If you belong to a small organization, moving to MS Office 365 might be a slightly difficult walk in the park. However, if you are part of a multinational organization with thousands of employees, the process will undeniably be more complicated.
To ensure a smooth migration to Microsoft Office 365, having an iterative process is essential. You repeat a process in order to create a sequence of outcomes. This lets your organization gather the necessary information as it prepares for the move. Once you have a good handle of what you plan to do, the next step is the preparation for an MS Office 365 implementation.
Is your IT infrastructure truly ready for Office 365?
If you’re still not sure, here are some steps to guide your organization.
Domain Naming System
The Domain Naming System (DNS) serves as the standard way for computers to communicate with each other online. When moving to Office 365, changes should be made in the DNS so the network traffic knows where it’s supposed to be routed. Once changes on the DNS are made, anyone sending you an e-mail will be directed to your MS Office 365 implementation instead of its current location.
Portals
Also called an Intranet site, a web portal can be as simple as an online page or as complex as a completely integrated solution. Office 365 offers SharePoint Online, a web-based collaborative platform. During the process of migration, you are required to decide which content should be moved to SharePoint and which should be left as it is.
Mailboxes
Some computers are specifically made for hosting your e-mail. If there’s an e-mail that stays on your local computer, you will not have any data to migrate. But if you leave your e-mail on the dedicated server, all data will have to be moved to the mailboxes in Office 365. This part of the migration can be technically challenging as it deals with many parts of mailing systems.
Licensing and Logins
For small organizations, managing users can be done directly in MS Office 365. For large organizations, their IT team will be in charge of this via Microsoft technology known as Active Directory. This on-site management tool can be synced with Office 365 users. It involves a single login and simple way to access the cloud.
Training
All the best software platforms are no good if people don’t know how to properly use them. Fortunately, Microsoft provides users with a wealth of documentation and offer user training for little or no cost at all. Additionally, there are partners out there who can give you training plans. Any partner you choose can also conduct training for team members to help them learn about Office 365.
Support
Once users have begun adopting MS Office 365, you can expect a lot of questions about it. This is why a support system must be set in place to accommodate even the simplest queries and concerns about the platform. The organization needs to have power users, as well as a formal support system, for an utterly smooth implementation.
