Embedded Files
Good Morning BH Staff,
I apologize for the length of this email but ask that you please review the entire email before the end of the week, so you know the details of and are prepared for the upcoming technology changes.
As a reminder, we are transitioning our file storage and communication platform to Google Suite. The first phase of this transition happens this weekend. The second phase will happen on October 3.
Phase 1 - File Storage Migration - Happening This Weekend
On Friday evening at about 6pm both the S drive and the SharePoint sites will be locked down and set to read-only. Over the weekend we will be copying all data from these sources to a series of Google Shared Drives. Some details:
For the remainder of this week, DO NOT CHANGE ANY FOLDER NAMES OR MOVE ANY FOLDERS on either the S Drive or Sharepoint. We have written scripts to move all of the files, and if you change folders, these scripts will not correctly move any folders you modify. It is fine to update files this week, and change file names or anything you would like with the files, but do not make any changes to the folders.
Do not try to save anything to the server after 6pm on Friday, September 9.
Next week, you are welcome to change folders and organize things within your drives.
Attached, please find a “Cheat Sheet” which outlines the new top-level structure we will be using with Google Suite.
If you would like to see where folders are going to be moved to, we’ve set up a tool to search. Just go to https://bhope.link/migration.
You can type the search criteria into the “Search Term” light yellow box to see where any folders that have that term in, and it will show you where it will go. Say for example you want to see where the files related to LAMB would go, type in LAMB in “Search Term,” and you will see all of the current directors with “LAMB” in the path, where the files will go.
As you are reviewing, if you think some folders need to be placed elsewhere, please email me directly by Friday morning, and I can update the scripts.
This tool will stay available after the move to help you find things as well.
On the new file structure, all client related files should be stored in the “Client Data” folder(s).
Each client should have a folder in that drive, and then a common folder structure should be used in each client folder. (See the attached Cheat Sheet for a breakdown of that file structure). As part of the migration, all client files will be moved.
So for example, if you are looking for loan documentation for a specific client, instead of looking in the loans folder, starting next week, you should look in the Client Data folder, BHF Projects, and then the folder for the particular loan you are looking for.
The easiest way to interact with files on Google Drive is to install the Google Drive application on your computer. Attached is information on how to install and set up this program.
We highly recommend you install this application on your computer. You can install this program now, even though you will not see the files there until this weekend.
After you install this program, you will have a new drive on your computer (Typically it is set up as “G:”). When you go to that drive, you will see “My Drive” and “Shared drives” all of the files we are moving are in “Shared drives”. You can use “My Drive” for files that are for your use that you don’t need the rest of the team to have access to.
You can access your Google Account through Okta by logging in at https://bhope.okta.com/
Google Drive automatically handles versioning.
Every time you save a file, Google Drive saves the history. So if you ever need to look back at a previous version, you can open Google Drive in your web browser and click on a file. If you don’t see the information panel on the right side, right-click on the file and click “View Details”, then click on “Activity” in the information panel, and you will see every historical version of the file. You can click on any version to view/download that particular version.
Remember you do not need to use Google Docs or Sheets as part of this transition. You can if you would like, but you can still use Microsoft Excel, Word, PowerPoint, etc. It is just that the files will be saved on Google’s cloud instead of Microsoft’s.
For a few weeks, you will still be able to access SDrive and SharePoint the same as always, however, it should not allow you to save anything there. You will need to save files on Google Drive.
When you start using Google, you must use Google’s 2-factor authentication to ensure files are kept secure. Attached are instructions on how to set up your 2FA. It is an easy process. When email is synced over (October 1-3), we will start using Okta’s 2-factor authentication. So there will be a need to set that up. I’m sorry for this inconvenience, but it hopefully will be a minor issue.
Phase 2 - Email / Calendar Migration - Happens the weekend of October 1
Once we finish copying files, we will shift our attention to copying our email over to Gmail. DNS will be copying everything that you currently have in your Outlook account over to Gmail over the next few weeks. This happens by copying the files several times to ensure everything gets copied over. For now, you can continue to use Outlook as you normally would. The only limit we ask is that you please do not restructure or start cleaning your mailbox. If you move an email from one folder to another, that change will not be reflected in Gmail when we switch if the email has already been copied. Once an email is copied, it will not go back and check to see if it is moved.
If you log in to GMail between now and October 3, you may start to see your emails in GMail, however, new emails will still come in only to Outlook until the weekend of October 1. So for the next few weeks, please do not work in Gmail.
A few other points related to Email migration:
Until Google learns your email habits, you may notice that when you start typing an email address, it doesn’t automatically fill in the email addresses in the same way you are used to. It will eventually do this, but it needs to build your email lists from scratch, so it will take a little time for it to get up-to-speed on these.
All of your email, folders (referred to as Labels in GMail), contacts, etc. will be copied over to GMail so that everything will be there on October 3.
If you’ve set up rules/filters, blocked senders or safe senders in Office 365, these will probably need to be recreated in Google. Also, safe sender/block lists are not copied over if you use either of those features.
Calendar reminders in GSuite are handled differently than in Microsoft. If you have set up custom reminders in your calendar, they will not copy over to GSuite. (i.e., if you said you want to be noticed 1 hour before an event when it copies it will go to the Google default of a 15-minute reminder). Once things are copied over, you can change the notification time in Google Calendar.
There are some limitations to how the automatic migration works with calendars. Calendar appointments that are only for yourself and you have not invited someone else may not copy over automatically. We are working on this, and will send out videos on how manually copy items over if you need to.
If you have attachments to calendar items, the attachments will not be copied over.
Training?
And finally, I’ve been toying with the idea of maybe doing some brief either online meetings or short (3-5 min) recorded videos on various topics and make them available for people to review on their own time. Would there be any interest in this type of thing? If so, please let me know what types of topics you would like covered and when the best times are to do something like this. Some of the topics I was thinking include:
Google Drive
Sharing Files in GSuite
Advanced search on Google Drive (Quickly finding the file you need)
Accessing/sharing files from your mobile device
Why Google Sheets is better than Excel
GMail
Keyboard Shortcuts in Gmail
Gmail Settings to speed up workflow
Canned responses in GMail
Setting up organization Rules in Gmail
Advanced search on GMail (Stop using folders, and just trust search)
Multiple Accounts / Signatures in GMail
Other
Switching between personal and work accounts on the Google platform
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