Key Issues for Divestiture Migrations

“Divestitures require cautious planning and execution, however they’ll create great alternatives for firms to remodel their companies and unlock new progress potential.” – Ginni Rometty, former CEO of IBM.

Divestitures are widespread in enterprise, and IT professionals and MSPs ought to be ready for them. There are completely different sorts, however often, a divestiture entails a enterprise being acquired by a separate firm, leading to a merger with the brand new firm’s IT setting. This could possibly be Workplace 365, Google Workspace or one other tenant.

Whether or not firms create a brand new group, purchase an current firm or spin off a brand new enterprise, they sometimes have to restructure information belongings. Belongings can vary from enterprise data to doc databases, emails and extra. This restructuring usually means MSPs have to execute a migration.

Migrations, after all, aren’t any easy job. There are quite a few steps, challenges and finest practices MSPs ought to take into account to make sure a clean migration throughout a divestiture. Whether or not that is your first divestiture or not, it’s by no means too late to hone the method.

Challenges

It’s vital to determine which environments are concerned within the divestiture. Does it make sense emigrate to an current setting or create a brand new one? Maybe one firm makes use of Microsoft Workplace 365 whereas the opposite firm is utilizing Google Workspace. MSPs are sometimes tasked with both making a greenfield setting the place every thing is ready up from scratch or working with the CIO and IT groups to find out which productiveness suite and practices work finest for the merged firm.

“Divestitures are an vital manner for firms to divest themselves of companies that aren’t performing and deal with their core enterprise and progress areas.” – Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft.

One problem MSPs face is matching a number of items with the mother or father firm. These embody safety parameters, licensing schemes and even e-mail setups. For instance, the mother or father firm might use [email protected] for his or her e-mail addresses whereas the acquired firm makes use of [email protected]. This creates a problem for the mother or father firm, which now has to inform its new workers they’re getting a brand new e-mail deal with after 20 years.

MSPs additionally need to make sure that safety protocols between the environments match. Mismatched protocols create alternatives for hackers to entry the setting and harm operations.

Geography may current a problem. Divestitures can occur between firms in numerous nations, creating an IT barrier that may complicate migrations. For instance, an organization in Germany that shops nearly all of its information on native programs may have to migrate all of it to the OneDrive of a brand new mother or father firm in Japan. This causes an immense problem as a result of many nations have completely different restrictions in place relating to information migrations. In consequence, it’s vital to know what information will be moved relying on regional regulation for the nations concerned within the divestiture. This can be a time-consuming course of, however it is going to be value it in the long run.

What to know earlier than migrating

Earlier than a divestiture migration, take into account a number of questions. What are the prices related to the migration? What are its staffing wants? What’s the timeline for ending? How a lot information must be moved? These are key questions that must be answered beforehand.

As well as, you want the precise instruments. The fitting migration software can make sure the transition is profitable and minimally disruptive to finish customers. These instruments additionally provide predictability. Migration instruments with varied bundles assist MSPs choose the most suitable choice for his or her particular migration. This tells them how a lot a migration will value and helps them keep away from disastrous surprises.

MSPs also needs to take into account bringing in a buyer success engineer as quickly because the divestiture pre-sale is completed. Handover between pre-sales representatives and the client success workforce is a necessary step to the success of a divestiture migration. A buyer success engineer might help deal with any points or issues that come up throughout a posh migration. This can guarantee there may be added assist through the migration course of to stop mishaps and preserve finish customers glad.

Greatest Practices

Whether or not it’s earlier than, throughout or after a migration, there are a number of finest practices that assist guarantee a clean course of. In case you’re utilizing a migration software, at all times be certain that to look at the timestamps and monitor the migration because it progresses. Don’t look forward to the software to inform you the migration is full. Some recordsdata could not have migrated, which might trigger complications for the tip consumer and delay the venture. At all times make sure that every file is really full by checking for any errors which will happen through the transition. One easy approach to confirm that is to check file sizes.

It is best to at all times ask extra questions than seem on the usual working process (SOP). All buyer environments have hidden quirks. An organization could have stopped utilizing EMC SourceOne over three years in the past however doesn’t notice there are nonetheless stubs pointing to the e-mail system. Now, it’s the final day of the migration, and this info hasn’t been moved. Unknowns like these can hobble all the migration, delaying each authorized and enterprise deadlines for the divestiture.

Lastly, be certain that finish customers are educated within the new environments and productiveness suites. A brand new suite will at all times have a studying curve. Due to this, you need to provide coaching to workers unfamiliar with new environments. With entry to coaching assets, workers can guarantee they perceive use the platform and its instruments and work throughout groups effectively with out slowing down operations.

Migrating information throughout a divestiture will be sophisticated, however it’s not unattainable. By following these steps and finest practices, MSPs can guarantee migrations run easily, enabling CIOs and executives to deal with the general divestiture course of and reassuring finish customers their information is safe and guarded.

By Tosin Vaithilingam