Integrating IT environments after the merger of companies

Effective merging of both entities’ data into one target Microsoft 365 tenant required detailed planning and cooperation between All For One and specialists from both merging groups of companies.
The All For One Poland team had to take into account differences in the infrastructure, applications and user preferences of both transaction parties, while ensuring a smooth transition and minimal disruption to daily work.

When two groups of entities merge, it is essential to transfer data, user accounts and services from separate Microsoft 365 environments to a common environment. Ensuring the proper functioning of corporate mail and seamless access to corporate applications and systems is a key element from the perspective of business continuity, employee satisfaction and productivity.

It was crucial to plan the migration work so that any problems with mail performance, access to SharePoint sites and OneDrive would not disrupt key operations in the construction industry.

After a thorough analysis of the amount of data and the number of users, All For One Poland specialists decided to migrate using the cutover method. This is a method characterized by the transfer of data between tenants, in which the copying of data does not directly affect the work of users. When performing data copying operations between tenants, employees of both organizations do not experience any inconvenience, as the entire process is transparent to them.

The biggest challenge is the moment of user cutover, which is the day when all users of company A receive new login credentials at company B. Once they log in to the new environment, they should not notice any difference in SharePoint sites, e-mails and their Outlook applications as well as data stored on OneDrive drives.

The All For One team conducted a comprehensive analysis of the infrastructure, identifying key dependencies between applications and assessing potential challenges. The prepared migration plan involved the reconstruction of user accounts, SharePoint sites with permissions, Exchange shared mailboxes and distribution lists on the target side. The migration included the transfer of all user accounts and terabytes of data to the M365 VBC tenant in the United States.

One of the challenges requiring meticulous management was the so-called throttling in the Microsoft environment. Throttling is the control of bandwidth to manage service load, which is key to maintaining the stability of a cloud environment. Prior to the migration, we prepared a request to Microsoft support, minimizing potential transfer restrictions. Together with Polcom Group’s IT team, we provided updates on the progress of the migration on an ongoing basis.

For the migration, we used Avepoint Fly, software which is dedicated to these purpose and supports the entire process of transferring data between tenants. The environment prepared for the migration consisted of five virtual servers located in the All for One Data Center. Each of these servers was equipped with considerable computing power and was configured to handle multiple parallelized migration tasks simultaneously. This approach was intended to maximize the efficiency of transfer between tenants.

The team responsible for the migration constantly monitored the load on the servers, the progress of migration tasks and logs related to any blockages on the side of Microsoft servers. When necessary, there was an immediate response adjusting the number of tasks performed simultaneously to optimize the migration process. A major and also the most time-consuming challenge was to migrate a significant number of individual files residing in SharePoint sites.

Flexibility in adapting work strategies to changing conditions, such as throttling on the part of the service provider, were key to the successful data migration between the Microsoft 365 environments of the Polcom Group and VBC.

The switchover day is a key moment of migration, when an organization moves from its old environment to a new one. From that moment on, the changed DNS records direct all traffic to the new environment, and all e-mails are sent directly to users’ mailboxes in the destination tenant.

The Polcom Group, aware of the criticality of this moment, successfully reconfigured users’ laptops, eliminating additional problems reported to local IT. From now on, users are able to log in to M365 resources with a new account and password provided by our client’s IT team.   All For One Poland not only carried out the data migration, but also provided technical support after the migration process was completed. This gives the organization confidence that they can count on assistance in resolving any potential technical issues.

The migration of the Office 365 environment between tenants, carried out by All For One Poland for Volumetric Building Companies (VBC) and the Polcom Group, has brought numerous operational, technological and strategic benefits that significantly impacted the efficiency of both companies. The comprehensive analysis of the infrastructure carried out by All For One Poland was crucial, as it allowed for a thorough understanding of the needs and requirements of both organizations. As a result, the migration was carefully planned, minimizing the risk of disruption to daily operations and ensuring business continuity.

The T2T migration has been one of the more interesting projects carried out by our department over the recent months. The main risk factor we had to manage was data loss and ensuring work continuity for our employees. Recognizing the technological limitations early on in the project, we worked with the All for One team to develop an approach that minimized the risk of losing data and shared files. All for One Poland’s tools and specialists helped meet our high standards, and the implementation itself went off without a hitch. I consider the implementation of the project to be very positive. The successfully completed project is a milestone for us in creating global structures.

Jan Szary, Director of IT Applications, Volumetric Building Companies