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Office 365 Migration Plan

 
Why is Snow College moving EMail accounts to Exchange Online

The migration to Office 365 Exchange Online is necessary to modernize Snow’s communication technology and better meet the needs of those working, learning, and teaching remotely. Additionally, by aligning Snow’s infrastructure with Microsoft’s cloud system, the college can better utilize existing IT investments.

For more information about why the college is moving to Microsoft Office 365, please refer to the Snow College Migration to Office 365 and the Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) on the IT webpage.

Affected users

The migration will affect all faculty and staff email users whether they use EMail through desktop/mobile clients or web browsers.

Migration timeline

The college is migrating EMail accounts on an ongoing basis:

  1. Dec-Mar 2022: Faculty and staff EMail accounts will be migrated to Office 365 on an ongoing basis. EMail accounts for campus faculty and staff will be migrated by May 15th, prior to the beginning of spring semester.
  2. Departmental migration list.  Departmental Supervisors please review and inform us of any required schedule changes by Friday, Dec. 10th at noon. We will contact you to review the migration list prior to your migration date.

Migrations will be grouped (10-30 users) by department or organization and in coordination with the Snow helpdesk for supporting that department or organization to ensure as smooth a process as possible. Associated resource accounts will be included in the coordinated migration. 

Users and service accounts will receive an email 24-72 hours prior to the migration of their account(s).

How to prepare for this change

Since migration speed is directly proportional to mailbox item count, removing unnecessary emails and folders is a good way to prepare.  

Users and service accounts will receive a notification 24-72 hours before their EMail accounts are migrated to the Microsoft cloud. EMail will be fully operational before and during the upgrade, however, using Outlook Web client will better guarantee mail delivery and receipt.

Please take these steps before the migration:

  • Review the help articles above for re-creating your email profile and clearing your browser’s cache.
  • Watch the Office 365 migration video for Snow College employees
  • Ensure that you have the latest update for Microsoft Outlook if you typically use the desktop or mobile application. Office 365 Online works best with the newest version of Outlook clients for Windows, Android, macOS, iOS, and iPadOS. Apple Mail (macOS, iOS, and iPadOS) is also supported.
What to expect after the migration

After your account is moved to Exchange Online, you may receive a notification that says “The Microsoft Exchange Administrator has made a change that requires you to quit and restart Outlook.”

The interfaces of the Outlook desktop and mobile clients will remain the same for most users, although some macOS users may automatically update to the latest version of Outlook for Mac.

Other changes:

  • An increase in mailbox storage — including inbox, sent items, deleted items, and subfolders — to 100GB. Archive storage is also 100GB.
  • A decrease in the retention of deleted items and off-site backups from 90 days to 30 days.

Features and processes that will not change:

  • Email aliases
  • Shared email resources

Please note that EMail is always accessible at Outlook.com using a web browser.

Issues you may encounter

Until the entire college migrates to Office 365, you may experience some temporary EMail issues, including:

  • Former Outlook Web Access (OWA) users must clear their browser’s cache to successfully redirect from local EMail to Office 365
  • Users may need to re-create their EMail profiles in their email applications. More

  • Calendar “Show As” status (i.e., free/busy times) may be unavailable
  • Office 365 Online (cloud) users cannot be delegates for users who have not migrated
  • Delegates who have not yet migrated will have read-only access to the Office 365 Online (cloud) accounts shared with them
  • Mailboxes with corrupted items may not migrate, requiring EMail support (please call the Snow Help Desk at 7777)
  • Contacts may disappear from mobile devices (phones/tablets)
  • New email messages may automatically appear in Deleted Items instead of your inbox, requiring EMail support (please call the Snow Help Desk)

Please note that moving items from Outlook Archive storage to your mailbox is not recommended. If you wish to recover items from your Archive, you can export them as .pst files and reimport them to your mailbox.

 

Additional resources

Microsoft Outlook training (desktop/mobile)