Email and calendaring migration for staff & faculty to roll out in coming months!

The next phase of the email and calendaring migration project is underway! The project team took a few weeks to reset as we moved the University’s activities online, but the good news is an enhanced email experience is coming soon for staff, faculty, retirees, and undergraduate and postgraduate medical students.

There are many exciting integrations and benefits to this new solution. The overall experience will feel very similar to today’s for those using the Microsoft Outlook software with additional features and benefits, including: increased storage; reliable integration with mobile devices; enhanced security; hosting in a Canadian data centre; enhanced collaborative tool functionality, and document sharing capabilities.

The project timeline will now run until end of summer 2020, as opposed to end of June as previously communicated. Testing will be executing throughout the month of April and accounts will be migrated between May and August 2020. The project team is working with campus partners to ensure the timeline is effective and minimizes disruptions. Importantly, users will receive detailed communications and IT partners will be there to support you every step of the way!

How the migration works

• During the overall migration process, a user’s existing email will be copied over to the cloud environment.
• Following migration, users have immediate access to their email via Outlook Web App [https://portal.office.com/] or via their mobile or desktop email client.
• Users should experience only a minor interruption in email service during the migration.

What to expect

• You will receive a notification about your scheduled migration two weeks, one week, and one day beforehand.
• The migration to the cloud will occur outside of normal business hours (between 8:00 p.m. and 8:00 a.m.)
• All project information and details (including training sessions) will be posted here: https://office365.mcmaster.ca/office-365/email-calendaring/.  

Virtual training sessions

• Training for IT and administrative staff is now open for registration: https://office365.mcmaster.ca/office-365/email-calendaring/.  
  These sessions are designed for target groups, including the IT support community as well as super-users of email who are heavily involved in scheduling and operational support as part of their roles.
• For additional support, Open House sessions for broader campus community will be held in June. Please stay tuned for further communications about these opportunities.

If you have any questions about the project or the upcoming migration, please email the project team at McMasterOffice365@mcmaster.ca.