Switch to OneDrive From Box and Adopt Microsoft 365 Strategically

Businesses migrating users and data from Box to OneDrive must take strategic approaches to properly adopt Microsoft 365 and maximize returns from the cloud suite. Apart from having a structured migration plan, it is also crucial for businesses to strategize the post-migration phase involving onboarding and management.

Here are some action items that you, your IT team, and other key people in your company can refer to and streamline the process of switching to Microsoft 365.

1. Replicate the User Collaboration Structure of Box in Microsoft 365

Transferring the way users collaborate in Box to SharePoint Online and OneDrive is the key driver to maintaining as well as improving user productivity and overall efficiency in Microsoft 365 post-migration.

To ensure 100% replication during the migration, businesses of all sizes and industries must prioritize these core factors:

• Permissions, timestamps, embedded links, shared links, versions, external shares, and in-line comments migration
• Box Notes migration
• File and folder structure preservation
• User account hierarchy retention

A feature-rich and powerful migration tool like CloudFuze X-Change can help businesses migrate data from Box to OneDrive and SharePoint along with the sharing structure to preserve the way users and their teams collaborate regularly.

2. Create an Early Adoption Program

The safest bet for businesses to enter a multidimensional cloud workspace landscape such as Microsoft 365 is to create a small group of early adopters first and perform critical tests, including:

• Onboarding Microsoft 365
• Getting hands-on with Microsoft 365 apps
• Refining the migrated collaboration structure

Taking this step helps ensure that all support measures are in place before offboarding users from Box and onboarding them to Microsoft 365. Some of the key people to include in the Early Adoption Program are:

• CEO
• CTO
• Operations Head
• IT managers and team
• HR managers and executives

We recommend going to Microsoft’s Early Adopter Program Guide to get more insights into it.

3. Plan a Structured and Extensive User Training Program

Proper training highly matters when it comes to helping users transition smoothly from a user-oriented platform like Box to a dynamic cloud suite such as Microsoft 365. There are several Microsoft 365 training resources from Microsoft that your company can use.

Your IT team, along with the management, can go deeper to offer comprehensive user training with services such as CloudFuze’s Office 365 Managed Services.

4. Onboard Users in a Phased Manner

Unless your company has a hard deadline to end Box licenses and decommission the environment, it is best to onboard the users to Microsoft 365 in a phased manner. Similar to creating batches when migrating from Box to Microsoft 365, your team can segregate several batches of users to onboard.
There are several key benefits of taking this approach:

• It makes the overall user onboarding process lightweight
• Segregating user onboarding batches eases progress tracking
• Other user batches in the queue get ample preparation time

5. Create a Teams Channel for Onboarding Q&A

One of the best ways to help users get the most relevant support is to encourage them to discuss their onboarding journey with each other. And your company can take a strategic approach to this by creating a dedicated channel on Microsoft Teams.

By doing this, you will help users be a part of a close-knit support community while enabling them to get hands-on with Microsoft Teams and explore the app’s features and functionalities.

6. Ensure Professional Microsoft 365 Management

After onboarding the entire users to Microsoft 365, it is also crucial to properly manage the cloud suite for high-level configurations, such as admin-level settings, and everyday tasks, such as customizing Teams channels and SharePoint Online Sites.

We also recommend checking out this Microsoft 365 Adoption Guide from Microsoft.