Through the web, in-print, and from subject matter experts you can find many materials, scenarios, and use cases on how to migrate to Office 365. It is likely that your unique situation has been partly documented somewhere or an external resource can ease your mind as you begin to evaluate unplugging on-premises hardware.
Don’t forget your line-of-business employees.
Your organization’s core may consist of employees that can be drastically disrupted by the solutions your migration has to offer. Here a few tips to manage that disruption.
Help users understand  “the cloud”
To most nontechnical employees “the cloud” still remains a confusing buzzword. Educating your end users on basic cloud principles can lead to wins:

• Less confusion at the help desk: Do your employees understand the difference between a web app and desktop app? Microsoft has helped with distinctive names (i.e. Word and Word Online), although you may need to go a step further.
• Front line data loss prevention: Understanding the cloud will help users decipher when they are using their personal cloud versus their workplace cloud, thus preventing inadvertent actions.
• Ease their nerves: The concept of having all information available anywhere is scary to most folks. Help your users establish good habits so that they are confident about protecting their data and able to identify if they happen upon a misstep.

Brief and simple communication
If you send emails or training documents too often you run the risk of being taken likely. Some may assume neglecting a piece of communication is okay because it will be there the next time around. Strategically plan your communications and adjust as you evaluate your execution. Have a centralized place where all communications, FAQ’s, and roadmaps can referenced.
Customization Within
Each department of your organization has unique processes and workflows. The technical realm will change consistently across the organization, however how each segment adopts and uses new tools will vary. Be flexible with respect to the various groups and certain that your communication is receptive.
Identify Advocates
As you begin turn on solutions and deploy software look for those who are eagerly receptive to new tools and are fast learners. These individuals will likely want to know more than the necessary details and can relate your content to their job role better. Enable them to teach others that work closely with them. They are advocates for change, immediate aid to their colleagues, and will be great sources for feedback.
“Always learning” for many employees does not include staying up to date with new technologies that help them do work. Their specialization is important to your line-of-business and any change outside of that should be handled tenderly. Your IS department can improve productivity and positively influence workplace culture by mitigating stresses that come with drastic change.

In addition to releasing the Surface Pro 4 Microsoft also released the Surface Book at their exclusive event today in New York.
Microsoft’s first proprietary laptop will arrive with a 13.5 inch screen, up to 12-hours battery life, and options for a 6th generation Intel i5 or i7 processor. The Surface Book targets consumers in the same market as the MacBook Air by being “faster and lighter”, according to Microsoft. Other notable features include:

• NVIDIA GeForce GPU (integrated into the detachable backlit keyboard)
• Up to 16 GB RAM (GDDR5)
• 5-point multitouch glass trackpad
• Up to 1 TB of SSD storage
• Full size SD card reader
• 2 USB 3.0 hubs

The Surface Book will be available in stores October 26. You can pre-order the Surface Book here.
Official Surface Video:

With the release Office 2016, Microsoft has made their goals clear. Led by Satya Nadella (CEO), the Redmond, WA based company seeks to re-engineer our productivity and collaboration. Their strategic initiative is based on three tiers: mobility, communication, and productivity.
There are many subtle changes that offer an instant feel of increased production. While composing an email in Outlook adding an attachment can be as easy as using the new dropdown accordion on the attachments button. This menu has your recently saved or opened documents similar to Windows 10’s quick access in File Explorer.
As you become acclimated with up-to-date Microsoft products you’ll notice yourself doing more while clicking less. Here are a few notable additions to the Office Suite:

Smart Lookup

The ability to define a word by right clicking it and selecting definition has been replaced with “Smart Lookup”. Smart Lookup pulls data from Bing, Wikipedia, Oxford Dictionaries, and other relevant online sources.
Results are displayed in the right side panel as ‘Insights’. These are divided into 2 categories: “Explore” and “Define”. The Explore tab will return results based on the context you are using. “Ford” will return different results when the context differs between the truck and the person. However, the definition of the word will return the same result. Click and drag photos from Smart Lookup to quickly add content to your documents.
Unlike defining words in Office 2013, in 2016 you are not required to sign in to your Microsoft account to use Smart Lookup.

Tell Me box

Remember Clippy? If not here’s a photo from Smart Lookup:
The legacy of Clippy lives on. Clippy asked you what you might want to do and came into your space uninvited. Neatly tucked in the top ribbon a box waits for when you may need something. Simply begin to type what you want to do and a responsive menu will appear. You can make real time changes from the Tell Me box. This eliminates the hassle during those time you cannot recall which tab to use or you would rather not use dialog boxes.

Coauthoring

Document collaborating (team editing) in real time gives us even more reason to use Microsoft Cloud storages. This functionality is a must for everything from college group projects to corporate presentations. Here’s a brief demo:

 

Visio and Project

Microsoft also released Visio and Project 2016. At first glance the featured templates have some notable additions.
You are encouraged to use Project 2016 templates for Scrum projects, a start-up business plan that spans over 4 months, to manage a Six Sigma process, and to plan a wine tasting fundraiser. Microsoft has expanded Project’s support for Team Foundation Server and Visual Studio Online.
Inside the flagship diagramming application, Visio, the shapes have become more detailed and modernized (see below). Featured templates now have “Stater Diagrams” to aid you in designing and mapping.

There has been an influx of advertised browser extensions that enhance your email. With names such as ”Boomerang”, “WhoReadMe”, “RightInbox”, and others; these extensions are offering handy features. You are enabled capabilities such as knowing when your email has been read, delaying when emails are sent, or setting reminders. Forbes Tech recently said a bit about these here: “Clever Gmail Extensions…”.
Such features can be useful and are offered at low subscription prices ranging from 5 to 10 dollars per month. Unfortunately, many of these features are already readily available for free if you already have a version of Microsoft Office (or Office 365) that has been released within the past 8 years.
Google has continued to invest in how we work. These extensions are not developed by Google. Research thoroughly before utilizing young 3rd party extensions with your daily business.
You can use nearly any email with Outlook, including Gmail. Before experimenting with 3rd party browser extensions, evaluate navigating around Outlook. There are tons of online materials to help guide you. A quick search usually unfolds step-by-step how to articles and tutorial videos for your needs.
Nevertheless, here are a few quick tips to guide you:

Delaying an email:
Step 1: Start composing a new email
Step 2: Click the “OPTIONS” tab
Step 3: Click “Delay Delivery”

Here’s a visual of the menu you will receive for the delay sending options. Another feature you’ll notice is that you can have replies sent to others as well. This eliminates the need to forward replies later on.

Know when an email is read (or deleted without being read):
Step 1: Follow Steps 1 and 2 from above
Step 2: Select the “Request a Read Receipt” check box (shown in photo above)

You will receive an auto generated reply email when the recipient or recipients open your email. If you are sending to multiple recipients you will be alerted when each individual opens the email.

If your organization is using Office Communicator and/or offers cell phone allowance, now is likely an opportune time to reevaluate.
Here’s insight on just a few Skype for Business (formerly known as Lync) features that we will see in the near future. These features will enhance your webinars, demos, and team meetings.

“…as meetings grow larger, it’s less about collaboration and more about presentation”
– Greg Baribault, Lead Project Manager, Skype Meeting Broadcast

 

Microsoft is known for building solutions alongside its customers through technical previews, live demos, and feedback before version releases. It’s pleasant to have a glimpse of what to expect instead of secret developments and flashy release parties. Office Mechanics is a good source if you’re looking to stay up to date on Microsoft technologies. You can find their YouTube channel here.
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Are you unaware of what Yammer is? Are you unsure of why you should consider it? Here’s some insightful guidance:
What is Yammer?
“Yammer is a social network that’s entirely focused on your business (Brad Chacos, PC World).“ It is an easy to use platform for dynamic communication at all levels and facets of an organization. It exist to give everyone within the organization a relevant voice. Yammer is a collaboration tool that couples nicely with other Microsoft solutions and takes advantage of the various ways we communicate. Here are some plausible use cases:
Remote Employees (at home)
Technologies that enable people to work anywhere at any time are steadily becoming cheaper and easier to implement. The virtual workplace is becoming ever more common.
Many organizations struggle within a virtual environment not form the IT side, but rather from interpersonal and social struggles. Socializing within the workplace is how we identify who may be best to handle a special sort of task. Yammer can make this process faster. Imagine being able to ask everyone a question without waiting for a weekly meeting, playing phone tag, touring around the office in a disruptive way, and without sending distribution emails.
Before moving a segment of your business to work remotely, consider adding Yammer to your scope. Remote employees also include employees with a high travel rate.
Retail: A real world example
In this scenario Yammer was used for bottom-up communications. With certain information the Westfield team was able to make important real-time changes.

For many of us Outlook is always running. If used to its full potential Outlook will work for you and make a busy day more manageable. Many fail to utilize the many features Outlook has to assist you with hundreds of incoming emails and/or a full calendar. I am sharing a few tips that will help you be more organized and efficient with Outlook.
Use Commands
These commands will help keep your hands on the keyboard and off the mouse.

• Ctrl + R: Reply to email
• Alt + W: Forward email
• Alt + S: Send email
• Insert: Flag email
• Ctrl + N: New Email
• Alt + F4: Close window

File into Folders
The folders in Outlook work similar to those in Windows Explorer. Believe it or not, you can keep your Inbox clean! I find it helpful to move emails to a folder (or sub-folder) once it is out of my mental queue of things to do. The information is always there for reference later. Best practice for finding an email is to search from you inbox and then click “Find more on the server” if you need to drill down into your folders.
I have a folder for each coworker I communicate with often. If I can’t remember anything about the email I am looking for, usually I can remember who sent it. Or a coworker might say “I don’t remember, but it was in the email Bob sent last week”.
Another trick is to use an underscore before the name of a folder so it will be arranged just below your inbox instead of alphabetical order. This works with subfolders as well.
Lastly, once your folders have too many files you can create a sub-folder named with the previous fiscal year’s date and dump emails there that fit that time period there. All these methods make it easy to archive and/or delete files if you begin to reach your usage quota.
Clean Up!
Right click on your inbox or a folder and click “Clean Up Folder”. This will delete older emails that have been repeated in a back-and-forth conversation, but will leave the most recent thread.
Categorize

Categories are one of the most helpful features when facing a cluttered inbox. Why do I need to categorize my emails? The simple answer is to sort! Imagine that all your emails from accounting were clumped together and separate from emails about your current project(s). Aren’t those what folders are for? Yes and no. Personally, every category I use does have its own folder as well, but information doesn’t get put in folders until I have used it (like a physical file cabinet). Even then, some categorized emails will be put in sub folders of that category.
Sounds confusing?
In simple terms, categorizing works as a compliment to your folders.
By categorizing emails as they come in or having a rule set so Outlook can do it for me (later explained), I am able to focus on one task, ticket, crisis, or whatever it may be without shifting through other information that is irrelevant, but chronologically similar.
Custom Sorting
Sorting compliments using the categories feature. Notice a pattern? You may want all your flagged emails to be on top, and then have your emails with high importance next. This is possible with custom sorting. Don’t worry, beyond and within your custom layers, emails will still appear in the order they are received… unless you want new emails to appear on bottom, you can do that too.
Here’s how:
Right click “Categories” in the title bar / “View Settings” / Sort
Make Rules
Rules give program like control without any coding. They are formatted like an “if” statement (if this happens, then do this). I currently have over 50 different rules. Rules respond to your role within the organization.
Here are some examples of rules you might use:

• If I receive a company newsletter, then mark it as unread, and put it the “Newsletter Folder” (never touches your inbox)
• If Sally sends an email to Tom only, and I am cc’d, then display an alert window
• If sender is “Amazon” and email contains text “Your order has shipped”, then put it in the “Amazon Shipments folder”
• If Jon sends me an email, display it in an alert box with [custom text]

Rules are accessed through the home tab when viewing mail. I could spend days talking about rules, but instead I’ll leave the exploring to you.
Outlook Today
In the left pane click on your email address (above the inbox folder) and you will see a hybrid view that contains a list of your calendar items, your task, and a summary of mail folders that you choose to display. The “message” section displays the number of new emails you have in the folder. The customize button can be found in the top right corner of this view.

 
As you can see there are many things that enhance Outlook beyond the out-of-box settings. Although these suggestions work for me they may not be useful for you. Outlook is designed for you to tweak it in a way that is unique to only you. Other things you may want to explore include assigning policy to folders, conditional formatting, unique calendar permissions, email templates, and so on.