Link2ICT Office 365

[jcs808]

Is anyone using Link2ICT's Office 365 offering?

[dhm83]

Still waiting for our conversion from Zimbra version 8. I would also be interested in hearing about other Birmingham schools experiences of the BGFL 365/ Office 365.

[Trapper]

Re: BGfl 365 we already have our own independent 365 tenancy, but my management team would like access to the CMS features of BGfL 365 - would have have to move our tenancy across to them?

[foofighterjim]

Re: BGfl 365 we already have our own independent 365 tenancy, but my management team would like access to the CMS features of BGfL 365 - would have have to move our tenancy across to them?

 

I believe so and you will have to start paying again for the privilege.

[AlexBradley]

We're are messing with it now and although generally it's a lot better than Zimbra, it seems you have to make some sacrifices at the same time. For instance, at the moment they want everyone doing admin changes to go through link2ict. You can create new accounts and reset passwords, that's about it. The rest, including fixing mistakes, deleting accounts, creating shared mailboxes etc.. are all done by link within a couple days of logging calls.

 

What is normal 365 like? Seriously considering making the jump to that before everything is finalized with bgfl365.

[jamin100]

We have our own tenancy and have the freedom to do anything we like when we like with regards to setting up groups etc.

Ours all syncs with our on prem AD

[AlexBradley]

Do you require any extra software for it to sync to AD?

[jamin100]

Dirsync and ADFS

I'll admit though we didn't set it up ourselves, got a local company (who actually do it for Link2ICT anyway) to do it for us. We were migrating from on premise Exchange 2007

[AlexBradley]

Okay, We might look at that solution if I have to give up on BGFL365. Don't know why they would think getting them to do everything is a good idea, just a way of increasing the yearly paycheck.

[AlexBradley]

Also, how do you manage kids on office 365? Do you get some extra fine controls for them, such as limiting their address book and disabling IM?

[jamin100]

Yes, you can have different policys for different sets of users (staff, Students etc)

Most can be edited through he web interface, some its easier and quicker in powershell

[Alis_Klar]

Dirsync and ADFS

I'll admit though we didn't set it up ourselves, got a local company (who actually do it for Link2ICT anyway) to do it for us. We were migrating from on premise Exchange 2007

 

BFC Networks by any chance?

[Alis_Klar]

I am currently testing BGfL365 with a demo account. Was initially impressed but don't like the fact that they retain so much admin rights and you have to go through them for most changes.

 

Also am having issues with the iOS outlook mail app. Was working great before but is now stopped working. Have call open with Link2ICT. Oddly the Android version of the Outlook app seems to work great.

[Alis_Klar]

Also they seem to have have disabled (on the demo acc's at least) the created of the new "GROUPS" feature. Hopefully they will create groups on request as I don't personally think anyone should have the ability to create groups as is the default behaviour of Office 365.

 

See

Groups for Office 365: How It Works & How to Manage Them | Sharegate

https://support.office.com/en-gb/article/Learn-about-Office-365-groups-b565caa1-5c40-40ef-9915-60fdb2d97fa2

for more info on the new Office 365 groups feature.

[Trapper]

Re: BFC Networks - If I'd have known it was Alex Pearce doing some of this I wouldn't have dismissed BGfL365 as just a Service Birmingham money maker. I used to work for him years ago, and I have a massive amount of time and respect for his work. He gave me my break in IT and helped start me down the path which has served me well for almost a decade now.

 

Anyone else who like me has looked at BGfL365 and just assumed it was a way Link2ICT were shoehorning a solution to keep maintained schools bound to them might want to look again.

 

It is rare of late that I would completely re-evaluate my opinion of something that Link/SB are throwing out to schools, but I am now. I also have boundless respect for Andy Pyper and work he does with eSafety. It's a shame the account managers are not as committed...

[Alis_Klar]

To be fair we are not the core customer for BGfL365. Those who are gonna complain about lack of admin rights are not really requiring the hand holding approach of BGfL365. I think Link2ICT know this and will expect some schools with their own technicians to drop out from this offering.

 

The core customer is the small primary with no fulltime technical staff and t is a hardpressed ICT co-ordinator (teacher) who has to sort all the ICT in the school (usually with the help of an external company providing ICT services)

 

Having said this I think Link2ICT should consider adapting from the one size fits all approach they are taking at the moment. I guess once all the migrations are completed they may have more resources to react to schools who are clamouring for more control over their BGfL365.

[Alis_Klar]

I am currently testing BGfL365 with a demo account. Was initially impressed but don't like the fact that they retain so much admin rights and you have to go through them for most changes.

 

Also am having issues with the iOS outlook mail app. Was working great before but is now stopped working. Have call open with Link2ICT. Oddly the Android version of the Outlook app seems to work great.

 

Link2ICT have fixed this now by changing their proxy filtering rules. There was some discussions as to the security of the new Outlook app (acquired Acompli) but ultimately we thought the benefits outweighed the risks.

 

See

https://blog.winkelmeyer.com/2015/01/warning-microsofts-outlook-app-for-ios-breaks-your-company-security/

[Trapper]

Indeed the mail filtering that Link offer with BGfL365 would be most welcome on an external tenancy.

[Alis_Klar]

Does anyone know the best way to create a shared staff calendar? Looks like the default sharepoint staff calendar is not well supported on Mobile (not even the swanky OUTLOOK/Acompli app). An exchange calendar cannot be shred with the whole group only individuals.

 

Also trying to figure out the best way to have a shared staff drive. Think here the choice of sharepoint is a little more straightforward pending the groove.exe issues you may experience. The Mobile experience with the onedrive for business mobile app is actually very good. Once you add your accounts sharepoint sites appear automatically on iOS app if you have set up a sync with staff site using onedrive for business (groove.exe)

[ICTRambling]

Be aware that one of the risks being outweighed may be breaching the Data Protection Act (at least while we are still in the EU)

[Michael]

Be aware that one of the risks being outweighed may be breaching the Data Protection Act (at least while we are still in the EU)

 

Why is this an issue? All the services are hosted within Europe, irrelevant what happens with the EU.

[Alis_Klar]

ICTRambling is referring to the Outlook / Acompli app that caches data from office 365 including login credentials. I believe that the Acompli data centres are in the US still. However now Microsoft has bought them they will be bringing that in house ASAP. They may already have done this and will therefore be hosting ex-Acompli services in the EU.

 

I will continuee to recommend the app as Microsoft are not a small obscure player and if we are not trusting MS a little then how paranoid are we?

 

https://4sysops.com/archives/is-microsofts-outlook-app-for-ios-and-android-insecure/

[apearce]

Just to add, Microsoft are building UK data centres and all commercial data in the EU data centres will be moved into the UK. SO EU or No EU, you data will be in the UK

[Alis_Klar]

Has anyone looked into mapping a drive to sharepoint/OneDrive? there is a discussion of the RM drive mapper here http://www.edugeek.net/forums/cloud-services/167584-rm-onedrive-mapper.html there is also this https://www.iamcloud.com/cloud-drive-mapper/

[apearce]

Have you tried this free powershell version from Microsoft?

 

https://gallery.technet.microsoft.com/office/OneDriveMapper-automaticall-d7d498b0