News and Announcements

Office 365 Transition

Posted: 2014-12-19 09:44:22   Expiration: 2015-01-27 09:44:22

Disclaimer: This news item was originally posted on 2014-12-19 09:44:22. Its content may no longer be timely or accurate.

Russell Labs Office 365 Transition Information

UW-Madison is transitioning to the Office 365 email and calendar product by Fall of 2015 and Russell Labs plans to begin to transition from WiscMail/WiscCal to Office 365 beginning 12 January.

Your email store (mailboxes) will be transferred to a new email server which you will be able to access with either your existing email client or Outlook or Outlook Web Access after you follow a few easy steps, one of which involves your making some choices about your email addresses.

If you have many meetings and appointments in WiscCal there will be some work involved in fully transferring these into the new system. Training is also available for the calendaring product(s).

Although you will receive more information about the transition to Office 365 over the next few weeks, here are some important things that you need to know:

UW-Madison’s initial implementation will include email and calendar only. Additional features are not included at this time but may be added later.

IT staff transitioned to Office 365 ahead of you to allow us to understand the migration process and help us to support you when your migration occurs.

Your email messages and attachments will be migrated to the new system. You will also be provided with a “snapshot” of your calendar to help you re-create all of your meetings in the new system. A more detailed outline of exactly what will and will not be migrated is available here.

If you have multiple campus email accounts (i.e. netid@wisc.edu, xxx@russell.wisc.edu), those will be consolidated into a single account in Office 365 (not to be confused with consolidating into a single mailbox). This change will make scheduling easier and accessing your email more convenient.

You can find an overview of the features of the different clients here.

Most mobile devices, such as smart phones and tablets; can also be configured for Office 365.

During the transition, there will be a few extra steps when scheduling between the different calendaring systems (WiscCal and MS Office365).

In order to make our group’s transition to Office 365 as smooth as possible, you will be asked to:

  • Complete steps to prepare your account(s) for the transition (NOTE Cory and I may be requesting “Administrative Access” for your WiscMail accounts so that we can assist you with these account preparation steps. You can also request this of us. We will NOT have access to the content of your email accounts.)
  • Participate in training
  • Back up any content that won’t be migrated
  • Choose your primary email address
  • Start your migration
  • Be patient as you wait for your email to move to the new system
  • Complete a series of post-migration steps to prepare to use the new system

To help make sure you feel comfortable with the transition, I will be providing information about the actions you need to take at each step in the process. For a broad overview of the steps you will be required to take during the transition to Office 365, please see: Office 365 – Migration Checklist

If you want to find more general information about the transition to Office 365, the following resources are available:

Russell Labs staff will be available to assist you during your transition and we will also have DoIT Office 365 “Office-ianados” on-site on migration day(s). These staff along with Russell Labs support staff will assist with questions, desktop client configurations, mobile device configurations and any other support needs you have on those days.   Our goal is to make your transition as smooth as possible.

Questions

If you have questions or concerns regarding your upcoming transition, please contact Paul Gunther or Cory Wiedenhoeft.

-- Russell Labs Computing: Paul Gunther