A Microsoft 365 rollout for a large multi academy trust takes more than just great tech. Strategic planning, consistency and a partner who truly understands education are essential for real success. That’s why Harris Federation trusted Cloud Design Box to lead its scalable Microsoft 365 rollout, supporting 54 schools, 40,000+ learners and over 5,000 staff at the large multi academy trust.
About the Harris Federation
The Harris Federation is an education charity led by teachers, dedicated to closing the inclusion gap. It serves disadvantaged communities in London, striving for educational excellence and improving pupils’ life and career prospects. Harris is one of the highest-achieving MATs in the country, with 100% of its academies rated ‘Good’ or ‘Outstanding’ by Ofsted.
“We spoke to similar-sized MATs and considered other offerings, including in-house systems. However, we wanted to work with a partner to maximise the impact of Microsoft 365 in our Academies.”
– Edd Amos, M365 Infrastructure Manager
The challenges of a Microsoft 365 rollout for large multi academy trusts
The Harris Federation had a clear vision: to bring consistency, simplicity and better user experience to its Microsoft 365 environment. But the scale of the task was significant.
Key challenges included:
- Coordinating a rollout across 54 schools.
- Managing data migrations and permissions without disruption to learning.
- Ensuring stakeholder buy-in from digital leads, SLT and principals.
- Training and onboarding thousands of users.
- Reducing IT workload while improving usability.
- Aligning SharePoint and Teams with school timetable structures.
Solution – A Microsoft 365 rollout built for large multi academy trusts
To meet these goals, Harris Federation partnered with Cloud Design Box, beginning with a three-school pilot in 2022. The success of the pilot led to a phased roll-out across the trust in 2023–24.
Key components of the solution included:
- Custom SharePoint and Teams templates that mirrored school structures.
- The intuitive Cloud Design Box Mega Menu, making navigation easier for staff and students.
- A bespoke training and communication plan, aligned with school holiday periods.
- Role-based access and integrations with timetables, ensuring staff and students only saw what was relevant.
- Automated creation of Teams and SharePoint sites, reducing admin burden.
This work was supported by design workshops, deep planning documentation, and training delivered collaboratively by Cloud Design Box and Harris digital leads.
“This partnership has worked very well. Cloud Design Box now has a tried, tested, and successful delivery and deployment system planned in depth with a large MAT leadership team.”
– Lee Mallin, Assistant Director & Programme Sponsor
Future plans
With Microsoft 365 now rolled out trust-wide, the organisation continues to focus on:
- Improving collaboration between schools through standardised systems.
- Maintaining user engagement and adoption with continuous training and feedback.
- Exploring further automation and personalisation to reduce teacher workload.
- Sharing lessons learned with other MATs embarking on large-scale digital transformation.
“Feedback from users has been extremely positive. When we asked users for feedback, 92% of ratings were good or excellent.”
– Andy Murden, Digital Learning Lead
The Harris Federation’s collaboration with Cloud Design Box highlights how strategic partnerships and careful planning can unlock the full potential of Microsoft 365 in education. From ease of use to support and scalability, the project delivered measurable impact, all while putting user experience front and centre.
Find out more about our work with The Harris Federation and read the full case study here.
