Easymail migration to Office 365

[witch]

We were about to go ahead with this via SWGfL and were told that there had been "issues" with lost emails, emails going into random folders and other things. We were told to wait until this was addressed and so far it has been over a month.

We really want to get this sorted, not least because we are going to have to pay for another year of easymail if we don't get to it soon.

Does anyone know about any of these issues or anything? I would be grateful for info on whether anyone has lost data in a migration whether via SWGfL or not, and any other info such as ongoing issues with mail delivery etc

The LA knew nothing about these issues and, when asked, SWGfL were unable to tell us if we could have a refund if we have to pay for another year of easymail and then they manage to sort out the migration. Bizarre as they are both RM really!

[witch]

An update

I emailed to find out if there were still issues, as I had heard nothing despite being promised an update.

I got an email detailing their new "subscription" service at £300 pa to set up Office 365 and migrate the email for you. I was then told that if I just wanted the email moved then I would have to fill in a change request.

Cue a couple of days of problems as I couldn't log in to the change request part of the "Electronic Services Interface" site. I emailed the person who told me to go there, making it clear that I had got on to the main site, and she just SENT ME THE LINK AGAIN because obviously I am too stupid to click on it.

After a lot of toing and froing with the service desk, including two emails from them that took 45 minutes to get to my email!!, I managed to log in. All there was was an Office 365 button which was plainly just for filling in the details of an Office 365 account you set up with Microsoft - Mx records, that sort of thing. NOTHIING about migrating emails from EasyMail to Office 365.

So back I go to the original dept, only to be told by someone else that they still didn't recommend migrating as there had been issues with losing emails etc. I pointed out that it was BEING ADVERTISED as part of this subscription service but she just kept repeating that there had been problems....I still couldn't get an answer as to whether they were still offering the service free as they had promised.

So she put me through to the service desk. Who couldn't answer me, and directed me back to the ESI site, which I could no longer log into! Eventually that got sorted (again) but I am no nearer to knowing whether SWGfL will migrate our email for free or not. I suspect not, but I am going to kick up a huge fuss as the last email I sent, back before the summer, was a "YES" to the service and at no point did they say that they were no longer offering it- just to hang fire as there had been problems.

So far I have spent several hours on this and have got nowhere.

/rant

[Edu-IT]

How many users have you got? Might be easier to migrate yourself? Export to a PST, reimport into Office 365, if you didn't want to use the automated tools. That said I've heard of local schools using the automated tools without problems. So I'm not sure what their reasoning is.

 

Sounds like they're selling this. RM Microsoft Office 365 Services | RM Shop

Edited November 6, 2013 by Edu-IT

[witch]

I don't think I understand the process well enough to do it myself - what would I export to a pst? Is it done individually or en-masse?

 

We have about 60 users

Edited November 6, 2013 by witch

[Edu-IT]

I don't think I understand the process well enough to do it myself - what would I export to a pst? Is it done individually or en-masse?

 

We have about 60 users

Export all mail, calendars and contacts from Outlook to a PST file and then re-import them to the new Office 365 mailbox you set up for them. It's a relatively simple process to be honest but done individually this way and is just a little time consuming rather than difficult.

[witch]

Don't use Outlook. Just EasyMail as webmail

[Edu-IT]

Ah. I see. Probably that's the issue then and it's probably at their end rather than Microsoft. I don't know how Microsoft would connect to a web based email service to move mail across.

[witch]

No, nor do I. Completely lost now

[Gongalong]

Sorry to hijack the thread slightly, but are there any bulk mail migration tools, or does it always boil down to a case of migrating individual accounts with Outlook?

 

We need to migrate around 120 staff accounts from one O365 tenancy to another.

[witch]

Please dont hijack - I really need to hear opinions on my plight and any help.

[plexer]

When we moved from easymail to live@edu I uploaded a csv to via the admin bit of live@edu and it imported the mail in to their new mailboxes.

 

Ben

[witch]

When we moved from easymail to live@edu I uploaded a csv to via the admin bit of live@edu and it imported the mail in to their new mailboxes.

 

Ben

 

...and? Is that the same as Office 365?

[plexer]

hmmm actually scrub that we moved from the lea easymail to the lea google mail to our own live@edu.

 

I'm pretty sure we lost easymail emails at the time and started again with the googlemail, we did migrate the google mail content.

 

I think it's down to wether you have external access to the emails in easymail such as imap.

 

Email migration

 

Ben

Ben

[plexer]

A service like this https://www.migrationwiz.com/Default.aspx might be able to help.

 

They reckon they can move anything to Office 365

 

Ben

[witch]

At $10 a mailbox I don't think the boss would go for it though...

[Edu-IT]

hmmm actually scrub that we moved from the lea easymail to the lea google mail to our own live@edu.

 

I'm pretty sure we lost easymail emails at the time and started again with the googlemail, we did migrate the google mail content.

 

I think it's down to wether you have external access to the emails in easymail such as imap.

 

Email migration

 

Ben

Ben

I think you're right. The first starting point is to find out whether you have POP3/IMAP access to the email server for these accounts.

[plexer]

£373 based on your 60 users.

 

If you have imap access to the easymail servers and you should have then Migrate IMAP mailboxes to Exchange Online: Roadmap - Office 365 for enterprises makes it look possible to be able to do it yourself.

 

If you want to PM me some more info we can look at it together if you want.

 

Ben

[Gongalong]

Please dont hijack - I really need to hear opinions on my plight and any help.

Apols, new thread created.

[jamesbmarshall]

CloudMigrator365 (CloudMigrator365 | CloudMigrator365 – the best the best way to migrate email, contacts, calendars, public folders and tasks to Microsoft Office 365 or Exchange) is another good company that I think can do what you need.

[witch]

£373 based on your 60 users.

 

If you have imap access to the easymail servers and you should have then Migrate IMAP mailboxes to Exchange Online: Roadmap - Office 365 for enterprises makes it look possible to be able to do it yourself.

 

If you want to PM me some more info we can look at it together if you want.

 

Ben

Thanks Ben

I don't think I have access to the easymail servers and have never seen anything suggesting that I could have.(unless someone knows different?) I will speak to the boss about paying for migration - I know it doesn't seem a lot of money but at the moment we actually don't have any

Looks like I would need imap access for all these migration solutions - I tend to think that they won't let me have it

Edited November 7, 2013 by witch

[speckytecky]

Thanks for raising this thread @witch - it's extremely useful. Same predicament here!!

 

Thanks Ben

I don't think I have access to the easymail servers and have never seen anything suggesting that I could have.(unless someone knows different?) I will speak to the boss about paying for migration - I know it doesn't seem a lot of money but at the moment we actually don't have any

Looks like I would need imap access for all these migration solutions - I tend to think that they won't let me have it

[witch]

I'm very interested in any solution too, @plexer

[Jenkia]

Witch,

I am about to do the same thing you are doing. I also spoke to SWGFL about 4 months ago about the migration and they said it was a free service but there were a few delays - that has obviously now changed. I have since synced all users via windows azure link up and verified an alternate domain name ready, so mailbox migration is the next step...

I just wanted to add that after looking at the imap migration tool, I think it should work for you. Have you ever set a user up at your school with an imap mailbox on outlook? The incoming mail server just gets set to imap.domainname.gloucs.sch.uk.

Let me know what stage you are at and we can probably do the project together.

Andy

[plexer]

@witch @speckytecky doing some testing with the details Geoff provided me at the moment.

 

SWGfL Electronic Service Interface

 

If you can setup an outlook client and get it to connect to your service via imap then you are good to go and you can use the built in Office 365 migration tools but you will need to have the usernames & passwords for all the accounts.

 

If you don't have imap access ask if it's possible to get it.

 

Alternatively if you only pop3 access what you could do is setup your new users in office 365 and then they add their easymail accounts as external ones which will then suck in all their old emails.

 

Contacts and calendars are going to be more difficult and probably not achievable if you only have pop3 access.

 

Ben

[witch]

Erm....

Sorry - stupid here - don't understand what you mean by "setup an outlook client and get it to connect to your service via imap"

(I've got all the usernames and passwords -well nearly all of them)

I have made several phone calls this morning and no one seems to know who to speak to to get imap access, or even if it is possible.

I dont know if I only have pop3 access - I'm presuming so...

I did wonder about having external email accounts. TBH I haven't ever set up an Outlook account or anything - at home mrwITch has done all that!