So you have just landed your first customer for Office 365 including your managed services.
Congratulations and Thank you!
Now what?!?!
Well most likely it is time to get your customer’s tenant up and running then begin performing the actual migration. So, where do you turn, what resources do you need and what resources do you have at your disposal? In todays post we are going to talk about some of the resources available to you and your business. We will look at a couple of the benefits are resources that come with your MPN benefits and a couple of 3rd party utilities.
Microsoft Resources
As a Microsoft partner you may have access to a couple of resources to help you with the migration of your customer. First we offer a migration service called FastTrack. Recently we just announced several improvements to this service, you can read about those here: The evolution of Microsoft FastTrack. You can also learn about how it can help augment your own services here: Resources to help you support your customers in the cloud While all your customers can benefit from resources and best practices publicly available at FastTrack.microsoft.com. your customers will need to have at least 150 licenses you can take advantage of the FastTrack Center.
Another invaluable resource you may have access to is a part of your MPN benefits: Advisory Hours. This is one of the core benefits of being a MPN partner, and often times a under utilized benefit. You can read more about what the core benefits are here: MPN Core Benefits. Partner advisory hours are the currency used to access certain key services offered to Microsoft Partner Network members. Use your hours to help build your cloud and hybrid cloud skill set with training powered by Microsoft Partner Technical Services, and get customized guidance for competing, developing, and deploying solutions for your customers. You can learn more about advisory hours here: Partner Advisory Hours .
Sounds great so how do you get advisory hours, there a few ways to get advisory hours:
- Microsoft Action Pack (MAPS) --- Gives you 5 advisory hours to leverage.
- MPN Cloud Performance competencies: --- Based on your competency level you can get up to 50 advisory hours!
- Purchase Extra Advisory Hours.
As you can see from above one way to get quire a few advisory hours is to achieve your cloud performance competencies. We announced at WPC several changes to the competency program and with some competencies we have made it easier for your business to achieve them. Aside from the advisory hours benefits you get with your cloud competency, these competencies can provide your business with many additional benefits. I highly recommend you learn more about the cloud competency models and some of the changes by taking a look a this article: Cloud competency changes: Discover the opportunities
3rd Party Tools and Services
In conversations with partners about Office 365 migration services, two migration partners/tools seem to frequently come up during these conversations.
These two tools can help you successfully transition your customers to Office 365 while hopefully increasing your profitability at the same time. Both of these companies are currently offering benefits to MPN partners via their websites to take their tools for a “test drive”. You will want to check out both of their offers and see how they can assist your business. Learn more about these offers by visiting their websites mentioned in the brief summaries below.
Summary of the SkyKick Offer:
- Offer: IUR eligible partners have free use of SkyKick Migration Suites to deploy their business to Office 365 (up to 500 seats)
- Objective: Make it easy for partners to activate their business on Office 365 and a positive deployment experience.
- # of Partners Eligible: Unlimited thru June 30, 2016
- Eligible Countries: Focus on English speaking with phased roll out, English only available to all countries
- More Details: Go to http://www.skykick.com/IUR
Summary of the BitTitan Offer:
- Offer: BitTitan is offering up To 50 free licenses of Migration Wiz & Deploymentpro to help drive Office 365 migration and deployment.
- Objective: The offer is targeted for partners that have customers that are not eligible for fasttrack (customers below 150 seats)
- Deadline: Offer ends December 31, 2015.
- Eligibility: This offer is open to all cloud transacting Microsoft partner organizations worldwide. Each partner organization may register for a one-time redemption of 50 free MigrationWiz Mailbox + DeploymentPro licenses. Offer good through December 31, 2015. Licenses expire 90 days from receipt.
Must have a Microsoft MPN ID. - More Details: https://www.bittitan.com/promotions/accelerate
As you can see there are several resources to help you with your migration services. From MPN benefits to 3rd party tools you will want to see how they all can potentially grow your business.
Hopefully you are enjoying the series so far and if you missed any of the other parts take a look here:
Anything Missing? Is there a burning topic you need us to cover in the series? Just let us know! Simply comment on this post or at the series main page.
We look forward to your comments and suggestions. Happy Office 365 Migrations!
Matt Hester
Sr. Partner Technology Strategist