Onboarding and Migration Phases for Office 365 US Government

Office 365 onboarding has four primary phases—Initiate, Assess, Remediate, and Enable. You can follow these phases with an optional data migration phase as shown in the following figure.

For detailed tasks for each phase, see FastTrack Responsibilities for Office 365 US Government and Your Responsibilities for Office 365 US Government.

Initiate phase

After you purchase the appropriate number and types of licenses, follow the guidance from the purchase confirmation email to associate the licenses to your existing or new tenant.

You can get help through the Microsoft 365 admin center or the FastTrack site.

To get help through the Microsoft 365 admin center, your admin signs into the admin center and then clicks the Need help? widget.

To get help through the FastTrack site:

1. Sign in to the FastTrack site.
2. Select Request assistance with Microsoft 365 from the quick actions on the top of your landing page.
3. Complete the Request Assistance with Microsoft 365 form.

Partners can also get help through the FastTrack site on behalf of a customer. To do so:

1. Sign in to the FastTrack site.
2. Select Request assistance with Microsoft 365 from the quick actions on the top of your landing page.
3. Search for your customer by entering the customer name, domain, or TPID.
4. Select customer from the search results.
5. Complete the Request Assistance with Microsoft 365 form.

You can also ask for FastTrack Center help from the FastTrack site in the list of available services for your tenant.

During this phase, we discuss the onboarding process, verify your data, and set up a kickoff meeting.

This includes working with you to understand how you intend to use the service and your organization's goals and plans to drive service usage.

Assess phase

Your FastTrack Manager conducts an interactive success planning call with you and your adoption team. This introduces you to the capabilities of the eligible services you purchased, the key foundations you need for success, the methodology for driving usage of the service, and scenarios you can use to get value from the services. We assist you in success planning and provide feedback on key areas (as needed).

FastTrack Specialists work with you to assess your source environment and the requirements. We provide tools for you to gather data about your environment and guide you through estimating bandwidth requirements and assessing your internet browsers, client operating systems, Domain Name System (DNS), network, infrastructure, and identity system to determine if any changes are required for onboarding.

Based on your current setup, we provide a remediation plan that brings your source environment up to the minimum requirements for successful onboarding to Office 365 and, if needed, for successful mailbox and/or data migration. We provide a set of suggested activities to increase end user value and adoption. We also set up appropriate checkpoint calls for the Remediate phase.

Remediate phase

You do the remediation tasks based on your source environment so that you meet the requirements for onboarding, adopting, and migrating each service as needed.

We also provide a set of suggested activities to increase end user value and adoption. Before beginning the Enable phase, we jointly verify the outcomes of the remediation activities to make sure you're ready to proceed.

During this phase, your FastTrack Manager works with you on success planning, guiding you to the right resources and best practices to provide guidance for you to make the service available to your organization and drive usage across the services.

Enable phase

When all remediation activities are complete, the focus shifts to configuring the core infrastructure for service consumption, provisioning Office 365, and conducting the activities to drive service adoption.

Core

Core onboarding involves service provisioning and tenant and identity integration. It also includes steps for providing a foundation for onboarding services like Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, and Skype for Business Online. You and your FastTrack Manager continue to have success planning checkpoint meetings to evaluate progress against your goals and determine what further assistance you need.

Note

WAP stands for Web Application Proxy. SSL stands for Secure Sockets Layer. SDS stands for School Data Sync. For more information on SDS, see Welcome to Microsoft School Data Sync.

Onboarding for one or more eligible services can begin once core onboarding is finished.

Exchange Online

For Exchange Online, we remotely guide you through the process to get your organization ready to use email. The exact steps, depending on your source environment and your email migration plans, can include providing guidance for:

• Setting up Exchange Online Protection (EOP) features for all mail-enabled domains validated in Office 365.

  Note

  Your mail exchange (MX) records must point to Office 365.

• Setting up the Exchange Online Advanced Threat Protection (ATP) feature if it's part of your subscription service once your MX records point to Office 365. This feature is configured as part of the Exchange Online Protection antimalware settings.
• Configuring firewall ports.
• Setting up DNS, including the required Autodiscover, sender policy framework (SPF), and MX records (as needed).
• Setting up email flow between your source messaging environment and Exchange Online (as needed).
• Undertaking mail migration from your source messaging environment to Office 365.

  Note

  For more information on mail and data migration, see Data Migration.

SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business

For SharePoint Online and OneDrive for Business, we provide remote guidance for:

• Setting up DNS.
• Configuring firewall ports.
• Provisioning users and licenses.
• Configuring SharePoint hybrid features, like hybrid search, hybrid sites, hybrid taxonomy, content types, hybrid self-service site creation (SharePoint Server 2013 only), extended app launcher, hybrid OneDrive for Business, and extranet sites.

FastTrack Specialists provide guidance on data migration to Office 365 by using a combination of tools and documentation and by performing configuration tasks where applicable and feasible.

OneDrive for Business

For OneDrive for Business, the steps depend on if you're currently using SharePoint, and if so, which version.

Skype for Business Online

For Skype for Business Online, we provide remote guidance for:

• Configuring firewall ports.
• Setting up DNS.
• Creating accounts for any room system devices.
• Deploying a supported Skype for Business Online client.
• Establishing split domain server configuration between your on-premises Lync 2013 or Skype for Business 2015 server environment and Skype for Business Online tenant (if applicable).
• Enabling Calling Plans, Skype Meeting Broadcast, and Phone System and Calling Plans (in available markets – not available in GCC High or DoD plans).

Microsoft Teams

Note

FastTrack assists with the scope based on availability of the features in each respective environment. For a list of currently available features in each environment, see Feature availability.

For Microsoft Teams, we provide remote guidance for:

• Confirming minimum requirements in Exchange Online, SharePoint Online, Office 365 Groups, and Azure Active Directory (Azure AD) to support Teams.
• Configuring firewall ports.
• Setting up DNS.
• Confirming Microsoft Teams is enabled on your Office 365 tenant.
• Enabling or disabling user licenses.
• Network assessment for Teams:
  • Port and endpoint checks.
  • Connection quality checks.
  • Bandwidth estimates.
  • Configuring Teams app policy (Teams web app, Teams Desktop app, and Teams for iOS and Android app).

If applicable, we provide guidance for:

• Microsoft Teams Room Devices:
  • Creation of online accounts needed for supported telephony and conference room devices listed in the Teams devices catalog.
  • Remote assistance with service-side configuration of certified Microsoft Teams Rooms devices.
• Enabling Audio Conferencing:
  • Organization setup for conference bridge default settings.
  • Assignment of conference bridge to licensed users.
• Phone System:
  • Organization setup for Cloud Voice default settings.
  • Calling Plans guidance (available markets):
    • Assignment of numbers to licensed users.
    • Local number porting guidance through user interface (UI) up to 999.
    • Local number porting service request (SR) support over 999.
    • Direct Routing guidance:
      • Organization setup guidance for Direct Routing design of partner-hosted scenarios, or customer-deployed scenarios for up to 10 sites.
      • Session Border Controller (SBC) configuration review.
      • Remote assistance with dial plan configuration.
      • Voice route configuration.
      • Media bypass and local media optimization.
• Enabling Teams live events.
• Organization setup and integration into Microsoft Stream.
• Guidance for Skype for Business to Teams transition.

Power BI

For Power BI, we provide remote guidance for:

• Assigning Power BI licenses.
• Deploying the Power BI Desktop app.

Project Online

For Project Online, we provide guidance for:

• Verifying basic SharePoint functionality that Project Online relies on.
• Adding the Project Online service to your tenant (including adding subscriptions to users).
• Setting up the Enterprise Resource Pool (ERP).
• Creating your first project.

Yammer Enterprise

For Yammer, we provide remote guidance for enabling the Yammer Enterprise service.

Note

Yammer Enterprise isn't a component of Office 365 US Government but can be acquired at no cost as a standalone offer for each user licensed for Office 365 in GCC. This offer is currently limited to customers that purchase Office 365 GCC under Enterprise Agreements and Enterprise Subscription Agreements. Yammer isn't available in GCC High or DoD plans.

Microsoft 365 Apps

For Microsoft 365 Apps, we provide remote guidance for:

• Addressing deployment issues.
• Assigning end-user licenses using the Microsoft 365 admin center and Windows PowerShell.
• Installing Microsoft 365 Apps from the Office 365 portal using Click-to-Run.
• Installing Office Mobile apps (like Outlook Mobile, Word Mobile, Excel Mobile, and PowerPoint Mobile) on your iOS or Android devices.
• Configuring update settings using the Office 365 Deployment Tool.
• Setting up a single on-site distribution server for Microsoft 365 Apps, including assistance with the creation of a configuration.xml file for use with the Office 365 Deployment Tool.
• Deployment using Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager, including assistance with the creation of Microsoft Endpoint Configuration Manager packaging.