Building a robust Microsoft 365 implementation

Comprehensive peer review delivers clear Microsoft 365 implementation recommendations to UK university

Business drivers

This global leader in higher education is one of the largest universities in the United Kingdom, with over 200,000 students. Since its launch in 1969, the institution has provided higher education for 2.3 million people worldwide.

The majority of the University’s legacy content was stored on Network Drives and Classic SharePoint sites. The University was looking to improve the way in which it managed and disposed of this legacy content in order to mitigate information risk, reduce costs, and increase efficiencies.

The plan was to migrate this content to Microsoft 365 (M365) to utilise its functionality, particularly around compliance and records management, so that they could establish an auto-destruction process. Having created the Microsoft 365 implementation plan, the University needed an expert to review their plan and “health check” their approach for building a pilot site to guarantee project success.

Key requirements

The primary focus of this Microsoft 365 implementation plan was centred around information management.

As experts in Microsoft 365 consultancy, migration and compliant data management, Metataxis was approached to support the University’s project team and review their Microsoft 365 implementation plans.

The Metataxis approach

The University had a set of key project objectives, including:

Improved management of legacy data including disposition of time-expired legacy information
A more structured approach to managing information, reducing risk and minimising potential future issues with legacy information
The reduction of IT and resourcing costs by eliminating or reducing the reliance on and use of Network Drives
A standardised approach to address the challenges over time (not trying to “boil the ocean”)

The Metataxis team conducted a comprehensive assessment of the plan. We also undertook a thorough review of existing artefacts followed by a number of interviews with key stakeholders to ensure all objectives could be met. This included:

Project plan and progress review

Project approach (project plan and any stage plans)
Current position
Existing information architecture and governance framework

Review of current solution elements

Existing policies
Plans for deletion of legacy information
Plans for migration

Current position assessment

Elements that could be kept as is
Elements that should be reviewed
Elements that should be dropped
Elements that have been missed

Based on the assessment, Metataxis went on to produce a report featuring a series of clear recommendations to help the University succeed with their Microsoft 365 implementation project. This was presented to key stakeholders.

Young attractive university student using laptop computer, study

Business benefits

Working in close collaboration with key stakeholders, Metataxis supported the University’s project team to help them achieve their desired project outcomes.

The final report provided the University with valuable insights and clear recommendations, empowering the project team to confidently proceed with the development of their Microsoft 365 roll out and pilot project.

Our report also highlighted some areas of concern and made practical suggestions to address these issues. This has enabled the University’ project team to refine their existing plans and build a robust business case to ensure that the implementation and ongoing information management would be optimally resourced.

By leveraging the expertise and validation included in the Metataxis peer review, the University project team is empowered to proceed with the deployment of their Microsoft implementation plan, confident that they have a solid and a strong foundation for a successful enterprise-wide rollout and ongoing management of information.

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