Skip to main content

Roles & Responsibilities

Liquid Mercury Roles

There are several roles the Liquid Mercury Solutions team will typically fill during a migration to Office 365. Sometimes these roles are filled by the same person wearing more than one hat. This is especially true for migration projects with fewer than 100 users total. However, it all depends on the size of your project.​

Client Roles

The following roles represent typical client participants in the migration project.

 

 

Technical Steward(s)https://spliquidmercury-web.sharepoint.com/Pages/Roles and Responsibilities/O365-Technical-Stewards.aspxTechnical Steward(s)<p>​The participants are Client staff who have responsibility for maintaining some part of the <strong>Office 365</strong> infrastructure, but who usually have official duties outside of IT. Realms of responsibility can include <strong>SharePoint</strong> sites or <strong>Exchange</strong> mailing lists. They are characterized as people who are somewhat computer literate and/or IT savvy; they may have the ability to share knowledge with others and act as a positive example or even trainer. <span style="text-decoration:underline;">These include Power Users, Content Managers, and SharePoint Site Owners.</span></p>
Project Stakeholder(s)https://spliquidmercury-web.sharepoint.com/Pages/Roles and Responsibilities/Project-Stakeholders.aspxProject Stakeholder(s)<p>These are members of Client staff who are affected by our project work in some way. Usually they will be performing their regular duties within <strong>Office 365</strong> or <strong>SharePoint</strong>. Examples include SharePoint User, E-mail User, Information Worker, or Desk-less Worker. <span style="text-decoration:underline;">While no special technical skills are required, some additional training may be needed.</span></p>
Project Sponsorhttps://spliquidmercury-web.sharepoint.com/Pages/Roles and Responsibilities/O365-Project-Sponsor.aspxProject Sponsor<p>​This is the member of your staff who is the primary champion for <strong>Office 365</strong>. This person is often a departmental manager or company executive. <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Their main purpose on the project is to establish Client policies and procedures that will help to drive adoption of the </span><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Office 365</strong></span><span style="text-decoration:underline;"> platform and to make any high level decisions that are required along the way.</span></p>
IT Staffhttps://spliquidmercury-web.sharepoint.com/Pages/Roles and Responsibilities/IT-Staff.aspxIT Staff<p>Client staff with duties involving the development and maintenance of information technology solutions. Such staff will interact directly with <strong>Liquid Mercury Solutions</strong> consultants to implement the <strong>Office 365</strong> migration. <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Note that many small businesses do not have any dedicated IT staff, and will either rely upon us or other vendors for services in this area, or will self-service these responsibilities with the help of Technical Stewards.</span></p>

 

 

Systems Engineerhttps://spliquidmercury-web.sharepoint.com/Pages/Roles and Responsibilities/O365-Systems-Engineer.aspxSystems Engineer<p>​This person provides guidance in areas outside of <strong>Office 365</strong> which are deeply impacted by the migration. This role requires extensive experience in information security, networks, Active Directory, claims based authentication, Exchange, e-mail systems, DNS, and familiarity with Microsoft products and processes. <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Note that some of this expertise may be supplemented by your own IT Staff.</span></p>
Exchange SMEhttps://spliquidmercury-web.sharepoint.com/Pages/Roles and Responsibilities/O365-Exchange-SME.aspxExchange SME<p>​Certain configurations of <strong>Exchange Online</strong> and on-premises <strong>Exchange Server</strong> require additional skill  sets and experience in order to complete the migration process. <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Sometimes client staff may fill the role.</span></p>
Support Engineerhttps://spliquidmercury-web.sharepoint.com/Pages/Roles and Responsibilities/O365-Support-Engineer.aspxSupport Engineer<p>​This role is primarily responsible for interacting with Client’s staff in a day to day support capacity. It requires the ability to interact with end users for diagnostic triage and training purposes, as well as the ability to document issues and solutions. <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Some of this expertise may be supplemented by your own IT Staff.</span></p>
Office 365 Consultanthttps://spliquidmercury-web.sharepoint.com/Pages/Roles and Responsibilities/Office-365-Consultant.aspxOffice 365 Consultant<p>​This person will be primarily responsible for providing guidance during the planning process, and will function in an advisory or decision making capacity during the migration. <span style="text-decoration:underline;">This role requires familiarity with </span><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Office 365</strong></span><span style="text-decoration:underline;"> features and functionality, as well as familiarity with </span><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Microsoft Online</strong></span><span style="text-decoration:underline;"> versions of </span><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Exchange</strong></span><span style="text-decoration:underline;">, </span><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>SharePoint</strong></span><span style="text-decoration:underline;">, and </span><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Skype for Business</strong></span><span style="text-decoration:underline;">.</span></p>
Relationship Managerhttps://spliquidmercury-web.sharepoint.com/Pages/Roles and Responsibilities/Relationship-Manager.aspxRelationship Manager<p>A person whose responsibility is to monitor communication with the client and address any problems as they may arise. This may include some monitoring of the project progress and client satisfaction. He/she does not have management authority but reports to the technical lead and the Business Development Manager or Partners. This is always a <strong>Liquid Mercury Solutions</strong> staff member; however, <span style="text-decoration:underline;">no special </span><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>SharePoint</strong></span><span style="text-decoration:underline;"> or </span><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Office 365</strong></span><span style="text-decoration:underline;"> skills are needed for this role.</span></p>
Security SMEhttps://spliquidmercury-web.sharepoint.com/Pages/Roles and Responsibilities/O365-Security-SME.aspxSecurity SME<p>​Some <strong>Office 365</strong> deployments that include AD Synchronization or Federated Authentication will require special skill sets in order to implement them. <span style="text-decoration:underline;">This role is normally filled by </span><span style="text-decoration:underline;"><strong>Liquid Mercury Solutions</strong></span><span style="text-decoration:underline;"> staff.</span></p>
Delivery Coordinatorhttps://spliquidmercury-web.sharepoint.com/Pages/Roles and Responsibilities/Delivery-Coordinator.aspxDelivery Coordinator<p>​Your delivery manager is responsible for ensuring that project objectives are completed in the planned timeframe and that your needs have been appropriately met.<br></p>
SharePoint SME Roleshttps://spliquidmercury-web.sharepoint.com/Pages/Roles and Responsibilities/O365-SharePoint-SME-Roles.aspxSharePoint SME Roles<p><strong>SharePoint Online</strong> is by far the most versatile and complex of the various <strong>Office 365</strong> product offerings. Effectively leveraging <strong>SharePoint</strong> requires a broad range of experience and depends on the specific intended purpose(s) for which <strong>SharePoint</strong> will be leveraged. <span style="text-decoration:underline;">Please see Roles and Responsibilities for SharePoint Intranets, Extranets, and High Profile Web Sites for full details on the specific roles and skill sets involved.</span></p>

Having the right level of resources within your organization is an essential component to getting the most out of Office 365. At a bare minimum, in order to ensure a successful migration, you should have at least one Technical Steward capable of interacting with Liquid Mercury Solutions staff on a regular basis. Complex deployments or large organizations will require additional IT Staff for support. Please inquire with your Liquid Mercury Solutions consultant to determine if you'll require additional services from us to effectively meet your needs.

Division of Labor

Office 365 migrations are truly a joint venture. As such, we have to carefully define who will perform each task required. Our project plans include high level tasks involved in migration of e-mail, content, and files from on premises mail, web, and file servers into Office 365 services such as Exchange Online and SharePoint Online. Each task is designated as being performed by LMS, by your staff (Client), or Together. Please be sure to look for these designations.

  • Work assigned to you can be completed autonomously. Feel free to ask us if you need our help.
  • Likewise, this is true for work assigned to LMS, though you may hear from us if we need your help or have any questions.
  • Work done together is usually done in the context of a meeting. In some cases, we might work separately, but the division of labor for the tasks can be difficult to determine ahead of time. On the schedule, jointly assigned tasks to affect the total estimated hours for both parties equally.

Next steps: