The Time Is Now for Office 365 Migration

User disruption. Email is critical to carry out many normal business functions. It’s frustrating for users when email goes out for 15 minutes; imagine that disruption scaled up throughout a migration project that lasts months. It’s a risk that organizations can’t afford to take. Ensuring users maintain uninterrupted access to email throughout the migration is crucial.

The “human” factor presents a wide margin for error. Not every aspect of a migration can be automated, and some tasks are extremely detail oriented and arduous. Typically there is not a lot of in-house experience around migrations; the manual and repetitive tasks increase the risk for error, which can result in user disruption, extended timelines, and, in some cases, permanent data loss, which is a big no-no for user satisfaction as well as regulatory compliance.

Migrations are extremely time consuming. When performed in-house, the migration process can become a full-time job, and IT departments cannot ignore day-to-day operations. The migration process must be managed in a way that keeps the IT department available for routine tasks as well as any urgent needs.

Decentralized and complex data sources. While most organizations are on top of the email migration portion of a digital transformation, oftentimes the dispersed third-party archive systems and PST files are forgotten. If this related data isn’t also migrated to the cloud, there’s a missing piece to the puzzle that could hinder productivity and a positive user experience. These systems and their data require even more expertise to move. Take PST files, for example: Locating and eradicating PST files is a slow, painful process. Typically, these files are sprawled all over the network (as well as on local devices and network shares). These files can be corrupted or password-protected, and Microsoft does not have a native tool to aid in easy discovery. Similarly, with third-party archives, deep knowledge of both the source system and target system are required to migrate data quickly and without error or disruption.

Unforeseen complications can extend project timelines and costs. Sometimes these issues are predictable, but not in all cases. Instability with Exchange, any misconfiguration problems or data corruption combined with potential issues with your source system/files (archive systems, PST files) can throw a wrench in even the best laid plans, pushing out your completion date and throwing your customers’ budget (and potentially your margins) out the window.