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Category: Why
Question: Why are we doing this? What's in it for me?
Answer: Our current 'on-premise' email exchange is un-supported, out of date and will be retired. The Microsoft solution to replace this is MS365, which we license through the University. By making the switch, we can continue using email, calendars, etc. with an updated and secure solution.
Category: Roll-out
*New! Question: While the migration is happening, will we still have access to our inbox & calendar in the Outlook client in order to reference calendar appointments and emails?
Answer: We will have to confirm the process with DoIT but typically yes, you can view and use your mailbox during an email migration. The method usually involves copying data to Microsoft 365 in the background to allow normal access (sending and receiving emails, calendar, and contacts) with minimal downtime. There will be a point during the cutover where there will be an outage (stay out of email and reconnect) but hopefully this is a very short window.
Question: What will change? What will stay the same? What will I notice?
Answer:
- You will have one mailbox for both wisc.edu and slh.wisc.edu addresses.
- You can use the desktop Outlook client
- You will continue to sign into applications/functions with the same email addresses as you currently do
- Change: WSLH will no longer authenticate to email
- Authenticate Outlook client using wisc.edu
- Outlook Web Access (OWA) will authenticate using wisc.edu
Question: If I'm having issues, who do I contact?
Answer: OIS at WSLH is your primary user support. The best thing to do is to submit a ticket through TeamDynamix or call the Service Desk at 608-221-6262.
Question: Why are we doing this during the week instead of on the weekend or after hours?
Answer: By doing this during normal business hours, we have access to the right support at DoIT and at Microsoft just in case there are issues that need to be resolved.
Category: Data Security
*New! Question: How does this change impact secure email? Secure email is still used.
Answer: UW-Madison has their own process for sending secure/encrypted email. See https://kb.wisc.edu/microsoft365/82185 for details. Emails with PHI will not automatically be caught and sent securely nor will adding [SECURE] to the subject line send a message securely. Users must follow the UW-Madison process after migration.
Category: Email
Question: Is my wisc.edu account going away permanently? Some folks use this as their personal account.
Answer: You will have one mailbox that will have both your wisc.edu AND your slh.wisc.edu addresses in it - meaning all email for both addresses will be directed to the same mailbox.
Question: The university uses wisc.edu to push info to WSLH - will the university still be able to communicate with us?
Answer: Yes. The emails that are sent to your wisc.edu address will come to your single, common mailbox.
Question: There are many UW functions where you have to use your wisc.edu email as access (ex: Creative Cloud, Workday, etc.) will these things be impacted? Conversely, what about items that require our slh.wisc.edu addresses?
Answer: Functions or applications that use your wisc.edu email to sign on will continue to use wisc.edu for sign on. Likewise for the functions or applications that use your slh.wisc.edu address. So nothing will change.
Question: Are we keeping our slh.wisc.edu address or our wisc.edu address?
Answer: You will still have both your wisc.edu address as well as your slh.wisc.edu address. You can set either as your primary address, meaning your outgoing mail will default to be sent from whichever you set as primary. But email sent in to either your wisc.edu or slh.wisc.edu addresses will be received at the same mailbox. We strongly encourage WSLH staff use @slh.wisc.edu as their primary for WSLH business but unless upper management requires it, you should be able to use @wisc.edu instead.
Question: If we'll need to use our NetID to access Outlook desktop client, web client or phone app will we need to log in every time we need to access email? On our phones, will we still get notifications of email even if we're not logged in?
Answer: No, you will not need to login every time to access your email. When you first set up Outlook desktop or your phone, you provide credentials to access your mailbox. The computer/phone stores this information to use whenever it needs to check your email. So yes, you will still get notifications of new email without manually logging-in every time. The client will take care of this behind the scenes.
Question: If my wisc.edu email existed prior to my slh email (ex: UW Madison student or employee elsewhere at UW prior to WSLH) will that be merged the same as everyone else?
Answer: Yes, both mailboxes will be merged.
Category: Calendars
*New! Question: Some folks have monthly/quarterly/annual reminders set on their calendars to take care of certain tasks in the lab. These are set up on their slh outlook calendars. Are these things that they should all be making a list of so they don’t lose them during the combination process?
Answer: Items in your SLH mailbox including email and calendar entries will all be migrated/merged with your UW Office365 mailbox. If you have monthly/quarterly/annual reminders, they will end up on your O365 calendar and work like they do today. If you have meetings with staff, they will also migrate. Shared resources like parking permits and conference rooms are a different story. The corresponding Office365 mailboxes for these do not exist yet. They will be created as part of the migration process and most likely require users to recreate recurring meetings for these rooms after the migration is completed.
Category: Shared Emails, Distribution Groups
Question: Shared mailboxes and shared email accounts - what's happening to them?
Answer: They will be migrated along with everything else. The addresses to those shared email accounts and shared mailboxes will not change.
Category: Shared Calendars, Conference Rooms
Question: Will conference room assignments need to be redone? Is anyone at UW able to schedule our rooms at WSLH? Are we able to schedule rooms anywhere on campus?
Answer: No, you will not need to re-book conference rooms. No, UW users will not be able to book WSLH conference rooms-we will restrict those to WSLH users only. WSLH's ability to schedule rooms on campus will depend on which rooms have open access vs. restricted access.
*New! Question: When will the accounts for the conference rooms be created? Can we start moving our meetings now?
Answer: Thanks for trying to get ahead of the curve but no, this will have to wait. Conference rooms will not be created until some point during the migration. Users cannot move meetings now for multiple reasons. First, you will need to wait for the conference room to get created in M365 by DoIT. Second, if the meeting already exists for the same conference room it will be imported as part of the migration process. This would result in duplicates if you entered it ahead of the migration. Lastly, adding @slh.wisc.edu staff to any meeting prior to migration will include the wrong mailbox identifier (point to your WSLH mailbox and not the M365 mailbox).
Category: Records Retention
Question: What will happen if wisc.edu goes away-do the emails get saved? What happens to them?
Answer: Wisc.edu is not going away. All records from both your wisc.edu and slh.wisc.edu addresses will be copied to your single, common mailbox.
Question: Storage - will we have the same storage? Less/more storage? What will we do for records requests that require emails from years back in time?
Answer: You will have 100GB storage across all Office 365 applications, including OneDrive. There is deleted email recovery for 30 days. Otherwise, the records are not backed up by the UW. For records requests, if the email time frame exists within the mailbox we can respond. Otherwise it will need to be addressed by DoIT/Microsoft.
Question: Should we be cleaning up our mailboxes prior to migration?
Answer: Yes, now is a great time to clean them up prior to migration. You still have some time to do this. We will remind staff about housecleaning once we have a better idea of a timeline.