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Managing the Move from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams

A Comprehensive Transition Team Checklist

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O V E R V I E W

Moving to Microsoft Teams Will Change the Way You Work — So Make Sure It Works Well for Everyone.

With Microsoft announcing its shift from Skype for Business to Microsoft Teams, it’s not a matter of if your company will be affected, but when. If you want to take advantage of the features that make Microsoft Teams the right collaboration platform for modern teams and avoid the transition friction that is so common in a major platform update, you’ll want to plan ahead and prepare your users now.

To this end, we’ve prepared a comprehensive checklist that will help you align your business goals, technical teams and users around a roll-out strategy that works well for everyone. You will also be able to uncover potential roadblocks that will need to be addressed before you can fully phase out Skype for Business (or create an ideal system of interoperability).

In short, we are here to make sure you feel confident about your Microsoft Teams roll-out strategy and implementation, so you’re able to fully embrace a more agile and collaborative, Teams-powered workplace.

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P H A S E O N E

Kickoff Define Your Stakeholders, Assign Your Roles The following roles are essential to completing your transition and making sure everybody is on board. Select a lead for each of the following roles, using the description provided.

o Executive Sponsor Provides executive sign-off and budget approvals

o Project Lead Defines the scope of your transition and the timeline

o Licensing Lead Evaluates administrative readiness and governance requirements

o Technical Lead Evaluates technical readiness and technical requirements

o Workforce Lead Evaluates user readiness and education requirements

o Licensing Manager Manages product licensing i.e. administration tasks

o Technical Manager Manages technical set-up i.e. implementation tasks

o Training Manager Manages product education and change management tasks

o Usage Monitor Monitors and reports on usage and adoption

o IT & Security Monitor Monitors and reports on technical reliability and security

*Note: A person can have more than one role.

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P H A S E T W O

Pre-Launch Project Lead Checklist Create a timeline for launch dependent on user readiness, technical readiness, action items, budget and periodic check-ins.

o Working with the technical lead, decide the level of technical readiness required to begin.

o Working with the workforce lead, decide the level of user readiness required to begin.

o Working with all managers, determine the time needed for roll-out tasks.

o Determine the time you will want to monitor adoption, security and reliability post-launch.

o Determine how frequently you will want/need to check-in with stakeholders throughout.

o Create a transition schedule that includes these meetings, stages and deadlines.

o Communicate the schedule to the group. Make edits as needed.

o Schedule check-in calls with details around required stakeholders and deliverables.

o Obtain budget and project approvals from the Executive Sponsor.

Licensing Lead Checklist Evaluate current state of licenses, policies and governance, then determine the time needed to update gaps in licensing.

o Determine if users are currently licensed for Teams or if there are any gaps in licensing.

o Define your external access policy. Will you permit guest access?

o Define your governance strategy. Will you allow users to create new teams/groups?

o Create a naming convention for Teams names.

o Define messaging policies.

o Define Teams retention policies.

o Define Teams compliance policies.

o Determine which services you will enable.

o Determine gaps in the current policies and adherence.

o Communicate policies, gaps and licensing needs to the larger stakeholder group.

o With feedback from the stakeholder team, define the time needed to update licensing, communicate policies to users and update technical settings.

Technical Lead Checklist Evaluate technical features and integrations, time needed to implement and the ideal time to transition based on Microsoft’s product roadmap.

o Determine the integrations, features and functions your Skype implementation includes.

o Determine which features, functions and integrations will need to carry over into Teams.

o Determine which Skype functions are not required.

o Determine which new Teams functions will need to be included and how to support them.

o Define your on-premise vs cloud deployment needs.

o Define technical security and monitoring needs to successfully support your deployment.

o Review the Microsoft Product Roadmap to determine when to transition to Teams.

o See if any gaps or technical upgrades need to be completed in tandem with roll-out.

o Define ideal timing for launch using the information gathered above.

o Determine if a phased or interoperable deployment strategy is required.

o Record any caveats, potential obstacles and fallback plans should an issue occur.

o Report this information to your project lead and technical manager.

Workforce Lead Checklist Evaluate current workforce readiness and identify user sentiment obstacles to address during the change management phase.

o Assess the number of users currently using Skype for Business.

o Assess the number of users using Teams (if also deployed).

o Assess the number of users using non-sanctioned systems.

o Assess user sentiment regarding a full transition to Teams.

o Assess user technical confusion regarding Teams.

o Report findings to the larger group to determine ideal level of readiness.

o Recommend full transition, Teams for collaboration, Skype for meetings, or both.

o Create a user readiness roadmap that includes prep tasks and post-launch tasks.

o Define the Early Adopters who will create buzz and champion adoption.

o Define the wider pilot group who will test Teams and communicate concerns or bugs.

o Communicate change management strategy to the Training Manager and Usage Monitor.

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P H A S E T H R E E

Launch

Licensing Manager Checklist Implement licensing strategy.

o Enable AD Connect and sync all users.

o License all Skype for Business users for Microsoft Teams.

o Create your first team and associated channels.

o Oversee collaboration rollout to pilot groups.

o Confirm or adapt policy governance and approach to collaboration.

o Enable Meetings in Teams.

o Enable Voice and Meeting Transcription services in Teams.

o Enable pilot users for Meetings.

o Enable pilot users for Voice.

o Enable pilot Teams Meeting Rooms.

o Confirm or adapt policy and governance for Meetings, Voice and Meeting Rooms.

o Execute phased rollout of Teams to entire organization.

Technical Manager Checklist Implement technical roll-out tasks.

o Port phone numbers over for pilot users.

o Procure devices based on technical requirements.

o Implement Audio Conferencing strategy (PSTN/PBX/Office 365 Phone System).

o Confirm technical implementation and address issues.

o Determine final costs and timeline to procure and implement devices and conferencing.

o Complete migration of conferencing to the Teams platform.

o Communicate technical changes to entire organization.

Training Manager Checklist Implement change management and product education strategy.

o Based on workforce assessments, identify user friction and training areas.

o Create training resources (digital collateral, videos, handouts).

o Create user sentiment resources (digital buzz, videos, value/benefit handouts).

o Distribute sentiment collateral via email and in-person to the entire organization.

o Distribute training collateral via email and in-person campaigns to pilot users.

o Re-assess user sentiment by department and other cohorts.

o Work with pilot users to enhance training materials.

o Introduce training materials to the entire organization once full roll-out is underway.

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P H A S E F O U R

Post Launch Usage & Adoption Monitor Checklist Report on workforce behavior and product adoption.

o Report on the number of people opening digitally-distributed sentiment resources.

o Report on the number of people opening digitally-distributed training resources.

o Chart changes in user sentiment over time.

o Report on number of people viewing training videos.

o Report on number of helpdesk calls regarding Teams.

o Break down reports by department, region and other cohorts to identify groups in need.

Reliability & Security Monitor Checklist Report on technical reliability and security.

o Report on security breach attempts on Teams.

o Report on Teams uptime.

o Report on Teams downtime reports from users.

o Break down reports by department, region and other cohorts to identify issues.

F I N A L R E C O M M E N D A T I O N S

Enlist Support Clearly, managing the transition from Skype to Teams will require an immense amount of data gathering, administration and change management. That doesn’t mean, however, that these tasks need to be siloed or overwhelming.

With the help of a SaaS Management Platform (SMP) like CoreSuite, your entire transition team can gather insights, update licenses and encourage adoption with unprecedented transparency, speed and ease.

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See How CoreView’s SaaS Management Platform Can Support Your Skype-to-Teams Transition. How we help with licensing: o Securely delegate admin rights to key managers (RBAC).

o Segment tenant into multiple sub-tenants for pilot groups and phased roll-outs.

o Automate licensing updates, ensuring a quick and accurate transition.

How we help with security/technical requirements: o Get a single pane of glass to review your current license distribution.

o Easily configure permissions and technical updates.

o Instantly identify regions and departments with unique technical needs.

How we help with user training and adoption: o Identify current product usage in seconds.

o Easily deliver training and adoption materials via targeted email campaigns.

o Use our library of Microsoft Teams training videos to support adoption.

How we help you monitor your roll-out: o Easily monitor product adoption via comprehensive, filterable usage analytics.

o Keep an eye on security and technical concerns from our security dashboard.

o Use 200+ customizable reports to measure the impact on your organization.

About CoreView CoreView is the global leader in simplifying Office 365 and Microsoft Dynamics management, security and adoption. Our products provide enterprise organizations and Microsoft partners a single pane of glass through which to securely delegate tasks, segment their tenant, gather security data, measure and encourage adoption, address GDPR and PII concerns and so much more. In short, we optimize all aspects of you Office 365 environment. We are also proud to be a Gartner Cool Vendor and a Microsoft Gold partner.

To learn more, visit coreview.com