Introduction
A project has been initiated to migrate all Medschl mailboxes from the CSCS hosted email services to Microsoft’s cloud-hosted email platform called Exchange Online which is provided by UIS. The migration is scheduled for completion in 2023 when Microsoft will no longer offer support for the current mail services provided by CSCS.
The University has been running its own email system for numerous years which was previously called Hermes but this was retired at the end of 2021 and replaced by Exchange Online, the new University standard which all departments are required to adopt. The University is paying for Microsoft licences for all staff and students so it no longer makes economic sense to pay for a duplicate system and licensing at the Clinical School.
Frequently Asked Questions and Answers
You may note that there may not be answers for all of the items below. We are still working on some aspects of the migration and will update the FAQ as decisions are made and the information is available.
If you need to log an incident with the CSCS Service Desk with questions about the migration please go to our Self Service Portal and log a ticket using this link: https://itsupport.medschl.cam.ac.uk/HEAT/?Scope=SelfService&CommandId=NewServiceRequestByOfferingId&Tab=ServiceCatalog&Template=5CDE0D700E764551A7D858CC98543FE3
What can I do to prepare?
When will this happen?
Migrations started in Q1 2023 with an estimated completion by autumn 2023. Each person will be notified at least 3 days before their mailbox is scheduled to be migrated. Large departments schedule can be found here: Large Department Migration Dates
How will I know when my mailbox has been migrated?
Migrated means that your mailbox has been moved to Exchange Online. When this happens you will be sent an email like the one below. From that point on you will go to https://outlook.office.com to send and recieve email. All of your old messages and calendar items may not have been moved at this point so if you are missing any old messages, go back to https://webmail.medschl.cam.ac.uk to find them. You should not try to send anything from medschl however.
I am seeing old email moving gradually into my Exchange Online mailbox
Some people with especially large mailboxes will have older email copied from medschl into Exchange Online before they are actually migrated. Do not delete or organise these messages. Your medschl email address will NOT be moved until you are advised that it has been so any email sent before that from Exchange Online will be from your @cam email address.
How will I get support?
During the migration:
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After the migration: You will contiting Service for support. UIS does not provide end user support.
Will I lose my @medschl.cam.ac.uk email address?
No, we will transfer the @medschl.cam.ac.uk domain over as part of the migration so that you can use either @medschl.cam.ac.uk or @cam.ac.uk email addresses to receive email into the same mailbox.
What will be moved?
Your mailbox and all of its sub folders, calendar, contacts, and notes will all be moved to Exchange Online.
I have a different email address. What happens to it?
The following addresses will also be migrated:
If your address is not shown here, please log a ticket with the CSCS Service Desk to find out if it too will be migrated
What happens to Public Folders
Exchange Online does not have a Public Folder function. Calendars using Public Folders have been moved to a shared mailbox.
Can I email clinical and patient data using this system?
No, you should continue to use NHS mail for any confidential patient information.
Are there any new features I can look forward to?
More enhanced collaboration features
Easy task creation from Email to a ToDo item
Integration with MS Teams and MS Office which will enable new features, including being able to schedule MS Teams meetings much easier from within Exchange Online.
Increased amount of storage (see next question)
The use of Focused Inbox
Can I migrate myself now?
No. There is not a self service option.
What can I do about my archive folders (pst files)?
What account do I use to access my email?
You will log in to Exchange Online using your Raven username and password. As with other University services using Raven, you will be prompted for your Multi Factor Authentication (MFA). See https://cscs-itsupport.atlassian.net/wiki/x/5QJGAQ for information on setting up MFA.
Will this change how I log in to other medschl or CSCS services?
Will I lose my email addresses that I commonly use?
If you frequently use the drop down list of email addresses in your email application, these are not backed up and will be lost following migration (similarly, if you changed computer they would be lost).
This drop-down list is called the AutoComplete list, but is also known as the nickname cache, and is generated automatically when you send email messages from Outlook. Please note, the AutoComplete list for .
If you do have an Autocomplete List in frequent use and do not want to loose those email addresses, we advise reviewing your list and saving them to your Outlook Contacts. You can follow this guide Autocomplete Email Addresses in Outlook for information on how to find and save them.
Will contacts and distribution lists from the medschl global address book be moved as well?
There are several places that email addresses are saved in Outlook and Exchange.
Outlook contacts: are part of your mailbox and will be moved. See this page to find your contacts:https://support.microsoft.com/en-us/topic/open-and-use-all-contacts-1030e404-8433-42ad-81b3-1ba496278c8e
Global Address book: these are all the email addresses included within your email system. You can find them by clicking on Address Book in the Outlook ribbon. One you have moved to Exchange Online the list that you see will be very different as it will include all of the University of Cambridge email addresses in the Exchange Online system.
Autocomplete records: is a list that gets saved whenever you type in an email address and they will NOT be migrated automatically. See our page for advice on what to do if you need to keep some of these addresses: Autocomplete Email Addresses in Outlook
Distribution lists: will need to be recreated with a new name that fits within UIS naming conventions. We will provide further guidance once further analysis has been done to identify which need to be moved and how to name them.
Will my Outlook client rules be transferred across or will they need to be recreated?
Rules will need to be manually recreated. Here is the guide on how to do that - Mailbox Rules .
Will mail forwarding from other mailboxes to my medschl account be affected?
No, as your email address does not change, any email being forwarded to that email address should not be affected.
Will mail forwarding from my medschl mailbox to other addresses (@cam or Google) be affected?
Mail forwarding to @cam will be removed as part of the migration. It is not clear at this time if all forwarding (e.g. to Gmail) might also be removed but this will be tested during our pilot phase in February.
Will I still be able to ‘Send as’ and/or ‘Send on behalf’ of other users?
It is not clear at this time if this will be possible and investigation is on-going but this will be tested during our pilot phase in February.
Will my access to other user's calendars be affected and will the current level of permissions be maintained?
Permissions need to be transferred manually and mailboxes will be migrated in small groups, so it is possible that you lose access during the migration process. Requests can be made to the Service Desk to add any missing permissions.
Exchange Online mailbox permissions are done at a very high level - you grant other users full access to your mailbox and calendar. If more nuanced permissions are required you will need to set it up on your mailbox by following this Microsoft guide - https://support.microsoft.com/en-gb/office/allow-someone-else-to-manage-your-mail-and-calendar-41c40c04-3bd1-4d22-963a-28eafec25926#__toc305134741
Will I see any difference in regards to the volume of SPAM and phishing emails that I am seeing?
Yes, it should reduce the number of nuisance email you receive. Spam, phishing and malware such as viruses are a perennial danger where anyone is using email. Exchange Online includes multi-layered filtering against spam and phishing emails, which multiple anti-malware engines identifies and blocks virus attacks. All of these defences are constantly updated which means they provide an effective guard against the latest threats before they even reach your inbox.
If you do have any concerns regarding spam, phishing or malware then you should continue to report then to the CSCS Service Desk.
Will this have any bearing on the sending of mass emails - 1,000 recipients plus?
The limits are now increased to a maximum of 6000 emails sent per 24 hours. (With a limitation of 2000 external and 4000 internal emails sent per hour)
There is a restriction set on the Outlook client where it can only send to a maximum of 500 recipients at a time per individual email sent, you can get round this by using distributions lists (counts as one recipient and is the recommended method), dividing the sending into batches, or using a client like mail merge
What software should I use on my Mac to get email
Exchange Online does NOT support Mac Mail so you will need to use Outlook or webmail.
I have been migrated but my colleagues haven't. How do I email and schedule meetings with them? What about Shared Mailboxes?
Sending email – make sure that you use the person’s medschl address. If you look for them in the Global Address List you will probably find a match, but it may be using their cam mailbox and not medschl. If so, if you do not know if they are forwarding email or checking cam regularly better to address it to the medschl address by typing the whole email address in the to field.
Calendars – You can simply send a meeting invitation to a colleague using their medschl email address. You will not be able to see their calendar availability, however. To do that you will need to log into the CSCS webmail system to check their calendar – https://webmail.medschl.cam.ac.uk
Shared mailboxes – to access a shared mailbox you will need to log into the CSCS webmail system – https://webmail.medschl.cam.ac.uk
My department/colleagues have been migrated, but I haven’t. How do I email and schedule meetings with them? What about Shared Mailboxes?
Sending email – no change needed. If you email a migrated person at either medschl or cam email address, it will arrive to the same mailbox
Calendars - You can simply send a meeting invitation to a colleague using either a medschl or a cam email address. You will not be able to see their calendar availability, however. To do that you will need to log into the Exchange Online webmail system to check their calendar – https://outlook.office.com
Shared mailboxes - to access a shared mailbox you will need to log into the Exchange Online webmail system https://outlook.office.com
