1.    What functionality is critical to the organization and user community? What does the organization need to accomplish by implementing Office 365?
2.    What level of integration and coexistence must be present during the pilot to verify that Office 365 meets the organization’s needs?
3.    Will certain applications and business processes need to be verified in the pilot environment?
4.    What evaluation criteria will be used? What are the critical success factors for the pilot program?  

This may seem like an obvious starting point, but it is critical in determining both the type of pilot program and complexity of the required implementation. Organizations must be very deliberate during this process, because “safe and effective” must be defined by the needs of each organization.

After documenting the expectations and needs for the pilot program, organizations must map these requirements to an appropriate pilot environment. Microsoft offers several implementation and infrastructure options for Office 365, including single sign-on and hybrid implementations. In addition, Office 365 coexistence options must be evaluated to determine the features required throughout the pilot period. Finally, organizations should familiarize themselves with Office 365 transition considerations and Office 365 migration performance implications to ensure a robust and seamless pilot evaluation. 

Based on the specific needs of the organization, the Office 365 infrastructure options, and transition considerations, organizations can properly define a safe and effective pilot environment. Some of the options to consider include:

1)    Manually provision pilot users in Office 365 and manage dual accounts – This allows pilot users to evaluate Office 365 without impacting their production mailboxes. However, it provides minimal information on coexistence and integration with existing systems.
2)    Implement “dual delivery” for the duration of the pilot – Dual delivery provides a more complete pilot experience, but the approach and limitations must be properly communicated with the user community.
3)    Automatically provision pilot users and migrate to Office 365  – This approach allows organizations to evaluate Office 365 functionality, as well as the transition process and end-user experience.
4)    Provide full Office 365 coexistence during the pilot – User coexistence may be accomplished leveraging Microsoft’s hybrid deployment option for Office 365. However, solutions also are available to provide direct user coexistence, which simplifies the required pilot architecture. These solutions also provide additional options for application coexistence during and after the pilot period.

While these are a few of the more common approaches for Office 365 pilot programs, there are numerous options available to meet the needs of any organization. It may even be valuable to consider a staged pilot approach by starting with the least complex pilot program and working in more advanced options as the organization determines Office 365 meets the needs at previous levels. If you take this approach, it is important to remember that differences in infrastructure and configuration with various pilot program levels can dramatically impact the environment, and even the ability to properly implement other pilot evaluation options.

With careful planning and the appropriate ancillary solutions, every organization can define and design a “safe and effective” Office 365 pilot program. For most, this is a critical step in the evaluation process, and necessary to verify, in advance, that the resulting Office 365 environment will meet the needs of the organization.

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About the Author

Chad Lindley is product manager for Notes and GroupWise transition solutions at Quest Software. He has worked with Lotus, Novell, and Microsoft technologies since 1994, and has focused on e-mail migrations since 1999. Chad joined Quest Software in 2005, and served in a variety of presales and systems consulting roles for Quest’s Notes and GroupWise transition solutions before accepting his current position as product manager. Prior to Quest, Chad worked at Wingra Technologies and several other organizations in the Risk Management Information Systems industry.  He holds a bachelor’s degree from the University of Wisconsin and an MBA from the University of Chicago.