Thomas Docherty – 2014 Parliamentary Question to the House of Commons Commission

The below Parliamentary question was asked by Thomas Docherty on 2014-07-16.

To ask the hon. Member for Caithness, Sutherland and Easter Ross representing the House of Commons Commission, pursuant to the Answer of 8 July 2014, Official Report, column 176-7W, on computer software, what further feedback the Commission has received from (a) hon. Members, (b) hon. Members’ staff and (c) other users on migration to Office 365 since that Answer was given.

John Thurso

In the period 22 June to 16 July, 3,482 mailboxes assigned to hon. Members and their staff had been migrated. In that period, PICT logged 766 cases from hon. Members and their staff – either by phone or at PICT Local – directly related to issues resulting from the migration of their mailboxes. Parliamentary ICT (PICT) acknowledges that the implementation has not been as simple and straightforward as was hoped, and is aware that it has caused problems for some hon. Members.

Since the answer to the hon. Member on 8 July, three hon. Members have given PICT written feedback on the migration of their mailbox. One was complimenting the PICT team on making it a smooth process. One was questioning the process and the distinction between the upgrade to Office 2013 and the migration of a mailbox to Microsoft 365. One had a problem with the limit on the number of people who can be added to a single email distribution list in Microsoft 365.

Two further hon. Members have given positive oral feedback and asked to join the pilot of the wider suite of tools within Microsoft 365. Oral feedback from the teams of House staff who are also piloting the use of this wider suite of tools continues to be positive.

The Director of PICT would be delighted to meet the hon. Member for Dunfermline and West Fife, or any other interested Member, to discuss the feedback in more detail.