top of page
Stock Market Data

OFFICE 365 ROLL-OUT, DATA MIGRATION, MALL SECURITY UPGRADE AND ARCHIVE AND BACK-UP OVERHAUL

ORIGINAL SITUATION

  • Storage of the University email and document databases was located on-premise and required regular upgrades and ongoing support and also presented risk of data loss due to hardware failure

  • Migration to Office 365 provided would vastly increase storage and improve security and backup

  • The University’s instant messaging platform, Office Communicator, was approaching end of life and end of support

  • University staff could not access documents, email or communications tools without VPN connections, making remote working difficult or impossible

  • Email security took up two full time roles within the IT department, where the function could be outsourced to a service provider with greater resources and more up to date information, freeing up internal resources for other functions

  • The risk of data loss due to theft, loss or failure of laptops and storage devices was significant and could be addressed by introducing cloud storage and automated back-up

DELIVERED SOLUTION

IMA Management & technology (IMA-MT) provided project management and change management to deliver the different streams of the project, including the management of several vendors and internal teams, rolling out the user-facing changes and the underlying infrastructure and driving the awareness, training and working culture change program to ensure successful uptake of the new system.

​

  • Used PRINCE2 methodology to manage the infrastructure work and an Agile approach for the desktop roll-out work.

  • Gathered business, functional, non-functional and technical requirements for all elements of the project.

  • Managed risks and issues with the project team and major stakeholders.

  • Managed a benefits delivery plan throughout the project.

  • Managed communications to the sponsor, project team, major stakeholders, affected users, vendors, partners and the PMO through reports, emails, meetings, poster campaigns, a dedicated intranet site, presentations, demonstrations and project board meetings.

  • Managed all project finances.

  • Worked with a deployment partner and internal infrastructure team to determine requirements and define and implement a design, migration strategy and test plan.

  • Worked with internal teams on the upgrade and deployment of desktop services and clients.

  • Ran formal tender processes to identify and procure archive, back-up and email security products and email archive migration services.

  • Ran an awareness and promotion campaign, “lunch and learn” information sessions, training sessions and produced reference guides, live session recordings, training videos and post-deployment follow-ups.

  • Provided a “white glove” service to support the migration for key staff, such as executives and EAs.

  • Held “lessons learned” and post implementation reviews with the project team and major stakeholders and shared results.

BENEFITS DELIVERED

  • Office 365 and Office 2016 rolled out to all university staff.

  • All on-premise email and document data migrated to the Microsoft cloud.

  • 20 training sessions delivered across seven locations.

  • New automated back-up and archive system deployed for email and documents.

  • New email security system deployed.

  • Cost reduction achieved through the decommissioning of on-premise storage and mail handling hardware (removing upgrade and maintenance costs) and the switch to a remote email security system, freeing up two full time staff from this role for re-deployment.

  • Cloud based storage enabled increased document and email accessibility, improving staff mobility.

  • A major upgrade in the available storage for email, documents and archives was achieved.

  • Collaboration improvements achieved through the introduction of co-authoring and sharing capabilities.

  • No data loss or business hours service loss encountered by any staff or services.

bottom of page