Migrating to a Different Office 365 Plan? Read This First!

Are you looking to switch to a different Office 365 plan for your organization, but your not sure where to start?

In this post I am going to go over how to switch from one Office 365 plan to another, I will present the easiest way to switch, challenges, set backs and limitations you may face. I will also throw in some tips, things to look out for, things to keep in mind and of course my opinions.

Steps to migrating to a new Office 365 plan

[toggle_box] [toggle_item title=”Proper preparation” active=”true”]A successful migration to a new Office 365 plan begins with proper preparation. Here are some things that you will need to think about and do to properly prepare for your migration.

1. Do you have the right Office version?
2. Does the plan you are choosing have enough users for your organization?
3. Finding the time to schedule your migration.
4. Check your current service health.
5. Review the schedule for planned maintenance to make sure that your migration will run smooth.
[message_box title=”Tip:” color=”green”]Call a support rep if there is a serious issue, you might have to wait an hour or so. While you wait, keep checking the service health dashboard.[/message_box][/toggle_item] [toggle_item title=”Manually switch plans”]Follow these steps to manually switch your Office 365 plans.

Buy your new plan: Go to your Office 365 admin center, then go to the Purchase services link on the left menu. Once there you are able to choose and purchase your new plan.

Re-assign licenses: Go to your Office 365 admin center, then under the users link in the left hand side menu there is a list of active users. You can select your users and click on edit link (the pencil icon) then select what new plans they are going to have, then click save.

Cancel your old plan: Go to you Office 365 admin center, on the left hand side menu under Billing, click the subscriptions link. Here you will be able to see your old plan, and click cancel subscription in the right side menu (link at bottom).
[message_box title=”Tip:” color=”green”]1. When assigning licenses you can assign up to 20 at a time.
2. Don’t forget to cancel, or you will continue to get billed.[/message_box][/toggle_item] [toggle_item title=”The Switch Plan Wizard” active=”true”]The Switch Plan Wizard is a Office 365 admin feature that takes away the step of you having to previously purchase your Office 365 plan because the Switch Plan Wizard does that for you. The Switch Plan Wizard is only for eligible plans and plans that have less than 300 users.

You can check to see if you are eligible for the Switch Plan Wizard by going to your Office 365 admin center. In the left hand side menu under billing, click subscriptions. Then under the actions menu you will see No switch plans learn more link, click it. You will get to a page that will shows your plan and what other plans you can switch to.

[message_box title=”Tip:” color=”green”]If you see your eligible for the Switch Plan Wizard and you can’t switch plans. It is because an issue is going on in your service health dashboard. Remember to keep an eye on your service health dashboard.[/message_box][/toggle_item] [toggle_item title=”Migrate with PowerShell”]You will need this PowerShell script:

Connect and Gather Information:
Connect
$cred = Get-Credential
Connect-MsolService -Credential $cred
Review Licenses
Get-MsolAccountSku |ft AccountSkuId

Export and Re-assign Licenses:
Export a list of all users before you start making changes
Get-MsolUser -All | Export-Csv c:\temp\AllUsers.csv
Re-assign licenses for one user
Get-MsolUser -UserPrincipalName {UserPrincipalName} | Where {$_.Licenses[0].AccountSkuId -contains “{tenant}:E1”} | Set-MsolUserLicense -AddLicenses “{tenant}:E3” -RemoveLicenses “{tenant}:E1”

Re-assign Licenses for all users:
Get-MsolUser -All | Where {$_.Licenses[0].AccountSkuId -contains “{tenant}:STANDARDPACK”} | Set-MsolUserLicense -AddLicenses “{tenant}:ENTERPRISEPACK” -RemoveLicenses “{tenant}:STANDARDPACK”

[message_box title=”Tip:” color=”green”]Switching plans with PowerShell requires:

1. Your organization has over 300 users.
2. You need to download the Microsoft Online Services Module for PowerShell.
[/message_box][/toggle_item] [toggle_item title=”Challenge prevention”]Here are some of the challenges that you will face when migrating to a new Office 365 plan.

Downtime: Make sure you have scheduled time for the migration to your new Office 365 plan.

Custom Domain: With your custom domain you will need to first take it off from your existing plan, switch plans, then add it again once you have switched.
If you don’t have a custom domain it can take up to an hour with Switch Plan Wizard. Also admins have no access to O365 Admin portal.

Office version: When switching from standard to Enterprise Office, users need to unistall the old Office and download the new one.

*Sign in to get the new Office version.
*Old and new Outlook profiles.
*Reconfigure with Intune (only if you are using Intune).

Credit check: The credit checks can take up to 2 weeks.
[message_box title=”Tip:” color=”green”]Since the credit check can take up to 2 weeks make sure to purchase your new Office 365 plan before planning your migration.[/message_box][/toggle_item] [/toggle_box]

If your organization needs help with migrating to Office 365, contact us we can help!