Upgrading your major productivity suite can prove challenging, especially if delivery on schedule and to budget while protecting your business is important to you.

Upgrading your major productivity suite can prove challenging, especially if delivery on schedule and to budget while protecting your business is important to you.

Upgrading a productivity suite may not be top of your agenda, but with Microsoft ceasing support for their Office 2003 package from April 8th, 2014, many companies are finding themselves facing this challenge. So, if you are one of these companies, particularly if in the legal and accountancy sector, where business processes are reliant on Microsoft Office 2003, it is critical that you begin planning your upgrade now.

At the outset, upgrading to Microsoft Office 2010 package appears to be a small task, but the reach, integration and importance of the package is something that requires serious planning to baseline, so here are just a few of the many questions you are likely are to be asking:

• Are there muliple languages to support?
• How many templates does the business rely on?
• How many users and groups will be affected?
• How much customisation has taken place?
• How much training and support will be required?
• What is the target platform and deployment model?
• Will there be connectivity issues?
• Should implementation be phased or ‘big-bang’?

Upgrading to Microsoft Office 2010 is a complex programme that takes time and careful planning. If you are unsure or would like to know all of the questions you should be asking about your upgrade 2010 then talk to us about T-2010, the cost-effective way for you to plan and gain confidence and assurance that Microsoft Office will continue to support your business after your upgrade.

T-2010- Reviewing the size of the challenge

A 15-20 day scoping exercise managed by us to help you:

• Analyse – understand the complexity and the likely budget and timescale for upgrade to Microsoft Office 2010.
• Justify – Support your team in creating a Business case for board justification in the event additional expenditure may be required, in order to deliver a successful project
• Prepare – make sure your business is ready for the major programme of upgrading and your Microsoft Office package, and is able to continue to underpin your business processes and systems

T-2010-Executing the programme

We will work with you to turn your plans of upgrading to Microso Office 2010 into reality through the key phases of discovery, raonalisaon & planning and, finally, migraon and rollout.

Step 1 – Discovery

It is critical to understand how Microsoft Office is implemented, where and what variations exist. Not having a complete picture means we run the risk that some business processes and interfaces may not be supported after the upgrade. To be sure of a sound footing, we’ll work with you to discover and establish a complete inventory of every item that is used by or uses Microsoft to support your business processes.

Step 2 – Rationalisation & Planning

You might not need everything from the Discovery phase, so rationalising and prioritising items required post upgrade will save a substantial amount of me and money on the actual migration, where the bulk of the work will necessarily take place. Identifying and grouping components into standard desktop packages will facilitate smoother testing, simplify training requirements and ease rollout and support.

Step 3 – Migration & Rollout

Big bang or phased release is the question, both have their relative merits. This queson will be answered by your business; their appetite for risk and tolerance for muliple versions of a core system are the areas for debate. Accepting the Change Management challenge and preparing the business through targeted Training as a result of a radically reworked interface is a major milestone on the journey toward ensuring this investment is viewed as a business success

The Benefits of T-2010

T-2010 is an enablement service that helps you deliver an end to end upgrade and rollout of Microsoft Office 2010, on me, on budget and to meet the needs of your organization. Whether you are thinking about upgrading to Microsoft Office 2010 or have a signed off business case and are ready to go, T-2010 is a proven programme to get you there.

For more information about how  T-2010 can work for you please:
Call:   +44 20 7469 1500 or
e-mail:  T-2010@testing-solutions.com
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Testing Solutions Group (TSG) are experts in their field who have worked to deliver T-2010, a successful 2010 and Windows 7 migration – Software Testing and Change Management Programme, for a major legal client.