How to Communicate the Office 365 Transition to Your Organization
July 24, 2012
Contributed Article. Author: Tri Nguyen, Quest Software
How to Communicate the Office 365 Transition to Your Organization
Let’s go down memory lane… can you remember a time when you’ve driven on a major interstate and seen the construction signs that say, “EXPECT LONG DELAYS. CONSTRUCTION BEGINS…”? Hopefully, you paid attention as the message had been on display for at least 3 weeks leading up to that point. If you didn’t, you probably were kicking and screaming as you sat in traffic and came to the realization that you’re going to be very, very, very late for that scheduled appointment. After you had a chance to calm down, did you ever ask yourself whose fault this is?
The goal of this blog is to provide you with some useful tips so when your end users ask that question, they won’t be looking at you. If they are impacted by the transition to Office 365, they can just stare and blame themselves.
So here are a few important questions to consider when planning your end user communication strategy:
- How does your organization effectively communicate important internal information to its employees? Look to those within your organization who have rolled out similar programs, and learn what works best from them.
- Who has the right skill set within the team to own the overall communications strategy? If you lack the experience, please look to those with this expertise. It’s not uncommon for some organizations to have a full time employee with the right knowledge, skills and abilities dedicated to this initiative. This individual tends to be responsible for all end user communication, support and training.
- What questions will your end users have? Consider the following when putting together your end user communication plan so you can get out ahead of the frequently asked questions :
- How will this impact me?
- Who can I call if I have any questions?
- What exactly are you doing?
- What will you do with the information?
- What if I have a problem with a system after you leave?
- What if I am running a critical application?
- How soon will you start communicating the plan to your end users? In the planning process, make sure your communication plan maps out a sequenced approach. Here is a suggested approach from the recently published Office 365 Migration for Dummies eBook:
- Five weeks prior – email as the first formal communication to managers. Provide an overview of the process and explain the reason for the migration.
- Four weeks prior – email to all users informing them of the migration. Outline the actions the user needs to take before and after the migration.
- Two weeks prior – email to managers requesting approval to migrate mailboxes for users reporting to each manager. Then notify users that their mailboxes will be migrated on a specific date, with instructions on what action they need to take before, during, and after the migration.
- One week prior – email all users reminding them of the migration date, their actions, and what happens if they don’t complete the required actions by the due date. Then remind users of the migration date and instruct them to continue using their mailboxes until they’re fully migrated.
- One day prior – email everyone who completed their actions and is ready for migration. Remind users that their mailboxes will be migrated the next day.
- Will you follow up with end users as they are being migrated? You’d be wise to do this so you can ensure there are no holes in your existing communication plan. This will allow you to “rinse, lather and repeat” the process throughout the entire migration project. Adjust accordingly if there are issues.
This is not an exhaustive list of considerations, but it will get you thinking about how you should tackle this very important task within the migration project. In my opinion, having a solid communication plan is one of the most crucial part of the plan, as, at the end of the day, your goal is to minimize the business disruption to your end users, and, let’s face it, migrations are very disruptive. Take the time upfront and make sure you plan this out appropriately. Trust me, you’ll be thankful that you did. If you want to see a template for an end user communications plan, Microsoft has provided one in the Office 365 Deployment Guide – Appendix G.
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About the Author
Tri Nguyen, CISSP, MCSE, is a manager, product management in the Windows Server Management business unit at Quest Software. With more than 18 years of experience, Tri has provided extensive Windows management expertise to many organizations, and served as a senior IT consultant before joining Quest. Tri holds an MBA from the University of Phoenix, and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Maryland Baltimore County. Tri leverages his technical industry knowledge and business perspective to help Quest Software develop enterprise-wide solutions.