4 Essential Things to Note When Migrating to Sharepoint
Moving to SharePoint has many benefits for your business, as SharePoint can provide you with all of the enterprise-level social, document management, and team collaboration needs you might require.
It’s no surprise, then, that SharePoint is the most heavily adopted platform among enterprise types, capturing over 68% usage in the industry.
Yet, migrating to SharePoint doesn’t come without its annoyances.
We’re here to help, with this guide to the essential things to note when migrating to SharePoint.
Keep reading to learn everything there is to know about migrating to SharePoint and how to make the process as smooth as possible.
1. Assess Your Current Business Needs
When migrating to SharePoint, it’s essential to understand your business needs in order to make the most of the technology. Start by taking an inventory of your current content, applications, and processes, and evaluate how you want to use SharePoint to improve them.
Ask yourself questions such as: What do you want your collaboration space to look like? What are the goals you hope to achieve with the migration to SharePoint? What processes, assets, data, and documents need to be incorporated?
Once you’ve identified what you want to accomplish, research the different apps and features available in SharePoint, such as Team Sites and OneDrive, to find solutions that meet your requirements.
Finally, it’s important to review and update user permissions and security groups as you move your content and applications to SharePoint.
2. Advantages of a SharePoint Migration
SharePoint migrations offer numerous advantages for businesses that are beginning to understand the opportunities they can provide. First, migrating to SharePoint often reduces costs associated with hardware, software, and IT personnel maintenance.
Additionally, SharePoint offers greater scalability and flexibility, allowing businesses to store and manage data more efficiently and securely.
Moreover, with its cloud-based platform, SharePoint provides organizations with access to real-time data, making information technology management and collaboration effortless. Finally, improved user experience is another important benefit provided through SharePoint migrations.
With the help of powerful search tools, intranet portals, and enhanced workflows, users are able to access data quickly and efficiently, resulting in improved productivity and efficiency.
In short, migration to SharePoint comes with many advantages that can help businesses become more successful.
3. Planning Your Migration Process
SharePoint migration is not an easy process and requires great thought and preparation. There are several essential things to note when planning a migration to SharePoint, such as:
Review Your Existing Infrastructure and Software
This includes examining servers, databases, operating systems, and software applications, as well as assessing the cost of their upgradation or replacement.
Security protocols should also be put in place and monitored to ensure data safety and compliance with regulations. Furthermore, other potential integration technologies (such as existing data sources) should be considered.
This includes assessing the need and impact of mapping existing solutions onto SharePoint. Direct integration of other systems (such as email, document management, and workflow management) should be explored.
Data migration tools, such as the SharePoint migration tool, should be utilized and thoroughly tested before being implemented. Lastly, a cost-benefit analysis should be performed to evaluate the feasibility of the migration before proceeding.
Identify Any Third-Party Applications
These applications may not be compatible with SharePoint, and could therefore limit the functionality of the system and the ability to implement changes.
It is important to thoroughly research each application, analyzing the version number, licensing model, and any potential incompatibilities.
If an application is found to be incompatible, it is also important to investigate alternatives, such as developing a suitable alternative or seeking support from vendors to ensure compatibility.
It is equally important to estimate the labor costs involved with migration and any additional efforts required in order to make third-party applications compatible.
Assess the Amount of Content That Needs to Be Migrated
This includes analyzing existing content, identifying the Owner and Creator for each item, and determining the Last Modified date. This helps to get an accurate picture of the content and determine which items should be migrated.
It is also important to consider the size and type of the content, as this can help to determine which approach should be used to migrate the content. It is also essential to identify any sensitive data that may need special handling during the migration.
Finally, it is important to consider any requirements for the migration, such as data mapping, content security and access control, reporting and monitoring, and potential modifications that might be required to existing content structures.
Define Any Customizations That Must Be Done
Before the migration, the customization requirements must be identified, mapped, and clearly defined. The processes should be documented, including any dependencies and requirements for successful data transfer.
System architects, developers, and business analysts should meet to discuss the desired functionality and document any necessary customizations.
Additionally, assessing current resources, budgets, and timelines should be considered before setting a deadline. Understanding the specific need for customization and planning out the specifications properly are key elements when planning a migration.
The team should involve stakeholders and take into account the overall goals of the project so that the final product is tailored to the company’s needs. Planning and being aware of customizations is essential when planning a SharePoint migration.
Determine the Scope of the Migration
It’s important to develop a strategy to analyze the current system’s structure and content and plan for any outstanding data upload operations.
While figuring out the scope, it is also necessary to consider other aspects such as cost, timelines, risks, and opportunities. While doing so, one must also define how the success of the migration will be measured. Finally, plan for new system maintenance, including user support and upgrade management.
All of these steps should be detailed in the project plan to ensure nothing is missed, allowing the Migration to proceed as smoothly and quickly as possible.
4. Ensuring Reliable Security for Your Data
Performing a thorough risk assessment of your existing security measures and configurations will help identify any potential security weaknesses, allowing you to address them prior to migrating.
Once the migration is complete, double-check that your security settings are configured correctly for the new system and ensure all permissions are in place.
It is also important to ensure that all devices connected to your SharePoint environment are properly patched and that authentication and authorization methods are properly implemented.
Additionally, a secure data backup plan should be in place to prevent data loss and maximize security. Finally, familiarize yourself with SharePoint’s Security and Compliance Center and Auditing settings, so you can ensure that suspicious activity is quickly detected and appropriate action is taken.
Taking these steps prior to and during the migration process will help ensure that your SharePoint environment is secure and reliable.
In conclusion, migrating to SharePoint is a major decision and should not be taken lightly. Businesses should understand the essential points we discussed to ensure a successful and secure transition.
Establish clear policies and procedures, determine the data that needs to be migrated, and find experienced SharePoint experts to help guide you.
Take the time to properly plan for a successful migration and you will be ready to share and collaborate within SharePoint. Start the journey today!
