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Case study: migrating from Office 365 to Google WorkSpace
_rzilient recently completed the migration from Office 365 to Google Workspace for the teams of one of our customers.
Presentation of the context, the challenge to be solved and the approach implemented by our teams of IT experts.
The context: our client, based in Paris
Our client is an agency with about fifteen people. They help their customers make their legal documents simple, legible, and intuitive.
The company initially worked with Office 365 and its suite of tools, then decided to switch to the Google suite, because they used Microsoft office tools (Word and Excel mainly), as well as email. ✉️
The problem: incomplete use of Office 365
The problem is that our client's teams never really fully adapted to using Office 365 tools.
Sharepoint was used, but it was used backwards, “undergoing” the solution rather than taking full advantage of it.
And in the age of teleworking, videoconferencing tools have become essential. However, the team used the Teams videoconferencing solution very timidly.
The reason for this is simple and cannot be discussed: they found Teams less easy to use and less user-friendly than other tools. ⚙️
The solution: migrate to Google WorkSpace
We analyzed the client's context, and recommended a switch to Google WorkSpace, while preparing for this migration in every detail!
Phase 1: analysis, recommendations and action plan
The company called on _rzilient to find a suitable and effective solution.
Our IT experts analyzed the use of teams, and quickly identified the source of customer frustration: the friction generated by the use of Office 365 and Teams in particular.
We identified a significant potential gain in productivity time, compared to the existing one, but also a disadvantage in terms of licenses.
Indeed, Google's offer is a bit more expensive than Microsoft's, but the customer did not consider that this was a major obstacle.
Following the decision to migrate to Google WorkSpace, the key challenge for us was to anticipate change management, which is fundamental to the success of such a project.
In particular, the switch involved the loss of the use of Word and Excel licenses, whose teams were very consuming.
Our recommendation was to make a smooth transition to Google Spreadsheets and Google Docs, while maintaining active licenses for Word and Excel, for a few months.
Our analysis of internal documents showed that there were no documents with compatibility issues. For example, no complex macros were used in Excel. So we could easily migrate to Spreadsheets.
Phase 2: completion of the switch to Google WorkSpace
For the migration, the customer wanted to migrate without disrupting the production of its teams, that is to say in the evening or during the weekend.
We therefore agreed with the employees that it would take place on a Saturday evening, and that the loss of access to the tools would only last a few minutes, especially for messaging, which was of major importance in their context.
We used Google's native tools (Mail, Calendar, Contacts) as well as Cloud HQ, to migrate Teams and Sharepoint.
The new procedure was scheduled to come into force on Sunday.
The migration went perfectly: it was completed on time, without any data loss or business loss.
Phase 3: support and change management
Our main focus has been on support and change management, which are often the key success factors for a successful migration.
As early as the Monday morning following the changeover, _rzilient provided an IT expert on site, at our client's premises, to help the teams in their new context.
Concretely, migration has not generated major impacts. Above all, there were processes to be re-explained to the teams.
The most disturbing aspect was the switch from Outlook to Google's online email. Our team took the time to train and support the client's team on this tool.
Some minor usage behaviors, as well as settings and configurations have been adjusted, to meet their expectations as closely as possible.
The importance of change management in an IT migration
At _rzilient, we are convinced that a successful migration is a migration prepared in advance, during which we train and prepare the teams that will be impacted by the change!
It is also a question of properly analyzing the needs in terms of business continuity of the company and of being available in the event of errors (data copying, for example), in order to correct them quickly and not block the customer's production.
Post-migration support is also vital, so that teams can very quickly regain their usual productivity, and enjoy working with the new tools put in place.
_rzilient supports you in your software migration projects, What if we talked about it ? 😊