In the lead up to the end of 2024 we had a rush on requests for migrations from Google's G Suite (Google Workspace) to Microsoft 365, particularly from clients in the legal space.
The last one for the year was a migration for one of our long standing law clients, they have beeing using Google for their business emails and documents the past 16 years, but were finding it more and more limiting in terms of sharing files both internally and externally (they had resorted to Dropbox for the latter), integration with Actionstep and sharing calendars.
Though the firm was less than 5 people, the Director alone had over 75GB of mail and their files amounted to nearly 200GB of data, obviously all critical to their business, so it was important that we maintained the integrity of the
previously the migration of the mail alone for one client taking a week and a half to complete due to data throttling from Google's side (we're guessing they really don't want to make it easy for businesses to leave their platform...) but with a good amount of project planning and maybe a bit too much caffeine we got there in the end.
Not every migration goes smoothly or has a happy ending, in fact we will cover the top things to look out for when migrating from Google to
Microsoft in a separate blog in the coming weeks, so stay tuned for that. But without further ado, here is this week's blog.....
Taking the leap
Why make the move from Google to Microsoft? In the case of our conveyancing client, they were experiencing issues with mailbox
permissions and calendar delegations within Gmail and needed the ability to quickly and easily give Paralegals access to a Solicitors
mailbox, allowing them to send correspondence from third party apps such as Smokeball and LEAP via plugins to the Microsoft Outlook
desktop app.
Calendar sharing was another big factor with integration to HubSpot as the existing integration with Gmail was causing headaches including
double bookings and missed appointments.
The
Process
Our conveyancing client wasn't initially a FortiTech client and had been planning to undertake the migration themselves, but after a bit
of research into what was needed they quickly realised that the migration was going to be a lot more involved than they had anticipated
and wisely decided to call on us to work our tech wizardry and do the migration for them.
As with any major change to technology within a business, it really is important to ensure you understand the steps involved and engage an
expert early, here is a basic overview of the process we went through with their migration, the unabridged version is not for the faint
hearted!
After our initial meeting we started gathering information about their current mail tenancy, including setting up administrative access
within Google and their domain in order to commence the early stages of the migration.
We then undertook an audit of their mailboxes and accounts to ensure they were all accounted for and prepped for migration including permissions for shared mailboxes, calendars and licensing within Microsoft.
Once we had a idea of the size of data to migrate, number of mailboxes and permissions we agreed on a migration date that would pose the least disruption to their workflow, this happened to be a Friday 2 weeks later.
In the lead up to the day we started the transfer of all mailbox, calendar and task data from Google to Microsoft, with some mailboxes
averaging 40GB (over 9 years worth) this was a slow, but critical, process, we had to ensure the integrity of the data as it came across
for each mailbox and in some cases run the migration process multiple times as the connection between Google and Microsoft timed out.
The agreed go-live day came quickly and we were on site early to set up each user with their new Microsoft Suite and to ensure the
mailboxes were downloading correctly into Outlook as planned, including shared mailbox access and calendar delegation. This included 3 work
from home users where we were able to connect into their devices remotely and undertake the setup.
The last step was installing Microsoft Office plugins for Hubspot, Smokeball and LEAP all of which setup without a hitch. *Phew*
Client Benefits
Feedback from our client was that they were both ecstatic and relieved with how smoothly the migration went and that their issues with
Hubspot were resolved along with the issues that the Principal was experiencing with calendar management.
As part of the migration our client also signed up to our Backup365 monthly subscription to provide backup of email and SharePoint file storage (a quick reminder that neither Microsoft nor Google back up your email by default)
If you undertake an email migration with FortiTech you also receive remote support and training for any migration related issues for 7 days post go live. This includes troubleshooting third party integrations and working with the supplier to resolve the issues.Ready to take the leap?
Whilst a migration from Google Workspaces / Gmail to Microsoft Office 365 might seem daunting, with FortiTech's help it doesn't have to
be. We are the technology experts, so you don't have to be.
If you are ready to discuss moving your business from Google to Microsoft just give us a call on 1300 778 078 and we will get you on your way to a more productive workplace.