A migration that will have a great effect on productivity in almost every recognized business? A comprehensive Office 365 migration strategy is necessary for capitalizing on the benefits of this powerful cloud-based platform.
Let’s embark on the journey towards learning how businesses can make use of Microsoft Office 365 by presenting an extensive Office 365 migration checklist as well as responses to frequent concerns.
Migration to Microsoft Office 365 is a strategic approach that commonly includes the following three stages: Pre-migration, Migration, and Post-migration. Before starting the migration process, you need to involve the business, all domain stakeholders, and eventually top management. Collaboration between IT teams and senior business management is essential for maximizing the advantages of Microsoft Office 365 by effectively solving company problems. To implement the migration checklist, set a timeframe and commit to delivery due dates. In addition, focus on the security, company culture, and infrastructure as you switch to a new ecosystem.
Now, let’s take a closer look at the details individually to get a clear idea of the entire migration process to Microsoft 365. In addition to this Microsoft 365 Migration Checklist, we are also providing recommandations through the Data Migration best practices article.
Microsoft 365 Migration Checklist (Preliminary Migrating Stage)
During the early stages of a migration project, a company typically engages in high-level planning and alignment activities with all relevant stakeholders. This usually requires the formation of a cross-functional migration team including IT management, a representative from each business area, and some project management assistance. In addition, this phase needs to perform the following steps:
Step 1: Inventory and System Assessment
Make a list of all necessary resources as per the Microsoft’s recommendation:
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- List all user accounts – employee email addresses.
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- List the number and size of all mailboxes.
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- Network configuration settings – DNS hosts and records to update
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- Storage details – list locations of file shares
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- Client data information like OS, versions, Office, configurations, browser usage, and running applications.
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- List all communication platforms in which you should discuss ( IM systems and collaboration systems.)
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- List all application information with complete details that you have integrated into your system like HR apps, CRM, mail-enabled applications, etc.
Step 2: Content Inventory
Email: Choose to migrate everything or only the n last years of emails, ignore or migrate the trash and the spam folders, Do you want to migrate the archives?
Files and Folders: Identify the obsolete content (if you have the Last Modification Date or Last Access Date). Based on that, determine what you want to migrate.
Microsoft 365 Migration Checklist
Once the infrastructure is prepared and tests are performed, it becomes necessary to transfer production data over to Microsoft 365.
Determine your strategy: Cutover or Staged migration
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- Cutover migration. With cutover migration, you migrate all on-premises mailboxes to Office 365 over a few days. This strategy works best if you have up to 150 mailboxes, as there is a risk of poor performance for migrating a larger number of mailboxes.
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- Staged migration. A bit slower migration method, the staged migration lets you migrate batches of on-premises mailboxes to Office 365 or Microsoft 365 over a few weeks or months.
Select your migration tool: Assess the various solutions of the market and select the right tool that fits your needs (we will add a link to the top x migration solutions of the market).
Step 1: Set up the Microsoft 365 Tenant
Provision a Microsoft 365 tenancy depending on your pre-migration plans. Configure the domains, DNS and various settings such as tenant’s data retention and compliance rules. Configure Identity Management.
Step 2: Create a Migration Schedule
Plan a migration timetable across departments. Prioritize users and datasets for a phased migration. Conduct pre-migration testing. Test migration technology and methods on trial groups. Validate permissions and end-user workflows in the new environment.
Post-Migration Checklist
Here’s the Post-migration checklist to migrate Microsoft Office 365:
User Assistance and Problem Solving
Following the post-launch period, provide IT support for some time with a key focus on the adoption of users rather than only dealing with technical errors. Generate self-service FAQs as well as help articles aimed at helping users. Keep track of migration-related bugs and performance challenges to determine their main causes. Look into any gaps existing in systems or organizational practices that may have occurred due to the relocation.
Ongoing Training
Ongoing Training After a successful launch, there should be continuous training through practical demonstrations plus individual reading materials. Also, plan regular updates where advanced learners share their secrets.
Decommission Legacy Systems
Turn off all legacy email applications or on-premises SharePoint. Active Directory on-premises might be needed for compliance or hybrid identity model purposes. One thing is certain: taking the time to prepare thoroughly and addressing specific needs or potential issues in advance will save you both time and money.
Final Thoughts: Seamless Transition to Office 365
We explained a detailed overview of the Microsoft 365 Migration Checklist. How to plan a system for migrations before moving to a new environment. Migrating to Microsoft 365 provides a significant operational change opportunity for enterprises not only in infrastructure but also in terms of how staff handle activities and communicate among themselves. The quality of this move mainly relies on the beginning stages: analysis and planning are all we need here.
Also, users must be excited about changes by IT departments for this kind of development to take place. These measures when implemented led to the firm’s digital upgrade being prepared using technology and the company moved on with migratory processes.
