Client Director
Prefer to speak to us about our approach to SharePoint migrations? Book a short call with one of our team to get answers to your questions.
Migrating to SharePoint is more than just moving files; it involves careful planning and execution across multiple stages. From data mapping and pre-migration testing to migration execution, post-migration validation, and driving user adoption, each step is critical to a successful outcome. In this article, we explore the key steps and considerations involved in a SharePoint file migration.
SharePoint Migrations are complicated, restructuring data, ensuring that no file is lost and taking users on the journey are all key. There are three golden rules when it comes to SharePoint Migrations:
1. SharePoint is Not a File Server: You’re moving from a hierarchical file structure, SharePoint is designed differently with its site-centric design. Reorganising your content is key to getting the full benefit of SharePoint.
2. Users Won’t Sort Their Files Out: Expecting users to go through file-by-file without support simply doesn’t work. Support them by providing a catalogue at a folder level and give them archive options instead of “keep” or “delete”.
3. Users Need Training: While SharePoint might feel intuitive to you, onboarding training is essential for most users. Equip them with the knowledge to use tools like OneDrive for Business Sync effectively—it makes all the difference.
Now, let’s dive into the details.
Just as you would go through your home, deciding what needs to stay with you and what can be disposed of, your business will need to go through its file servers and cloud storage systems (think dropbox, Google Drive) and establish what information is to be moved and what should be archived or deleted.
We Divide the Needs of Our Clients Into One of Three Scenarios. These Are:
While the SharePoint migration checklist below will improve the outcomes of any of these scenarios, it is specifically tailored for file-server to tenant migrations.
Download our SharePoint Migration Checklist - it has over 70 steps in total and is broken down into five stages as follows:
Moving your files to a new structure in SharePoint is a great opportunity to validate that you are complying with your GDPR obligations by setting up appropriate retention policies and deleting data you should no longer be holding. Your SharePoint information architecture will help your organisation to stay compliant, secure and accessible.
Our experienced SharePoint consultancy team typically migrate over a million files a month to Microsoft 365, they work with our clients to implement a plan that follows our detailed content migration SharePoint strategy, ensuring we meet client needs and provide an efficient, cost-effective solution to complete their SharePoint migration.
If you’re happy going it alone, we’ve provided our SharePoint online Migration checklist below and also as a download, but if you want to know more about our SharePoint migration services, please feel free to get in touch.
Our SharePoint Checklist is evaluated after each migration we perform as best practice for SharePoint migrations continues to evolve. From complex security mapping to designing target structures for those with high compliance needs, we love finding unique solutions that suit each organisation we work with as no two migrations are the same.
The most important takeaway from this guide should be that you need to give yourself sufficient time, proper planning, and a rollback strategy if things don’t pan out correctly the first time. If you’re in any doubt about how to proceed, our team at Information EXP are here to take you through the process.
When migrating to Microsoft 365 from a file server, we recommend SPMT, the free SharePoint Migration Tool from Microsoft. If you want to move a significant number of files within your tenant or move tenant-to-tenant, consider Sharegate. Read about all the tools we use
A SharePoint migration can take as little as a weekend for smaller data volumes, depending on factors like data size and connection speed. However, planning, preparation, and file reconciliation takes significantly longer to ensure a successful and accurate migration.
The duration to migrate files to SharePoint Online depends on your source environment, connectivity, and throttling by Microsoft. 100GB per hour is possible, but often data is transferred at a lower rate. Perform a test migration first and try to mirror production conditions as much as reasonably possible.
Microsoft’s free SharePoint Migration Tool (SPMT) handles the migration, but success requires more. You must design the target information architecture, plan file mappings and batches, and perform reconciliation. Thorough preparation is crucial for a smooth and effective migration.
Yes. Microsoft’s migration tools make it possible to migrate Google Drive content to Microsoft 365 and convert G Suite / Google Workspace files to Microsoft Office Format. It’s important to plan the project carefully, not only because SharePoint is a more comprehensive platform but also because the user experience is very different.
Using Microsoft’s migration tool you can migrate from dropbox. Our experience is that due to a lack of governance, the data requires significant reorganising before it’s ready to be migrated – this can be addressed as part of a mapping process.
Mapping user permissions when migrating to SharePoint isn’t generally a good idea. As a rule, we will not do this. Experience has shown that taking shortcuts to accelerate the migration project does not pay dividends. File permission migration functionality simply doesn’t work due to the different ways that SharePoint and file servers manage permissions.
Client Director
Ask how we can help you:
Questions? We reply within a working day.
Or Book a call to speak to an expert.
Click through to see our other blog posts.
When you’re planning to migrate files to SharePoint, you’ll quickly establish that you need a tool to support you on that journey. We wouldn’t say the right tool makes a SharePoint migration a breeze – but with the right planning, you can make it as risk-free as reasonably possible.
In this article and our video, we explore managing Redundant, Obsolete, and Trivial data in SharePoint and Teams—a part of our Microsoft 365 Copilot series. Based on Microsoft best practices, our guidance bridges the gap from ‘what’ to ‘how’, providing practical insights based on experience.
Utilising templates like Word Letterheads and PowerPoint Sales Proposals is essential for maintaining consistency in document creation. They help enforce branding guidelines, ensure legal compliance, and reduce friction for employees.
