Microsoft Office 365 (often called Microsoft 365, Office 365 or O365) is a Web-based email solution that gives users the ability to send email, use calendaring, setup tasks, and set reminders. Office 365 is delivered to users through the cloud and includes Exchange Online for email and SharePoint Online for collaboration. Your CU email credentials also provide access to other benefits such as OneDrive for Business and Online Microsoft Apps.

Currently, there are some open issues with Office 365 that UIS is working on. Please check our Current Issues page for updates on these issues.

What is moving to the cloud?

Email: Your email and calendar information are moving to Microsoft’s cloud.  Accessing email via Outlook 2016 on your computer remains the same. You will also be able to access email through “Outlook on the Web” and via your mobile device.

SharePoint: With this upgrade, SharePoint will also be moving to the cloud. SharePoint Online is an Office 365 application that allows users to easily create websites for sharing information and tracking and collaborating on projects.

Chat: New! Microsoft Teams will replace Skype for Business for chat at the System Administration office. Microsoft is retiring Skype for Business in the near future and replacing it with Microsoft Teams. Teams is a cloud-based collaboration tool that integrates with other Microsoft Office 365 services, including OneDrive, SharePoint, Planner, as well as other third-party connectors and apps. Backed by Office 365 advanced security and compliance capabilities, Microsoft Teams is a secure collaboration application for any group on campus.

Why are we moving to Office 365?

Primarily, we are moving to align with the rest of the University of Colorado and other campus colleagues who are all on Microsoft Office 365. This upgrade brings several benefits to System Administration, including:

  • Increased efficiency of email and chat as a service
  • Increased disaster recovery capability
  • Increased security
  • Reduce the cost of providing email as a service
  • Align with our campus partners
  • Create a foundation for future collaboration tools across the University of Colorado

How will this affect me?

While there will be some changes, the applications moving to the cloud will function similarly as they do today. A FAQ sheet filled with details on every change is available. Keep an eye out for emails coming from UIS Communications every Friday until go-live for more details.

What changes with Office 365: Outlook

Your Outlook 2016 application will continue to work as it currently does for email and calendar.

Outlook online can now be found at https://outlook.office.com/mail/.

You will be prompted to close, re-open and login to Outlook 2016 with the following:

  • User ID: userID@cu.edu
    • User ID is what you use when you log into your computer with “@cu.edu”
    • Ex. John Doe is “Doej@cu.edu” or “Doe@cu.edu” 
  • Password: your network password (the one you use to log into your computer)
  • Refer to this How to Guide as needed.

Email on your mobile device: If you had email configured on your phone prior to go-live, you will need to delete your cu.edu email account from your phone and add it again. Note: Security standards for mobile devices have not changed. They can be referenced here.

You’ll have three new buttons in Outlook:

  • Report message allows you to flag a message as junk (moves to your junk folder), phishing (Microsoft is notified), or not junk (moves the message from your junk back to your inbox).
  • Send to OneNote will save the email message to a OneNote notebook.
  • Insights can provide suggested tasks, point out how many unread emails you have from people flagged as "important", help protect your calendar by suggesting focus time be booked before meetings take over, and more.

What changes with Office 365: SharePoint

With the recent move to Office 365, SharePoint is included in this upgrade. While Office 365 goes live Oct. 28, SharePoint Online goes live one week later on Nov. 4. This extra week will allow time for our campus partners who access System’s SharePoint environment permissions to be completed.

Currently, CU uses SharePoint On-Premises, which is locally managed by UIS. Moving to Office 365 will transition infrastructure management to Microsoft SharePoint Online, saving CU money, time and resources to better serve our customers. It also allows us to take advantage of the growing features and applications offered by Microsoft.

Note: Central Advancement SharePoint sites are not included in this move for SharePoint.

What changes with Office 365: Chat

 

Microsoft Teams will replace Skype for Business for chat at the System Administration office. Teams is a collaboration tool that integrates with other Microsoft Office 365 services, including OneDrive, SharePoint, Planner and more. 

 

Below are resources to help you learn more about Microsoft Teams:

Note: you must log in to LinkedIn Learning to gain access to these videos. Learn how to log in.

Office 365 Information Sessions at 1800 Grant St.

 

UIS will host information sessions at 1800 Grant St. This will include basic information on what is changing, provide an overview of Teams, and allow employees a chance to ask specific questions.

Please save the date for one of the following:

  • CANCELED: 1:00–2:30 p.m. Tuesday, Oct. 29, Meeting Room 100
  • 10:30 a.m.–12 p.m. Wednesday, Oct. 30, Meeting Room 100

Join virtually by Zoom:

How to Guides

Questions?

More information is coming soon! Have immediate questions? Contact the UIS Service Desk.

As a reminder, use of O365 is covered by the System Administration Information Technology Policy: Use of IT Resources. Computers, networks, software applications, and other information technology (IT) products are powerful tools that facilitate the University of Colorado’s (CU’s) core mission in teaching, learning, research, and service. Access to these tools is a privilege available to university faculty, staff, students, and authorized guests. With this privilege comes a responsibility to follow principles of acceptable use.