ideally for large companies, planning for the migration should involve a kickoff meeting. During this kickoff meeting, you can put together a plan of the infrastructure, determine how you may want to change the user experience, alter mobile user experience, change settings for Lync/Skype for Business/Teams, and develop training and communications plans.
Part of the planning phase should also include preparation and laying out the migration steps. You will have to map out how to configure AD, mailboxes, and Exchange as well as Skype for Business Online/Teams, SharePoint Online, and the end-user client computers. As part of the migration planning you may want to consider how to synchronize Exchange and SharePoint content to Exchange Online/SharePoint Online, update DNS to point to Office 365, configure the mobile environment, and lastly, test & validate the environment.
Step 2: Plan for Infrastructure and Exchange
As part of the planning for the migration you should consider conducting a bandwidth assessment. This assessment will determine the number of concurrent client machines connected to the network at any given time. This will help determine the network segments and connections required which in turn helps determine the bandwidth requirements.
You may also consider what on-premises hardware you will need. This will involve AD directory synchronization, SSO (Single Sign-on), your Exchange Hybrid environment and you may need configuration for Skype for Business Server. You may also wish to identify the current Mail-enabled applications you have, inventory the SMTP relay sources, and what third party applications you already have in use.
These will all have to be compatible with Microsoft Exchange Online Web Services. As part of this migration, you’ll also have to identify migration methods and tools such as co-existence.
Step 3: Leverage Deployment Tools
Office 365 has a Deployment Readiness Tool to help you plan out your migration. This tool is useful in analyzing and gathering information on your current AD and domain settings. It helps capture your Exchange, SharePoint, EUC environment and/or Lync Server/Skype for Business Server settings as well as any/all network configurations. This tool is available for download here.
There is also a Microsoft Assessment and Planning Toolkit. While this tool isn’t specifically for use with Office 365 it does help in your cloud services planning. This tool includes 'MAPSetup.exe', 'Readme.htm', 'MAP_Sample_Documents.zip', and 'MAP_Training_Kit.zip' that will all help you in the discovery and inventory of computers and applications. You will also be able to discover the hardware and software migration readiness assessments. More information and a link to download is available here.
These planning tools are useful in helping you speed up the time it will take you for environment discovery. Also note that you should consider how much bandwidth is typically used for video conferencing, and remember that even though moving to the cloud may reduce the amount of on-premises hardware, you may need to replace existing hardware that is not compatible with Office 365.
Step 4: Plan for SharePoint
SharePoint Online is a cloud-based service that comes with Office 365 for Business. This service helps companies share and collaborate with their partners, associates, and customers. One of the main benefits of using SharePoint Online is that you have access to documents and sites internally from the office, at home, or on a mobile device. Before connecting to SharePoint Online there are some things you need to plan to manage through the Administration Center. You will have to consider global site collection settings, Internet, Intranet, and Extranet settings, user profiles, MySites, and more.
You should also plan for sites and managing users. You will have to set your site permissions, features, collections, and the overall look of the site while avoiding complex customization. In addition, you should also plan the content of your SharePoint sites such as metadata, types, navigation, search, and social tagging. You can click here for Microsoft’s SharePoint Online Planning Guide for Office 365 for Business.
Step 5: Plan for Skype for Business Online/ Teams
An office enhancement feature and a great return on investments is Microsoft Teams.
Your employees will want to use Skype for Business for every meeting, however Teams is really that much better all round! Attendees can join from where ever they are at that moment, allowing for greater workplace mobility and productivity.
You will want your users to be able to connect to Teams wherever they are. You can also incorporate different SIP domains within your on-premises Skype for Business to Teams transition.
Step 6: Plan your end-user experience
When considering planning your end-user experience, note that there is both a web and rich user experience. The web experience includes the web browsers users choice such as Microsoft IE, Microsoft Edge, Mozilla Firefox, Opera Web Browser and Google Chrome. The rich end-user experience are your various Microsoft Office versions such as 2003, 2007 SP3, 2010 SP3, 2013, 2016, 2019, 2011/2016/2019 for Mac and Office 365 Web Apps, etc.
When planning your user experience please remember that any new version of Microsoft Office will generate a certain volume of help desk calls to be sure your help desk is ready. You can use the Productivity Hub to train your users on how they can get the most out of Office 365. Also note that Microsoft Intune can help you with your Office 365 distribution if you don’t already have an MDM (Mobile Device Management) method in-place.
Step 7: Migrate
When planning for the migration of Office 365 you should remember to plan, prepare, and then migrate. Each of these steps involves sub-steps to help ensure you are ready to make the change. To migrate, Microsoft has published a deployment planning checklist and offers support in the deployment of Office 365, found in the link here.
Final Thoughts
Contact Dreamtech Systems if you have any questions about the information in this guide, or to discover the many ways we can ensure you have a seamless migration to M365.
Dreamtech can provide you with the best migration and maintenance plans for your business. As certified with Microsoft for Desktop, Server, Mobile, Cloud and Productivity, your target solution design and implementation is in the best possible hands.