2012 Southeast Regional Conference - EDUCAUSE On November 30, 2011, culminating a multiyear "going Google" project, NC State moved the last 5,000 users and 3,000 objects to Google Apps. This accomplishment is nothing new in higher education, but how we marshaled the many disparate IT units to function as one is what made this project a resounding success—such a success that other campus leaders want to know our secret. We'll discuss the methods we used to finish this migration, as we moved our administrative users off their 16-year-old system and into the Google era.

1. SUCCESSFUL PROCESS = SUCCESSFUL PROJECT:
INSPIRING COLLABORATION & COMMUNICATION
ON A SILO-DRIVEN CAMPUS
Sarah Noell & Leslie Dare | May 31, 2012

2. OVERVIEW
 Background on NC State's IT organizations
 Why the migration to Google was "different"
 Google Day concept & buy-in
 Cool things we did really well
A few things we could have done better!
Realistically - will we be able to replicate our
success again?

3. IT @ NC STATE - DECENTRALIZED
11 major colleges each with their own IT director
Some colleges have "sub-IT" units within them as well
Support in colleges / units varies
OIT is the central IT unit, but no "real" authority
over colleges
Historically some major trust issues towards OIT
On the plus side, OIT directors and campus IT
directors meet monthly. Communication is
improving

4. CHALLENGES OF A MIGRATION LIKE THIS
Multi-year move
Students - 2010; faculty/staff on Cyrus - early 2011
Faculty/staff on GroupWise
 Approximately 5,000 accounts and 3,000 objects to move
 Mostly administrative users, although some faculty
Our GW system had been highly "customized"; moving
this group of customers to a more "policy-based"
system
Getting & keeping campus information correct
Large, decentralized campus
Rumors slowed us down!

5. CHALLENGES CONTINUED....
Getting agreement on timing for migration
Faculty didn't want the middle of the semester
Staff, especially financial, didn't want end of year
Pressure from CIO to "get it done"; wanted it done
before the end of the year (2011)
Decision making for how migration will work...
"Band-aid approach" or stages?
What do we move, etc
Slowed down by re-visiting decisions

6. CHALLENGES CONTINUED....
We didn't know what we didn't know
What was in these accounts
Who owned them
Did they need them ...
Massive renames to be compliant w/ existing policy
Moving to a service like Google also meant
changing business processes. How Google
"flows" is different
Need to understand current business processes and
prepare units for changes to these processes (this isn't
about technology)

7. THE PLUSES - WE HAD BUY-IN!
The majority of campus was happy to be going to
Google.
Faculty ready to be on the same system as students
GroupWise system had stability & space issues (no
quota)
Google...'nuff said!
Had support from the top. Yes, the Chancellor
was happy to be "going Google"!

8. THE PLUSES - WE HAD BUY-IN!
Had a great implementation team that was truly
cross-functional
 Team members selected for their varying strengths
 They knew their users; they knew their staff

9. OUR PROCESS
Team met weekly without fail
active sub-committees as well
Communicate, communicate and communicate
some more ....directly to our campus community
presented as a team, usually 2, at least one technical
no one "sent out into the wild" alone!
Campus-wide information sessions & unit
meetings
we talked to any audience (no matter how small) that
asked

10. OUR PROCESS CONTINUED...
Demonstrations of gmail and gcal
 Stayed away from hands-on training since no one had
their account yet
 Many people had personal gmail accounts and we
encouraged others to consider a personal one if they
wished
Online and email announcements sent regularly

11. COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES WITH IT
STAFF
Referred to as "Campus Techies" - 250 people!
anyone who had a role in IT in their unit was included
set up email list and got discussions going
"Can I help too?"
Empowered the Techies with tools
Migration web site had tools for both end users and
Techies
 users could check their migration status
 Techies to check on their users' progress as a department
Took requests for & looked to provide
programmatically for all

12. COMMUNICATION STRATEGIES WITH IT
STAFF...CONTINUED
Developed training for Techies (more later)
 We wanted them to be ready to support their users
Touch Teams... we went out and "touched" every unit
or department and provided information to the local IT
staff on their users, resources, and groups
We also sent out HD staff out if a group didn't have
local IT support.
56 Individual Meetings with Colleges, Divisions,
Departments
3 Consolidated Meetings, with 90 participants
representing 54 departments

13. SUCCESS: IT WAS A PARTNERSHIP
We had a strong commitment from the Campus
IT directors (which fed directly back to their staff)
We partnered with our peers - we were sincere
"We didn't know what we didn't know ...."
The way people had "customized" GroupWise through
the years ... who realized that it was their filing system?
We needed our peers in the field to help guide us as to
how best support their users (would they do it or us?)

14. SUCCESS: IT WAS A PARTNERSHIP
"All things GW"
Shared for each unit on campus
 Worked with local IT staff where that existed
 If they had no local support, we worked directly with
the end users
 We knew what had to move over and what had to
change
 Example

15. GOOGLE WAR ROOM - 60 DAYS OUT
Any team member could come over to OIT's
offices and work in conference room
Video-conferencing if not available in person
Guest visitations and consultations
Satellite War Rooms elsewhere
Brainstorming, problem solving, bonding

16. GOOGLE WAR ROOM - 60 DAYS OUT
Always talking and talking things through
Co-working environment
The War Room embodied everything we are
talking about today - it brought the team together
in ways that meetings don't
You came with food, or you didn't show your face ...
chocolate was very important; Mondays brought home-
baked goods

17. G-DAY: 30 DAYS & COUNTING...
Set Expectations for end users and Techies
Goal for G-day was everyone could get to their mail
and calendar
If you managed someone else's calendar or email - we
made no promises they could do it on G-day or G-
day+1
Sent weekly emails to end users
2-day "Heads-up" sent to Techies first
4, 3, 2, 1 emails
Suggested weekly tasks to prepare for migration
Immensely popular with both end users and Techies

18. Techie Training: Focus on NC State's
Implementation
We did some things differently at State
We developed what we call "Web Registry" to
help manage generic accounts, sub-calendars,
resources, and groups.
All customers on campus now use this tool - it
handles requests for new accounts, changes to
existing ones, provides administrative and
technical contact information, and annual
renewals

19. GOOGLE DAY...IT'S HERE!
End users - More Communications Success
"Google Day" mantra -- over and over
G-Day Instructions - sent in advance, with instructions
to print
Campus Techies
Everyone had primary and secondary assignments
Extra staff at critical "VIP" locations
Teamwork: IT Directors "donated" their staff to help
where we were short
G-Day Instructions -

20. WHAT MADE IT WORK?
Was it the "perfect storm" or do we really get the credit?
Personality and work styles played a key role; every team
member pitched in to do jobs; there was no "that's not my
job"
Migration team leader let a non-OIT person become the
point person for announcements and email. Gave OIT
credibility
Training wasn't about how to use Google Apps (although
we gave them that) but it was about the PROCESS of the
migration at NC State

21. WHAT MADE IT WORK?
T-shirts (and a great slogan)
Represented our commitment to Techies --- $$
End users loved them!
Setup Drop-in Centers on G'day and G'day + 1 to provide
assistance across campus. We staffed or we helped local
support folks with staffing
If a center needed additional help, we dispatched people.
We had team members call in if they were available to be
"re-assigned"
Provided lunch to staff in Drop-in centers

22. WHAT MADE IT WORK?
Setup a special chat room for Techies
Provided a suggested itinerary for G'day for all Techies
Provided end users with a one-page "Google Day
instructions" and one-page "Google Day Mobile Security"
Google Docs!
Everything (and we mean everything!) was done in
Google Docs.
Great example of a technical tool that enhanced our
collaboration -- especially for a cross-campus team

23. WHAT MADE IT WORK?
Commitment from the Campus IT Directors - a first!
yes, you can "have" my staff for Google Day!
Communication, communication, and more
communication!
Migration team was always available; always willing to
help; People noticed that AND appreciated it.
We'll say it again - the Google War Room

24. WHAT MADE IT WORK? IN SUMMARY....
Collaboration
Communication
Commitment
Coogle....er, I mean, Google.

25. PROJECT FEEDBACK
Q: What aspects of the migration were successful?
"It was simpler than expected. All the constant emails
scared the crap out of me, however."
"Online instructions were clear and sufficiently detailed
for the technologically challenged or those whose
personal belief systems don't support reading
directions."
Q: What could we have done better? Is there anything
you wish we had told you that we didn't?
"You could have told me NOT to worry. You could
have said it would be painless and seamless, and if not,
a T-shirt Tech will fix everything."


26. THANK YOU!