Making the switch to Microsoft 365

This retailer learned about MigrationWiz from a trusted service provider when they were evaluating a migration to Microsoft 365 from Google Workspace in 2017.

The team initially used FastTrack services for mail migration. However, when it came to documents the team found additional file level functionality was needed. This led them to select MigrationWiz for file migrations.

“Our employees had a substantial amount of data in Google Drive, and ensuring all of those files converted cleanly with the file permissions intact was a big reason for selecting MigrationWiz,” said the senior IT director in charge of the project. “When we moved files over, we didn’t want to make our users take on the additional workload of re-establishing permissions. MigrationWiz provided this key piece of functionality we couldn’t find anywhere else.”

Prior to using MigrationWiz, the team had to navigate and troubleshoot errors using generic codes from first-party tools that didn’t provide good details as to why something was being held up. By transitioning to MigrationWiz, the team could easily track and quickly follow up on more detailed error messages, particularly around those bigger Drive accounts more likely to stall. They were able to migrate 9,000 user accounts and over a petabyte of data to their central tenant.

“We have a whole library of lessons learned from this effort,” said the director. “Two of the system engineers did nothing but batching, moving, and troubleshooting.”

For the business, the transition to Microsoft 365 unlocked a new level of potential for collaboration and teamwork among its workforce. It also wouldn’t be the last time this team faced a migration from Google to Microsoft.

Integrating an acquisition

In 2017, the retailer announced a major acquisition that could offer IT services directly to millions of small and mid-sized businesses (SMBs) located in close proximity to one of the chain’s brick-and-mortar locations.

Beginning midway through 2020, the retailer finally started to transition users from the acquired company’s Google Workspace environment into a central Microsoft 365 tenant. The project was completed in early 2021. The process used a combination of first-party migration tools and MigrationWiz to migrate over 8,500 mailboxes and very large data sets from Google Drive, helping retain file permissions and convert formats for end users.

Looking forward to collaboration

The transition to Microsoft 365 – and the integration of the acquired company into the central tenant – allowed the retailer to successfully navigate the challenges of the Covid-19 pandemic. In addition to driving an internal culture of collaboration, the use of Microsoft 365 and applications like Teams has empowered the retailer and services provider to continue delivering value for their network of SMB customers.

“When we made the decision to go remote last year, we had 11,000 people working from home in three days,” said the senior IT director. “We wouldn’t have been nearly as successful at making that leap without Teams.”

As this retailer leads the way for small business customers across the country, their own management of internal infrastructure and focus on employee culture is making that mission possible.