Regions will move gradually into NDP over a period of weeks on a branch by branch basis and as explained in the information below the majority of volunteer roles will no longer require an Office 365 licence, this includes Microsoft Outlook (email).
The information in this document is a copy of the email comms that is/will be sent to those volunteers who will no longer be provided with an O365 licence and is emailed to them directly shortly before moving into NDP - all the details and timelines are included below.
The information has been published here to enable any volunteer or employee to access it whenever they wish.
Overview
Now that GoAssemble has become well established as our Volunteer Management System (VMS) in the Network Delivery Project (NDP) regions, we are able to reduce the number of Microsoft Office (O)365 licenses purchased by SSAFA. This will not impact your volunteer role as you can access all resources via GoAssemble, which includes a message centre as your primary communication platform.
Who is affected and when?
All branch executives are retaining their O365 accounts.
MS O365 accounts will be closed for all caseworker and community engagement volunteers who do not hold additional volunteer roles that require O365 accounts (for example Mentors). Volunteers will be identified during the preparation phase for NDP transition and accounts will be closed 4 weeks after a volunteer has been set up on GoAssemble.
A link to this document has been included in the NDP emails scheduled to be sent to all volunteers 4 weeks prior to transition, 2 weeks prior to transition and again the day before transition. The below information will also be included in the email sent those volunteers who's accounts are due to be closed 2 weeks prior to the deactivation of their account.
Why are O365 accounts being closed?
With the successful implementation of GoAssemble, the need for all volunteers to have an MS O365 account is greatly reduced and for most volunteers it is not needed at all. All new volunteers (in non-exec roles), who have started in an NDP region, have not been provided O365 accounts and have been able to undertake their roles effectively.
Additionally, there is a considerable cost attached to providing MS O365 accounts to every volunteer. Previously, MS O365 accounts enabled you to access resources and systems necessary to your volunteer role, however GoAssemble and the Volunteer Knowledgebase now hold all the information and resources you need, without requiring an MS O365 account.
What does this mean for me?
You will still be able to fully perform your volunteer role with the use of GoAssemble. All resources and information previously found on SSAFAnet are available in the Volunteer Knowledgebase.
Once your account has been closed you will no longer have access to your MS Outlook email account, OneDrive, any MS applications or SSAFAnet.
What do I need to do?
In preparation for your account being closed please review all data and information that you might store on your OneDrive and within your SSAFA MS O365 Outlook email account. Even if your region will not transition for some time, starting to be mindful of what information you chose to store from now on will reduce the amount of sorting required just prior to your regions transition.
As there will be four weeks between your transition onto GoAssemble and the closure of your O365 account you will have plenty of time to forward essential emails to your GoAssemble email address, if it is necessary to keep a record of them.
Once you know the date your branch will transition, and therefore the date your O365 account will be closed, we advise that you set up an ‘Out of Office’ on your account advising what date your account will be closed and that you are contactable via your GoAssemble email (for example [email protected]). Guidance on how to set up an ‘Out of Office’ message can be found here.
Community engagement volunteers, if you have any essential information relating to branch activities, please coordinate with a member of your branch exec team who are retaining MS O365. If it is necessary to keep the information, they will be able to store it securely on their OneDrive or within the branch mailbox.
Caseworkers, please ensure any documents relating to a live case are uploaded to Mosaic before your account is closed and any documents related to a closed case are deleted.
What do I need to keep a record of?
As you go through existing folders and files, please take the approach of “I have a reason to retain that” rather than “I will retain it just in case”.
Where you are unsure of individual documents or folders please speak to your Regional Office (RO), Volunteer Development Manager (VDM) or branch exec team to determine if the document is needed.
If you hold any personal data, for example for clients/beneficiaries, you MUST have a genuine reason for retaining it, one that is UK GDPR compliant - “just in case” or “it might be useful to keep” are not legitimate reasons for retention. Data is considered personal data if it could be used, directly or indirectly, to identify an individual. Examples of personal data include: a name and surname, a home address, an email address, an identification card number, etc.
Mosaic is SSAFA’s approved and secure records management system for storing and processing beneficiary personal data. If you hold any digital or paper forms, documents or any other type of information, outside of Mosaic, that includes personal data of beneficiaries these MUST be deleted or destroyed.
Any original documents provided by beneficiaries should have been returned to them once copies were made and uploaded to Mosaic.
Please refer to the Data Protection Policy for more information.
What will happen if someone tries to contact me via my MS O365 email address after it’s closed?
After transitioning into NDP, GoAssemble will become your primary communication platform for both internal and external communications, therefore the closure of your O365 account will not affect communications.
By setting your ‘Out of Office’ prior to your transition date you will provide those that still try to contact you via Outlook plenty of notice of your account closure and how they can contact you in the future.
If anyone emails your MS O365 account after it has been closed, they will receive an automated email advising that the account is no longer active. This response is sent by Microsoft, which means that, unfortunately, we are unable to customise the details.