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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.

  • 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.

Migrate to Office 365 Now Research & Tools

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.


Member Testimonials

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.

10.0/10


Overall Impact

$12,999


Average $ Saved

5


Average Days Saved

Client

Experience

Impact

$ Saved

Days Saved

City of Winter Park

Guided Implementation

10/10

$12,999

5

John is extremely pleasant and easy to work with. He is very knowledgeable about the subject matter.

Migrate to Office 365 Now preview picture

About Info-Tech

Info-Tech Research Group is the world’s fastest-growing information technology research and advisory company, proudly serving over 30,000 IT professionals.

We produce unbiased and highly relevant research to help CIOs and IT leaders make strategic, timely, and well-informed decisions. We partner closely with IT teams to provide everything they need, from actionable tools to analyst guidance, ensuring they deliver measurable results for their organizations.

MEMBER RATING

10.0/10
Overall Impact

$12,999
Average $ Saved

5
Average Days Saved

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.

Read what our members are saying

What Is a Blueprint?

A blueprint is designed to be a roadmap, containing a methodology and the tools and templates you need to solve your IT problems.

Each blueprint can be accompanied by a Guided Implementation that provides you access to our world-class analysts to help you get through the project.

Need Extra Help?
Speak With An Analyst

Get the help you need in this 3-phase advisory process. You'll receive 8 touchpoints with our researchers, all included in your membership.

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.

Authors

Brad Wells

Erik Reid

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
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