Peer to Peer Magazine

12 PEER TO PEER: THE QUARTERLY MAGAZINE OF ILTA | SUMMER 2016 BEST PRACTICES 5 Questions To Ask Before Implementing Maer Center For Office 365 » Can you export the data from the source system(s)? Consider whether you can export not only the files but also the metadata or profiled data from existing documents and any critical structure (think folders, libraries and views) from the source system(s). » Do you know how to plan for migrating the data into Office 365/Maer Center? You must understand how to map and migrate the metadata and profiled data. Also consider existing permissions and security needs. » Do you understand how you will migrate the data? Make sure you have planned for Office 365 throling the migration of files/data, and give yourself enough time. You might also think about using advanced techniques or products that shi the data to Azure storage and then migrate it to Office 365, which can reduce bandwidth and throling effects on migration speeds. There are additional issues to address around migration, including planning for process change or change management for users. It is oen not as simple as liing and shiing the content you have in your current systems. Does Your Organization Have the Talent Available? To implement Maer Center, it is recommended that you work with an external partner/vendor that has experts on hand. Aer a successful implementation, you will need the talent to maintain and manage it. While Maer Center is based on Office 365 and requires lile management, there is a lot of benefit to having talent that understands add-ins, Azure and SharePoint Online. You should also plan to have SharePoint talent that understands how to update content types, metadata, permissions and site seings. Perhaps more challenging is knowing how you will manage and implement updates to the Maer Center repository. As new capabilities are added by community and Microso teams, it would be good to test and then update your own Maer 4 Center deployment in Office 365. Depending on your organization's size, you might need to plan for training and knowledge transfer so your organization can take more ownership of future update integration. How Will Your Organization Integrate, Customize or Update Matter Center? Aer implementing Maer Center, you will have to make adjustments to improve the experience. In many circumstances, this can be done with configuration changes and by leveraging out-of-the-box capabilities, but sometimes it requires an expert Office 365 developer. Consider the following questions as you plan for Maer Center: » Do you need to integrate and create new experiences that connect with Elite or other enterprise data sources? » Do you have talent that can build Office add-ins and develop on Office 365/Azure? You can enhance or create experiences that improve upon what Maer Center initially provides. Even simple automation apps that reduce manual steps can make a world of difference. » Do you know how you will implement updates? You'll want updates not only on Maer Center but potentially those in other GitHub repositories, from community members or from the growing marketplace. Matter Center To Benefit from Office 365 Microso and the Maer Center community are leading innovations that will help every law firm and legal department find new ways to use and benefit from Office 365. You might be surprised at how quickly you can implement Maer Center and have it running within your enterprise, but be sure to ask the questions that will help ensure greater success. P2P 5 RICHARD HARBRIDGE Richard Harbridge is the Chief Technology Officer at 2tolead Limited. He works as a trusted advisor to hundreds of organizations, helping them understand their current needs, future needs and what actions they should take to grow and achieve their ambitions. Richard is an author and an internationally recognized expert on Microsoft technology, marketing and professional services. As a sought-after speaker for industry events around the globe, Richard has had many opportunities to share his insights, experiences and advice on branding, partner management, social networking, collaboration, ROI, technology/process adoption and business development. Richard is a board member of the Microsoft Community Leadership Board. Contact him at richard@2tolead.com or on Twitter @rharbridge.

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