SOFTWARE BUSINESS CASE
MICROSOFT OFFICE 365 FOR EDUCATION
(Exchange Online & Plan A1)
Version 1.0
TABLE OF CONTENTS
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................................. 3
1.
Problem Definition ......................................................................................................................................... 4
2.
Addressing Problem with CWU existing tools and products (i.e. PeopleSoft) ................................................. 5
3.
Organizational Impact .................................................................................................................................... 5
4.
Benefits .......................................................................................................................................................... 7
5.
Strategic Alignment........................................................................................................................................ 8
6.
Cost ................................................................................................................................................................ 9
7.
Alternatives (add lines as necessary) ............................................................................................................ 10
8.
Timing / Schedule (add lines as necessary) ................................................................................................... 10
9.
Technology Migration/Resource Identification ............................................................................................ 11
10. Product Life/Application Sunsetting or Decommissioning ........................................................................... 12
11. References .................................................................................................................................................. 12
12. Recommendation ........................................................................................................................................ 12
13. Approvals .................................................................................................................................................... 13
APPENDIX A .................................................................................................................................................................... 14
Microsoft 365
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EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Central Washington University requires a robust and standardized suite of communication,
collaboration and office productivity tools for faculty, staff and students. While CWU
currently uses Novell GroupWise for email, calendaring and related services; CWU’s overall
solutions do not meet current needs in the many ways, including the following:
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CWU does not currently have a collaboration tool to facilitate document and file
sharing/management among faculty, staff and students from any location.
CWU’s email service does not offer the feature rich and integrated solutions of other
similar tools.
CWU does not provide the storage (both email and file/document) for faculty, staff
and students offered by Microsoft Office 365; currently at 25Gig and 7Gig
respectively.
Microsoft Office 365 for Education is a subscription-based service for Higher Education
which provides access to numerous Microsoft services and software. MS Office 365 is
offered in a tiered structure of five different plans, with increasing services and functions,
and escalating subscription prices. The first 3 plans (Exchange Online, Plan A1 and Plan A2)
are free to Higher Education faculty, staff and students. A brief description of the services
offered in each of these plans is provided in Section 4 of this Business Case.
After extended evaluation, the Washington Higher Education Technology Consortium
(WHETC) has selected MS Office 365 as the recommended suite of communication and
productivity tools for Higher Education in Washington State. By licensing and deploying
Microsoft Office 365, CWU will not only be able to address the issues identified above, but it
will also position CWU for other benefits and requirements for the future, via licensing of
Plans A3 and A4.
Since the migration to any cloud based service can be involved and expensive, CWU
consulted with Lilien System, Inc. Lilien has provided a draft Statement of Work (SOW),
which is attached to this Business Case.
Microsoft 365
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Sponsoring Department(s): Information Services (IS) Department
Date of Business Case Preparation:
Contact Person Name/Phone:
Submitted to Enterprise Team May 6, 2013
Gene Shoda, AVP-IT/509-962-2333
New Product/Service
This is a new service to CWU. If selected, CWU would be utilizing the contract developed and
implemented by the University of Washington, and currently used by other schools in Washington
State.
1. Problem Definition
CURRENT: Central Washington University requires a robust and standardized suite of
communication, collaboration and office productivity tools for faculty, staff and students.
While CWU currently uses Novell GroupWise for email, calendaring and related services;
CWU’s overall solutions fall short in the many ways, including the following:


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CWU does not currently have a collaboration tool to facilitate document and file
sharing among faculty, staff and students from any location.
CWU’s email service does not offer the feature rich and integrated solutions of other
similar tools such as Microsoft Office 365 and Google Apps.
CWU does not provide the storage (both email and file/document) for faculty, staff
and students offered by Microsoft Office 365; currently at 25Gig and 7Gig
respectively.
Microsoft Office 365 for Education is a subscription-based service for Higher Education
which provides access to numerous Microsoft services and software. MS Office 365 is
offered in a tiered structure of five different plans, with increasing services and functions,
and escalating subscription prices. The first 3 plans (Exchange Online, Plan A1 and Plan A2)
are free to Higher Education faculty, staff and students. A description of the services
offered in each of these plans is provided in Section 4 of this Business Case.
FUTURE: In addition to the current communication and collaboration concerns identified
above, CWU is currently investigating opportunities to complete our transition to Voice over
Internet Protocol (Voice over IP, VoIP). CWU currently utilizes VoIP for point-to-point voice
communication between the Ellensburg Campus and the numerous Centers, and in many
locations around campus. As buildings are constructed or remodeled, they are transitioned
to VoIP. With the potential to build a new Data Center within the next several years, we
have determined that expediting the transition to VoIP will have significant additional
benefits. The transition to VoIP, which could eventually be facilitated by moving to Office
365, is needed for several reasons:

Takes advantage of the numerous features available through VoIP.
Microsoft 365
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Continue current migration toward converging voice, data and video services to the
desktop.
Prepare for End of Life of CWU’s current Telecom System
Greatly simplify transition/migration to new SCTC Data Center, when completed.
In short, a transition to Microsoft Office 365 is beneficial because it addresses many of the
communication and collaboration issues facing CWU today (via Exchange Online plan and
Plan A1), it positions CWU for immediate deployment of additional office productivity
services and benefits (via Plan A2), and it positions CWU with additional options for
Advanced Communications via VoIP should CWU decide to license Plan A3 and A4, and
deploy Microsoft LYNC services.
2.
Addressing Problem with CWU existing tools and products
CWU currently utilizes Novell GroupWise for communication, calendaring and very limited
collaboration services. These services are hosted on-site within the CWU Data Center. The
primary issues with continuing to utilize these services are:
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Novell GroupWise continues to gradually lose market share, especially in the Higher
Education Market, making its long-term viability a question.
Novell’s Collaboration Tools are inadequate and found to be inefficient, more
difficult to utilize, and unstable.
Novell GroupWise does not offer the rich or highly integrated feature set that is
evident in cloud based email services such as Microsoft Office 365.
CWU is unable to as efficiently or effectively offer the unprecedented storage
capacity which Microsoft Office 365 offers to all users (25Gig for email and 7Gig for
general storage).
Microsoft Office 365 is able to offer unprecedented Service Level Agreements
regarding up-time, security, reliability and scalability.
Novell does not offer a competing cloud based set of communication and office
productivity tools.
While not currently an issue, the future recruitment and hiring of staff to support a
Novell GroupWise environment would likely be extremely difficult.
Deployment of MS Active Directory (AD) as part of the Office 365 deployment will
facilitate additional opportunities and benefits in the future, that IS has been
pursuing.
3. Organizational Impact

All Stakeholders: Office 365 and the suite of communication, collaboration and
business/office productivity tools/services that it provides would be utilized by all
University employees. Several of the services such as Exchange Email (in the
Cloud), MS Office Professional, etc. would also benefit CWU students.
Microsoft 365
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In consultation with students during open sessions, one of the primary requests of
the students was that CWU students and CWU faculty/staff utilize the same email
and collaboration systems.

Staff Impacts and Training:
o
Staffing Changes: Staffing changes in IS will be required during and after
that transition to MS Office 365. Current IS GroupWise and eDirectory staff
will be required to assist during the approximate 20-month project to
transition to the Exchange Online Plan. Following the transition, IS will
require a full-time Messaging/Exchange Administrator. The skillset
required to administer Exchange and to administer Office 365 are similar,
and it is estimated that a single employee can handle both. In addition,
CWU will require a new/expanded position for Active Directory/eDirectory
Administration. Currently Email and Directory administration are
accomplished by a single individual. This will not be possible after the
transition.
As potential new services are deployed, as CWU considers deployment of
higher MS-Office 365 plans, additional staff may be required for SharePoint
Administration, Lync Administration, etc. Since this Business Case is only
focused on Plans Exchange Online and A1, staffing requirements for these
higher plans has not been determined, and would be included in a future
Business Plan to license these plans.

o
Training: Even though many users at CWU are familiar with the MS
Outlook Email Client, it is estimated that extensive training will need to be
offered across the entire campus as MS-Office 365 is deployed across the
University. Since CWU currently employs only a ½ time technical training
within IS, training would be required as a value-added service from the
selected Business Partner.
o
Business Partner: Due to the extensive effort to migrate to Office 365,
Exchange and to Active Directory, CWU will require a Business Partner to
fully handle the transition. It is estimated that the migration to Office 365
will need to be a near “turn-key” solution by a Business Partner, as the
transition will be extensive and IS staff will be required to support the
current systems (GroupWise, eDirectory, etc.) during the transition. There
are several business partners available for CWU to use including Lilien
Systems, Inc.; SADA Systems; Microsoft; and many others. An RFP would
be required to establish CWU’s requirements, identify potential Business
Partners and select the best Business Partner for this effort.
Potential Partners/Primary Users: CWU has been working as part of a collaborative
team with the Washington Higher Education Technology Consortium (WHETC) to
evaluate various options and to select a recommended solution that meets the
communication and collaborative needs of all of Higher Education across the State.
This includes the University of Washington, Washington State University, Western
Washington University, Eastern Washington University, Central Washington
University, The Evergreen State College and the Community & Technical Colleges.
Microsoft 365
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Via this partnership, UW, in collaboration with numerous other major Universities
across the country, successfully negotiated an Office 365 Contract that met the
needs and concerns of Higher Education and that provides significant cost
incentives. This contract has become the standard for licensing/deployment of
Office 365. CWU would be able to utilize this contract.
While no College or University is required to utilize Office 365 as a result of the
WHETC recommendation, it has been identified as the recommended solution for
Higher Education in Washington State so that Universities and Colleges can provide
consistent technology solutions for students regardless of which school they attend.
The Washington Legislature initiated the Higher Education Technology
Transformation Taskforce (TTT) in 2011/2012 to address the goal of standardizing
technology across Higher Education to reduce costs and provide common tools for
students. The recommendation of a common set of communication, collaboration
and business/office productivity tools is one of the results of the TTT.

RFP Requirements Contributors – An RFP will not be required for the selection of
MS Office 365, because it is already licensed for Higher Education via UW. UW was
instrumental in working with other major Universities to secure a contract that all
Washington State schools can utilize.
However, it is anticipated that an RFP will be required for the selection of the
Business Partner to execute the transition. If this Business Case is approved and
funded, an RFP would be initiated and an RFP team selected. Recommended
departments to be involved in the development of the RFP include:
Department
Name
IS
Multiple members
Public Affairs
TBD
Human Resources
TBD
Academics (MML)
TBD
Business Affairs
TBD
Student Success
TBD
4. Benefits
Microsoft Office 365 provides a multi-planned suite of tools and services that will provide
significant benefit to CWU. These plans are listed below, along with an overview of some of
the benefits that could result from implementing each plan level. Plans are additive,
meaning that is not feasible to skip plans during implementation because each subsequent
plan includes all of the tools and services of the previous plan(s). However, as would be
assumed, any University can implement as far up the Plan Structure as they feel is needed,
and activation of a higher plan can be accomplished at any time in the future.
For the purpose of this Business Case submission (cost estimate and schedule), CWU is
focusing on Plan A1, and would then focus on the evaluation and consideration of Higher
Microsoft 365
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Level plans in the future, which may require subsequent Business Cases. It is likely that
CWU would proceed as high as plan A3, and potentially to plan A4 in the future.
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Exchange Online Plan (Email & Calendaring):
o Advanced cloud based email system using MS Exchange and MS Outlook as
client
o 25 Gig of email storage for each user (student, faculty, staff)
o Calendar and Contacts
o Integrated/Premium anti-spam and anti-virus filtering. This would replace
CWU’s PreciseMail Spam Application and may reduce costs for CWU’s
Sophos Anti-Virus (AV) filtering software.
o Personal Email Archive
o Expanded availability of mobile services
Plan A1 (Communication & Collaboration)
o Applications and Sites to share documents and information through
SharePoint Online
o Instant messaging and Video Calls
o Online Meetings
Plan A2 (Office Productivity Tools Basic )
o Document viewing and light/basic editing with MS Office Web Apps
Plan A3 (Office Productivity Tools Complete)
o Complete and full-featured set of office productivity tools (Office
Professional Plus)
o Home use rights for up to 5 Personal Computers
o Additional database, workbook, forms and other services/tools
o Hosted Voicemail and Advanced Email Archive Capabilities
Plan A4 (Advanced Communication)
o Enterprise Voice Capabilities
5. Strategic Alignment: Effective and efficient communication, collaboration and office
productivity is essential in every aspect of CWU’s operations and is a key foundation
that nearly every facet of CWU’s Strategic Plan must be built upon. Effective
communication and collaboration is required for Teaching & Learning, promoting
Inclusiveness and Diversity, providing for Scholarship and Creative Expression,
increasing Public Service and Community Engagement, and assuring Resource
Development and Stewardship. Some of the objectives that exemplify this
relationship and alignment between this Business Case and CWU’s Strategic Plan
include:
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1.2: Enhance the effectiveness of Student Support Services
2.1.1: Increase the ability and willingness of faculty, staff and students to participate in shared
governance of the University.
2.1.2: Promote the free and civil exchange of information and ideas among faculty, staff, students,
and the community.
4.1: Enhance the commitment and the level of cooperation between the university and external
communities.
5.2.2: Position CWU for increased enrollment
5.4: Provide the facility and technology infrastructure and services appropriate to meet the
university objectives, while maximizing sustainability and stewardship.
5.4.4: Provide IT infrastructure, systems and services necessary for all CWU departments to
achieve their objectives and the objectives of the University.
Microsoft 365
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http://www.cwu.edu/resources-reports/sites/cts.cwu.edu.resourcesreports/files/documents/2012%20CWU%20Strategic%20Plan.pdf
6. Cost: For the sake of this Business Case, this only addresses the costs associated
with the transition to Microsoft Office 365 Exchange Online & Plan A1.

Source of Funding (Project ID) or Description of the Source of Funding.
At this time, no source of funding has been identified. Since the costs associated with
this Business Case are for the cost of transition (1-time), there are minimal cost savings
in other areas that can be used to offset the costs of implementing Office 365.
Cost Breakdown: For a complete description of the various components involved in the
transition to Office 365 including the deployment of Microsoft Active Director (AD), the
initial transitions to MS Exchange Email, and the full-transition to MS Office 365, please
see the attached DRAFT Statement of Work from Lilien System, Inc. A summary of the
costs are identified below, including internal staffing and support costs.
IMPORTANT NOTE: This cost analysis/estimate is based on feedback from a single
Business Partner and would likely change based on the results of an RFP and vendor
selection. For comparison, CWU has consulted with several other schools. The school
with the closest match to CWU’s current environment and transition plans was Georgia
State University. CWU would also be migrating student email accounts.
o
Georgia State University: Transition of approximately 6,500 faculty and
staff GroupWise Mailboxes in late 2011, early 2012. GSU contracted with a
Microsoft, Inc. for approximately $1,000,000 for a project that included
approximately 6 months of planning and 6 months to execute. This project
included both a transition to MS Active Directory and a transition to MS
Office 365 from GroupWise (extremely similar to CWU’s transition). This
estimate did not include additional hardware/server and related costs.
While CWU has less faculty and staff, CWU would also be migrating
thousands of student email accounts.
o
Eastern Washington University: Transitioned faculty and staff only to OnPremise Exchange and Active Directory from an extremely old email
environment, and no directory service. This initial transition did not include
a transition to MS Office 365. EWU contracted with Microsoft for
approximately $240,000 in 2009/2010. This estimate did not include
additional hardware/server and related costs.
ONE-TIME COST: For a description and breakdown of anticipated one-time costs, and is
based on DRAFT SOW provided by Lilien Systems, Inc., feedback from other schools, etc.
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Business Partner Implementation Services:
Active Directory Physical Servers:
VMWare Host Servers & Licensing
Storage Area Network (SAN) Expansion)
Microsoft 365
$248,000
$ 24,000
$ 60,000
$ 30,000
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Quest GroupWise Migration Tool (3,000 faculty/staff)
Estimated Training Costs (Faculty/Staff)
Staff Backfill/Assistance During Transition
IS Staff Training
TOTAL ESTIMATED 1-TIME COSTS:
$ 45,000
$ 25,000
$ 75,000
$ 15,000
$522,000*
RECURRING COSTS:
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Campus Agreement Expansion (CALS) increase:
Office 365 and Active Directory Administration (staff):
Microsoft Office 365 Plan A1 Cost (Faculty/Staff):
Microsoft Office 365 Plan A1 Cost (Student):
TOTAL ESTIMATED RECURRING/ANNUAL COSTS:
$ 44,500
$115,000**
$ FREE
$ FREE
$159,500
* These costs are estimates based on best available information at this time. Actual costs and
internal resource commitments would be determined based on the selection of the Business
Partner to oversee and manage the migration.
** Estimate for single additional employee for AD and related Office 365 Administration Tasks
(SharePoint Online, etc.) as a result of added functionality and services.
7. Alternatives (add lines as necessary)
Alternative
Reasons For Not Selecting Alternative
Status Quo (Do Nothing)
See Section 2 (above)
Google Apps
See Benefits & Recommendation Sections
8. Timing / Schedule: This is a sample timeline based on information provided by Lilien
Systems, Inc. (a single Business Partner) and from feedback/input from other
Universities. Actual timeline may vary based on selection of the final Business
Partner, other competing commitments, availability of backfill and other staff, etc.
Task
Target End Date
Planning, RFP Development and Business Partner Selection
Day 1 to 60
Design and Discovery
Day 75
Active Directory Deployment
Day 90
Active Directory and eDirectory Co-existence
Day 110
Exchange Deployment
Day 120
GroupWise to Exchange Migration
Day 140
Office 365 Readiness Assessment
Day 140
Office 365 Migration
Day 180
Windows Desktop Migration/Outlook Deployment
Day 200
Microsoft 365
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Task
Target End Date
Post Installation/Migration Support
Day 220
9. Technology Migration/Resource Identification
For the sake of this Business Plan, please refer to the attached DRAFT Statement of Work
from Lilien Systems, Inc. as an estimate of the technology migration steps/plan that would
be executed, and what all is involved in each major step as CWU migrated from eDirectory
Services to MS Active Directory, from GroupWise to Exchange, and ultimately to MS Office
365. The attached document is an estimate from a single Business Partner and is for
estimating and planning purposes only. Lilien System, Inc. has worked very closely with
CWU on other projects and is familiar with our current environments, so their
estimate/proposal is credible.
In addition to the funding and resources identified in the Lilien Systems, Inc. SOW, CWU will
require in-house staffing to support the project, coordinate training (via outside services),
etc. These additional resource needs and costs have been estimated in the cost section.
Resource
Personnel
Requirements
Timeframe
Equipment/Hardware needs are
identified in the cost estimate.
Office Space for Business Partners
will be provided in the IS Office
area.
Dedicated training space will be
needed for conducting end-user
training
Equipment
Facilities
Training
Duration of project
CWU RESOURCE ESTIMATES: (This assumes a 7-8 month project starting in January including 2 months
of planning/RFP and 5-6 months of project execution). Estimates are “best guesses” based on feedback
from peers, vendors, and our commitment to the project.
Resource
Jan
Feb
Mar
Apr
May
June
July
Aug
Project Manager
25%
25%
25%
25%
25%
25%
25%
25%
25%
50%
50%
100%
Training Mgr/Coor.
Network Engineer
10%
20%
15%
15%
15%
15%
15%
15%
Directory Admin.
10%
25%
25%
25%
25%
25%
25%
25%
Email Administrator
10%
25%
25%
25%
25%
25%
25%
25%
25%
25%
50%
50%
20%
20%
20%
20%
Change Manager
N&O Management
10%
Microsoft 365
10%
20%
20%
Sept
Oct
Nov
Dec
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10. Product Life/Application Sunsetting or Decommissioning
Since this is the licensing of a Cloud Service, no sun-setting or refresh is anticipated at this
time. The service provider (Microsoft) is responsible for replacement/refresh of all
hardware, upgrades to the Office 365 software, etc. Migration to a totally new set of
communication and collaboration tools (email, etc.) is something that is accomplished
extremely infrequently, and only when extenuating circumstance warrant.
11. References Central Washington University has worked very closely, as part of the
WHETC consortium, in the evaluation and recommendation for Microsoft Office 365
as the appropriate Cloud based Communication/Collaboration and Office
Productivity service for Washington State Higher Education. CWU was also a
member of the Washington State Technology Transformation Taskforce. In addition,
CWU consulted with several schools and businesses to gather information/data for
the development of this plan. This includes:
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Microsoft Corporation
Lilien Systems, Inc.
SADA Systems, Inc.
Georgia State University
Eastern Washington University
Feedback from numerous Universities via the Educause CIO ListServ
12. Recommendation
The recommendation provided by this Business Case is that Central Washington University
transition from its current communication/collaboration environment to Microsoft Office
365 (initially to the Exchange Online Plan and Plan A1). By migrating to a Cloud based
solution, it will provide CWU numerous benefits as outlined earlier in this Business Case, will
mitigate many of the deficiencies/limitations with CWU’s current solutions, and will position
CWU to take advantage of Higher Level Office-365 plans for enhanced communication
services.
Other, less obvious benefits include:


By utilizing a common platform (Microsoft Office 365) across all of Higher Education
in Washington State, it helps meet the goals of the TTT to reduce costs and provide
a more standardized set of tools for WA State students.
By utilizing a common platform, CWU is able to benefit from the knowledge and
expertise of all of Higher Education in WA State. Via WHETC, technology
departments in WA State share information and benefit from the experience and
consortia bargaining on contracts, etc. Choosing an alternate solution would mean
CWU is the only WA State School to do so, and would place us at a huge
disadvantage.
Microsoft 365
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
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MS Office 365 includes Higher Level plans that (Advanced Enterprise Level
Communication) that aligns with additional strategic needs of the University. Per
Cerium Networks, MS LYNC is their fastest growing area with regards to enterprise
VoIP solutions. This is a critical future consideration for CWU.
MS Office 365 utilizes MS Office Professional and other standard office productivity
tools used across industry and Higher Education.
At the time of the WHETC Assessment and evaluation, Google was unwilling to
address many of the issues specifically related to Higher Education that were of
concern. Microsoft was willing to address these items and include them in the
contract agreement reached with Higher Education. These included:
o Family Education Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA) compliance/security
o Health Insurance Portability and Availability Act (HIPAA) compliance
o Overall data security and storage
o Data Mining
Microsoft Office 365 provides significant Home Benefits when licensing the A2 plans
and above.
13. Approvals
The following actions have been taken by the appropriate Sub-Council (ATAC or NonAcademic Sub-Council) and University Enterprise Team:
Date
Action
By
10/14/2013
Presented to EISC
Noah Rodriguez
10/14/2013
Approved to be Reviewed by Cabinet
EISC
Upon approval by the Enterprise Team (ET) or one of the two Sub-Councils (Academic or NonAcademic), CWU procurement policies and procedures should be used to initiate a
purchase. Please contact the Purchasing office at x1001 with any questions regarding the
procurement process.
If you have any questions, please contact Sue Noce 963-2927 or Tina Short 963-2910.
Microsoft 365
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