Just because Office 365 is built on the same technologies as its on-premise counterparts does not mean that the implimentation is the same. There are many gotchas, limitations and differences that partners with limited experience may not know about.
In my latest article on BoxFreeIT I talk about why customers should have a parter who specialises in Office 365.
Lately we have been starting to see an increase in partners calling us at Paradyne to see if we can help them get their customer on Office 365. This is what I like to see as it shows that the partner is looking out for the best interests of their customer and wants to do the job right. We follow a similar approach at Paradyne and bring in specialists for solutions that fall outside our areas of expertise (eg. CRM, software development, virtualisation, etc.). The key thing that partners need to understand is not to think/believe they are experts because they think they are familiar with a similar solution.
To businesses considering taking up Office 365 and using your existing IT partner – please have a look at the infographic and use it as a guide to help you determine if your IT partner will do what is best for your business.
IT partners – recognise where you may have holes in your knowledge/skills and either train up on Office 365 or find a partner who can help you serve your customer.
The end goal is smooth transitions from existing systems to Office 365 – key to this is the IT partner knowing what they are doing!
Also published on Medium.
Well put!