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How to Migrate your Records Management Solution to SharePoint Online

As highlighted in our previous blog, SharePoint is quickly becoming organizations’ preferred solution for collaboration and document management due to its enhanced capabilities, alignment with business users' existing structures and focus on the end-user experience.  

But what steps does an organization need to take to ensure a successful migration?  

“One thing is certain – organizations can be in for a rough and costly road ahead if they underestimate what’s involved in setting up a records management solution for user adoption and success,” says Cham Tanh, CTO, of HELUX.  

Far more complex than flipping a switch from one platform to another, preparing for and implementing a smooth migration that unlocks all the incredible productivity, efficiency and compliance benefits of SharePoint requires several important consecutive steps. At the highest level, these steps aim to design the solution in a way that helps individuals manage records more efficiently – whether creating a structure that resonates with end users, organizing files in a way that makes sense to them or developing a "retention schedule" or "file plan," with rules specifying how long records should be kept and what actions need to be taken when they expire. 

Let's take a closer look a the 5 key steps involved in a successful migration

Steps 

Key Activities   

1. Develop a migration strategy  

 

Ensure the success of your Microsoft 365 implementation 

    • Develop an approach to discovery, classification, exclusion, and file routing that makes sense for your organization 

    • Map your old content to the new content 

                - What content will you bring over?  

                - Where will it be routed? 

    • Determine how permissions and integrations will be handled 

    • Document key decisions to create a repeatable process 

2. Define an information architecture 


 

Enable better information governance and automated records management 

 

  • Avoid a lift and shift migration as it is no longer an option for an efficient workforce 

  • Define site, content and navigation structures that align to end-user’s needs 

  • Develop a permission model  

  • Standardize your information to enable a repeatable process for deployment 

3. Configure records management  

 

Enhance compliance, efficiency, and organizational accountability 

  • Consolidate and clean up your file plan 

  • Determine how records are declared, file retention is triggered, and records are disposed  

  • Create retention labels – apply them manually or automatically 

 

4. Conduct a migration proof of concept 

 

Start small to ensure the planned structure will work for your organization  

  • Validate your migration strategy with a smaller data set 

  • Measure baseline performance 

  • Test out integrations 

  • Develop/tweak your ultimate project plan to determine an overall timeline for production migration 

  • Update your overall migration strategy with findings 

 

5. Migrate production 

 

Aim for a smooth transition that avoids business disruption 

  • Establish migration schedule 

  • Run migration during non-peak hours and introduce a freeze window 

  • Leverage migration API to avoid slowing or limiting the process 

  • Limit delta migrations as much as possible  

  • Conduct a migration audit to verify the integrity and accuracy of transferred data and ensure no data loss 

 

“Migration to SharePoint online is more of a well-planned journey than a quick trip from point A to point B,” explains Tanh. “How thoroughly and methodically an organization plans, prepares for, and implements their migration strategy can make or break whether the new platform drives the efficiency, productivity, and governance gains they’re striving for.  Fortunately, with the right strategy and guidance in place, a strong return on investment is well within reach.”  

 HELUX’s team of leading experts believes that companies don’t have to go at it alone. Every day, they help organizations to strategize, plan, and execute highly successful migrations to SharePoint – on time and on budget – leveraging HELUX’s leading-edge products, and following the steps above to a level of detail, expertise, and service that is second to none.  

 “By helping our customers successfully migrate to SharePoint, HELUX is both modernizing organizations’ collaboration capabilities and enhancing the structure of documents that come with the M365 environment,” Tanh concludes.  “We’re helping to transform messy and chaotic structures into a far more structured, repeatable, and effective approach to records management that brings out the very best attributes of the SharePoint platform.” 

Considering a migration to SharePoint Online?

Discover how HELUX can help you make the most of your records management migration journey!