What's New with Office 365

SSCC's Official Migration Period is Now Complete

The SSCC's official migration period is over, but many SSCC members still need to migrate to Office 365. If you are out of town and want to wait until you return so you can get help more easily if you run into trouble that's fine, but we encourage you not to delay.

  • Please migrate before the start of semester (September 2) if at all possible
  • Avoid migrating during the first two weeks of classes (September 2-September 11). SSCC staff are very busy during this period and may not be able to help you in a timely fashion.
  • While we do not yet have firm dates from the Office 365 migration team, we anticipate that migrating to Office 365 will become mandatory for SSCC members sometime in early or mid-October. We suggest you migrate well before that so you can do it at a time that’s convenient for you.

Instructions for Migrating to Office 365

On Monday, July 27 the SSCC begins its migration to Office 365, starting with the Department of Sociology. Full migration instructions can be found at:

http://ssc.wisc.edu/o365migration

Migrating is very easy: just go to a web page and click a button. (If you've already migrated your WiscMail account to Office 365, SSCC staff will have to click the button for you. Email the SSCC Help Desk at helpdesk@ssc.wisc.edu to make arrangements.)

Once you've migrated, email programs that are configured to read SSCC email will no longer work. You will then have several options:

  • Use the Outlook Web App, which requires no configuration
  • Have a student worker set up your email programs for you--it's not too late to set up an appointment (http://ssc.wisc.edu/o365help)
  • Configure your email programs to work with Office 365 yourself

If you're in town we suggest you let a student worker do the setting up for you, just to save time. However, email programs are easier to set up than ever before—they use your email address to look up the corresponding servers, ports, etc. rather than you having to enter them. So if you are out of town we encourage you to go ahead and set up your email programs yourself, though if you'd rather wait until you get back so you can more easily get help from SSCC staff if you run into problems that's fine. Unfortunately we will not have access to the student workers once our migration period has ended, and SSCC does not have enough staff to set up everyone's email for them.

We recognize that this migration will be a substantial disruption, and that you may have mixed feelings about Office 365 even after migrating. We're determined to do everything we can to make the transition go as smoothly as possible. If you have any questions or concerns, don't hesitate to ask.

Sign up for help configuring your email programs for Office 365

When the SSCC's official Office 365 migration period arrives (July 27-August 7) we will have DoIT-trained student workers available who can visit your office and set up your email program to work with Office 365. This includes setting up smartphones and tablets as well as desktop and laptop computers. You are welcome to do this yourself (especially if you'll be out of town), or to just use the Outlook Web App. But if you will be here we suggest you take advantage of their help. To do so, sign up for an appointment at http://ssc.wisc.edu/o365help . Note that since this is a Google doc, all changes are saved automatically as you type--no need to click save.

DoIT is also offering free training on both Outlook and the Outlook Web App in the Sewell Social Sciences Building. Visit http://ssc.wisc.edu/training to register.

We appreciate everyone who has prepared their account for migration, and those who have already migrated their WiscMail account to Office 365 and don't need to do the preparation steps again. (Not sure? Go to https://wiscmail.wisc.edu and see if your get Office 365 or regular WiscMail). We have about 200 people to go; if you haven't yet prepared your account, please do so today by visiting https://wiscmail.wisc.edu/admin/index.php?action=o365-preparation .

We'll have specific instructions on the migration itself for you next week. It's not complicated, but we know how much SSCC members rely on email and we want to make sure everything goes as smoothly as possible. Let us know if you have any questions.

Time to Prepare Your Account for Office 365

SSCC's migration to Office 365 is approaching, and the time has come to prepare your account for migration. The account preparation process takes just a few minutes and is done via the web. It prepares both your SSCC email account and your WiscMail account to migrate to Office 365. Please take a moment to prepare your account right now, even if you are out of town, will not be migrating during the SSCC's official migration period (July 27-August 7), or do not use SSCC email. To do so, visit:

https://wiscmail.wisc.edu/admin/index.php?action=o365-preparation

If you'd like someone to walk you through this process, a member of the Office 365 migration team will be in 3218 Sewell Social Sciences Building on Wednesday and Thursday afternoon (July 8 and July 9) to assist you. Register at http://ssc.wisc.edu/sscc_jsp/training/. The migration team is also offering classes on using Office 365 through the SSCC's training program and we encourage you to take advantage them.

The most important part of account preparation is choosing your primary email address. After the migration, mail sent to your SSCC email address (username@ssc.wisc.edu), your WiscMail address (NetID@wisc.edu), and to your new firstname.lastname@wisc.edu address will all go to your Office 365 Inbox, but your primary address is the one your messages will come from, and what will appear in Office 365's Global Address List.

At this time members in COWS will not be able to select username@cows.org or other related addresses as their primary email address. DoIT is working to fix this as quickly as possible. If you prepare your account now you can return and change your primary email address later.

To use the account preparation tool you'll need to log in using your UW NetID. If you've forgotten your NetID password, visit https://www.mynetid.wisc.edu/recover/#/pwdreset. If you need further help, please contact the DoIT Help Desk (https://kb.wisc.edu/helpdesk/). SSCC staff cannot reset NetID passwords.

If you do not have a NetID, you will not be able to migrate to Office 365 and your SSCC email account will be closed when the SSCC's email service is shut down at the end of the year. We've tried to identify anyone in this situation who may rely on SSCC email, but if you do and have not heard from us please reply to this email.

Account preparation is the first Office 365-related task we need everyone to do. The Office 365 migration team gives us reports on who has and has not prepared their account, and we will follow up with those who have not as the migration approaches.

Update on Account Preparation

On Tuesday we asked everyone to prepare their account for the Office 365 migration. Unfortunately this has not gone as smoothly as we had hoped, and we want to update you on the issues encountered.

The Office 365 team did not inform us until after we started reporting problems that anyone who has already migrated their WiscMail account to Office 365 cannot use the web tools to prepare or migrate their SSCC account. If you are in this situation, SSCC staff will have to initiate the migration process for you—we're coming up with a procedure for arranging this and will update you as the migration period approaches. If you want to use your SSCC email address as your primary email address you can set this after migrating.

Due to a data entry error by the Office 365 team, some people were able to migrate their accounts on Tuesday and Wednesday even though the SSCC's migration period has not started. If you did so, only your WiscMail account was migrated, not your SSCC account. You will still have to migrate your SSCC account on or after July 27, but you'll need SSCC staff to initiate the process as described above. If you log into WiscMail you'll see it's been replaced by the Outlook Web App, but if you would like to use another email program or mobile device to read your Office 365 email contact the Help Desk (helpdesk@ssc.wisc.edu) and we'll send you instructions.

Members in COWS were not able to select username@cows.org or other related addresses as their primary email address after the initial account preparation message went out on Tuesday. This issue has since been resolved and you can now fully prepare your account or change your primary email address if you have already done the other steps.

The Office 365 Migration team is under tremendous pressure as they work to move all of campus to Office 365 before the entire project is shut down late this year due to budget cuts. We ask for your patience during this difficult process.

Office 365 Training Schedule

Training on Office 365 is now available on the SSCC's training web page. Topics include preparing your account for Office 365, email and calendaring basics using both Outlook and the Outlook Web App, and advanced features for administrators. Registration is required.

Migration Dates Set

The SSCC will migrate to Office 365 starting on July 27. Departmental migration dates are as follows:

Sociology July 27-28 (Monday-Tuesday)
CDE & CDHA July 29-30 (Wednesday-Thursday)
Catch-Up Day July 31 (Friday)
Economics & IRP August 3-4 (Monday-Tuesday)
COWS, UWSC, SoHE, & IoA August 5-6 (Wednesday-Thursday)
Catch-Up Day August 7 (Friday)

We will have Officianados available on these days to visit your office and configure your email programs for you—sign up sheets will be available soon. If you will be out of town on your department's official migration days, you can sign up for a visit on a Friday or any other day during the migration period.

If you'll be out of town for the entire two-week migration periond, we'll try to arrange for a second round of Officianado visits once most people are back in town.

What happens if I don't migrate?

What should I do right now to prepare for Office 365?

  • Make sure you know your NetID and password. Reset your password if needed.
  • If you want to use a firstname.lastname@wisc.edu email address after the migration, reserve it. You can also request that it be modified using the same tool.
  • If you have forwarded your SSCC email to an address other than WiscMail, set that forward in WiscMail so it will carry over to Office 365
  • If you use WiscMail, go here to see if you have any large messages that cannot be moved to Office 365
  • Do not try to use the rest of DoIT's "account preparation" process—it is not yet ready to handle SSCC members
  • Sign up for Office 365 Training
  • If you still have any questions or concerns after reading this document, contact the SSCC Help Desk
  • Watch your email for further instructions

Visit the Office 365 FAQ for more information.