Introduce efficient document sharing and manage Office more easily. The university required a more effective method for document collaboration. The staff and students were using a combination of Office 2003, 2007, and 2010 beta software, and these licenses required rationalizing to make training and support more straightforward.

The experts at De Facto Infotech suggested that the University should switch to Microsoft’s cloud-based Office 365 suite. Before shifting to Office 365, the University considered Google Apps but decided to stick with the Microsoft Office product that the users were familiar with. The University’s authorities realized that Office 365’s administration capabilities are far better than those available for Google Docs.

Before starting to switch the users from the traditional desktop Office suite to Office 365, the authorities at the University spent a lot time discussing how the suite worked and to allay any misgivings they had about moving to the new system. Microsoft IT solutions partner De Facto assisted the university in the planning, implementation, and migration. The change happened gradually, with most staff and students migrated to Office 365, and the commonly used templates and documents moved from the University’s file server to SharePoint online. SharePoint replaced the old file server and added document management—as well as collaboration capabilities, an intranet and client portals. Those were the things the University was lacking previously.  After a few weeks, all the users at the university moved over to Office 365’s office productivity applications, SharePoint Online was up and running, and the users who needed it also had access to Microsoft Dynamics CRM.

Office 365 migration proved highly beneficial for the university.

• With Office 365, the users at the University can access Office 365 applications and documents from anywhere.
• Since the interface is relatively consistent regardless of the device used to access Office 365 applications, the users at the University didn’t need additional training for different devices or operating systems.
• SharePoint provides a central repository for documents and a way of sharing them with version and access controls.
• Shift to Office 365 has resulted in considerable financial savings for the University.

Important Takeaways

• Take the time to understand how your staff works, both individually and collaboratively, before you make the move
• For small and mid-sized companies, work with a Microsoft solutions partner, if possible, to get the right assistance with the design, implementation, and migration
• Be aware of potential support issues when moving to the cloud

If you want to learn about how De Facto Infotech’s managed services team can add value to your organization, please contact us today at Sales@defactoinfotech.com.