Microsoft365 Subject Matter Expert and consultant

My role at Brunel University London has involved preparing a business case, resourcing model and strategy for implementing a Microsoft365 operating model so that the university has a plan to maximise its return on investment by efficiently using more of Microsoft365.

I have been responsible for

  • Conducting a discovery phase to understand how the university is using, supporting and managing Microsoft365
  • Identifying the resources currently supporting Microsoft365 and the current workload
  • Establishing the current total cost of ownership
  • Understanding the current change management process for Microsoft365
  • Reviewing the current support requests to understand trends
  • Working with the change manager to establish how Microsoft365 services have been implemented over the past three years and the impact of Covid-19
  • Working with the Licensing Partner (Boxxe) to identify the current level of licensing
  • Understanding how the current services are configured
  • Identifying what is officially supported, what is being used but isn’t supported and what is not supported
  • Understanding the constraints preventing more services from being made available to end-users
  • Working with heads of departments and the CIDO to recommend a 5 year strategy for implementing an operating model for Microsoft365
  • Establish a suitable level of resources to support the operating model and identifying job descriptions
  • Preparing a supporting business case and budget to cover a nine month implementation period and a BAU lifespan of five years
  • Identifying savings and benefits that can be achieved using Forrester Total Economic Impact studies and adjusting the benefits to take into account the organisation and higher education market
  • Preparing the strategy and business case for presentation by the CIDO to the Digital Strategy Committee
  • Preparing an implementation plan for the operating and resourcing model
  • Completing the Microsoft365 Maturity Model assessment
  • Engaging with Microsoft Education and Microsoft Fasttrack to understand where Microsoft can support the implementation of the operating model and resourcing/recruitment plan

In addition to working on the business case and resourcing plan I have also helped with the following

  • Building a proof of concept Staff Intranet using SharePoint Online, Microsoft Viva, PowerPlatform and Microsoft Teams
  • Building a proof of concept Student app using SharePoint Online and Microsoft Viva
  • Completing a discovery around the SharePoint 2016 on-premises environment to understand the structure, content, use and issues with the environment
  • Implementing sensitivity labels in Microsoft Purview, developing recommended Data Loss Prevention policies and custom sensitive data types
  • Microsoft Purview knowledge transfer sessions
  • Prepared a strategy for migrating the services to Microsoft365 services
  • Supported the transition of Microsoft SharePoint On-Premises developers so they are able to develop for Microsoft SharePoint Online and Microsoft Teams
  • Reviewed the current strategy and approach for Microsoft Dynamics and BrunelHelp
  • Produced a 12 month project plan to help the organisation understand the timelines
  • Created the communications plan to help site owners prepare for migration
  • Worked with the CIDO to help senior managers understand why we need to complete the migration
  • Engaged with the BA responsible for identifying new requirements for the Intranet and Intranet services
  • Worked with the change manger to understand how Microsoft365 can deliver services that enable process change and digital transformation
  • Presented at Town Halls to help staff understand the operating model, resource plans and SharePoint migration strategies
  • Presented and recorded information sessions for SharePoint Online, Data Loss Prevention, Sensitivity Labels, Retention/Disposition, Microsoft Purview and the PowerPlatform
  • Supported the migration of large scale sites from SharePoint 2016 to SharePoint Online using PowerShell and ShareGate
  • Supported the migration of a small number of MySites from SharePoint 2016 to SharePoint Online using PowerShell and ShareGate