What is happening? As part of the broader roll out of Microsoft Office 365 products across campus and in preparation for SharePoint 2016 on-premises retirement, Information Systems & Technology (IST) is initiating a Move to SharePoint Online project. The project will support stakeholders in creating and implementing a plan for migrating existing SharePoint 2016 sites to SharePoint Online, or another campus platform dependent on how the current SharePoint site is being used.

 

Why is this happening? SharePoint Online is designed to integrate many O365 collaboration tools such as Teams, Word, Excel, PowerPoint, and other apps. By moving on-premises SharePoint to the O365 environment, stakeholders will experience many benefits, including:

 

  • greater integration with other Office 365 apps, allowing for increased collaboration and productivity
  • improved authentication and information management security
  • increased capacity for data storage 
  • anytime, anywhere access to files including the option to work offline and sync changes to the cloud when back online
  • enhanced functionality
  • streamlined end-user support
  • a familiar working environment

 

What is the impact? Working closely with you, our stakeholder, we will assess your existing SharePoint site and the features you use to determine which O365 service would best suit the needs of you and your users. Members of the project team will work to coordinate and implement a migration plan and ensure the appropriate training and support resources are available. 

 

When will this work take place? This work will begin in September 2020 and continue over an approximate 12-month period.