Upgrading Live@edu to Office 365 - Paid service?

[reggiep]

I have been looking through the process to move from Live@edu to Office 365 and I really don't want the stress of cocking up the staff email.

Therefore I'm looking for a third party to do this for us. Can anyone suggest a reliable company to do this?

 

Thanks

[nadeem]

You might want to try Oxford Computer Group - OCG (not a recommendation, as I haven't used them yet - but am considering it) - they were one of the consultancies at an official MS day. The other one I remember is Salford Computing from the same day.

[Trapper]

Do it yourself, it's very simple.

 

I'm on my second full deployment now.

 

Setup Directory Sync, and it'll create your accounts (for password sync you'll need federation services, but you can do this later). If your AD usernames are different to your current email addresses add them manually to each user so they don't loose any emails.

 

Give everyone their new credentials. IMAP over emails from your previous host (or PST for users with large local Outlooks). Change the MX record. Bobs your uncle.

 

Failing that might be worth speaking to Alex Pearce over at BFC Networks. I used to work for him, and he's very good at doing anything Office 365/Sharepoint related.