Why this is happening
As the firm replaces a wide range of systems, several of our vendors say that their systems integrate better with Microsoft's solution rather than Google's. It will also mean users will have a single account for both email and MS Office rather than the separate accounts that exist now.
The Process
We plan to use a migration specialist called Skykick. The migration company will access your email and migrate all of your mail contacts, and calendar information into Exchange Online. This process will take several weeks. At some point around Labor Day, we plan to shut down Google, do a final sync, and begin using Office 365. We will provide more detailed information on the cut-over as we get closer to the end of the process.
How to prepare
The new system has an email storage limit of 50 Gb, unlike Gmail's unlimited storage. At present, just about everyone is well below that limit, which is just for email. It does not count document storage you may be using in Google Drive. But if you are getting close to that limit, you may want to be diligent about deleting messages that unnecessarily fill your account.
Beyond mail, you may be using your Google Account for other purposes. You may have documents saved in Google Drive. We expect to be able to migrate everything in your Google Drive to Box. This is a good time for house cleaning though. If you have files you no longer need in Google Drive, please delete them now.
If you have created documents or spreadsheets in Google Drive that are in Google format, we will convert them to Microsoft format. In other words, a Google Doc will convert to a MS Word Doc, and a Google Sheet will convert to MS Excel.
If you have been using Google Hangouts for instant messaging and chat, those logs will not come over. If you need to save any of that for some reason, you may want to cut and paste the information into a document. Going forward, we recommend using Microsoft Teams for chat and IM.
If you have pictures saved in Google Photos in a work account, these also will be left behind. If you have photos needed for work, please save copies into the appropriate matter directory. If you have personal photos, you may want to download them to a personal computer before they disappear forever.
If you are using any other Google applications and are worried about losing information, please contact me to discuss further. We will do everything in our power to protect whatever data you deem important.
We will also need to find new homes for the Research Home Page, and (hopefully) this blog. We are working on alternative solutions and will announce them as soon as they are ready.
Change Now
Of course, switching to a new mail system means that the familiar Gmail web page will be going away, as will the Gmail app that you use on phones or tablets. We will replace these with Microsoft Outlook. If you have already installed Office 365 on your computer, you already have Outlook installed. To become more familiar with it, we would like you to begin using it now. You can connect Outlook to your existing Gmail account using the G Suite Sync tool. If you click on the link, you can download and run the tool on your computer. This will configure Outlook to access your Google account.
If you begin using Outlook now, you have time to familiarize yourself with the Interface, but can still also use a browser to access the old familiar way while you are learning Outlook. Once we make the move to Exchange, the Gmail interface will go away and we will point your Outlook software to the new Exchange back end. If you are familiar with Outlook by then, you will be ahead of the game and not really see any changes in the way you work with your mail. You will also have the option to access your mail online through outlook.com.
In many of our federal cases where we are authorized to respond to discovery via email, we have depended upon Google Drive links to share large amounts of records and documents. Will we have access to a comparable service, such as Google Drive or Dropbox, with the new system for sharing documents?
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