Cloud 365 is a major transitioning step for a small business in moving from a land-based to a cloud-based system. This allows all the workers in an office continuous access to data, apps, and tools. The deciding advantages of migrating to a cloud system like Office 365 include:

1. Free integration to other Microsoft techs tools like Lync and SharePoint.
2. Monthly uptime is guaranteed by Microsoft.
3. Cost reduction by migration to an OPEX model from a CAPEX model.
4. Employees can access data from any place, any time.

Your Journey to Office 365

Office 365 is a comparatively new cloud-storage system which allows you to transfer small packets of data to its cloud storage system for a trial run. This gives you a fairly good idea about what might go wrong when you start moving your entire organization to the new ‘Office’ product.

You can explore your options and understand the features of Office 365 in a matter of minutes via the free trial version. Once you sign up for the trail, you can run and explore SharePoint within a few minutes without any expertise in software handling.

Here are a few steps to help you successfully complete your migrating to Office 365:

• Activating the licensing:

The activation process varies slightly between the P plan users and the E plan users. You can add users to the plan from the Users Tab. The wizard will walk you through the entire process; to add new members you need to select the New and User options from the users screen. Input the user details including names, designations, and specific licensing to each user.

• Migration of the mailbox data:

When using Office 365, you can transfer all your email data to the Exchange Online System. To begin this process you need to start from the E-mail Migration Page from the Exchange Online section.

While walking through the migration wizard, simply click on the new option to commence a new migration procedure. Here you can notice some new options:

1. In case you are migrating from Exchange 2007 or IMAP then the settings need to be entered manually.
2. In case of Exchange 2007 users the wizard uses auto discover to detect the settings automatically.

You will know the migration is complete and successful once the user email is available in the Office 365 system.

A few mistakes everyone should avoid while migrating to Office 365

Let us navigate a few obvious pitfalls.

1. Unclear about the use and features of Office 365:

Before migration it is absolutely critical to understand your requirements and plans. Before beginning the migration process you should develop a scheduling process, map out milestones and make a full inventory of all your systems which will take part in the migration.

2. Start migrating to Office 365 as a solo project:

Since it can be quite an extensive process depending on the level of the company’s data and hierarchical complexities it is important to bring in all your star players

3. Not enough emphasis on communication:

The users need to be involved in the migration procedure from the very beginning. They should be vocal about their likes and dislikes about the current system. You also want to define their needs and expectations from the Office 365 software.

4. Weak post-migration strategy:

Schedule a training session. Everyone needs a complete understanding of the new cloud storage system, their new working environment, the customizations required and the change in the kinds of resources required to move forward.

About the Author:

is the owner and CEO of Computer Answers, a Business IT services and computer repair services provider with 5 locations throughout the capital region. Paul writes for his own blog, about IT, computer repair and iPhone repair and often is featured as expert on IT and security.