Key Issues for Divestiture Migrations

“Divestitures require cautious planning and execution, however they will create super alternatives for corporations to rework their companies and unlock new development potential.” – Ginni Rometty, former CEO of IBM.

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

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

Migrations, in fact, are not any easy activity. There are quite a few steps, challenges and greatest practices MSPs ought to contemplate to make sure a easy 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 essential to determine which environments are concerned within the divestiture. Does it make sense emigrate to an present atmosphere 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 atmosphere the place every little thing is ready up from scratch or working with the CIO and IT groups to find out which productiveness suite and practices work greatest for the merged firm.

“Divestitures are an essential approach for corporations to divest themselves of companies that aren’t performing and give attention to their core enterprise and development areas.” – Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft.

One problem MSPs face is matching a number of items with the mother or father firm. These embrace safety parameters, licensing schemes and even electronic mail setups. For instance, the mother or father firm might use [email protected] for his or her electronic 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 electronic mail handle after 20 years.

MSPs additionally need to be certain that safety protocols between the environments match. Mismatched protocols create alternatives for hackers to entry the atmosphere and harm operations.

Geography can even current a problem. Divestitures can occur between corporations in several nations, creating an IT barrier that may complicate migrations. For instance, an organization in Germany that shops the vast majority of its knowledge on native techniques may must 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 knowledge migrations. Consequently, it’s essential to know what knowledge could be moved relying on regional regulation for the nations concerned within the divestiture. This can be a time-consuming course of, however it will likely be value it in the long run.

What to know earlier than migrating

Earlier than a divestiture migration, contemplate 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 knowledge must be moved? These are key questions that should be answered beforehand.

As well as, you want the fitting instruments. The proper migration software can make sure the transition is profitable and minimally disruptive to finish customers. These instruments additionally supply 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 price and helps them keep away from disastrous surprises.

MSPs must also contemplate bringing in a buyer success engineer as quickly because the divestiture pre-sale is finished. Handover between pre-sales representatives and the client success group is an important step to the success of a divestiture migration. A buyer success engineer can assist handle any points or issues that come up throughout a posh migration. This can guarantee there may be added help throughout 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 greatest practices that assist guarantee a easy course of. In the event you’re utilizing a migration software, all the time make sure that to look at the timestamps and monitor the migration because it progresses. Don’t anticipate the software to let you know the migration is full. Some information might not have migrated, which might trigger complications for the top person and delay the mission. At all times be certain that every file is really full by checking for any errors which will happen throughout the transition. One easy strategy to confirm that is to match file sizes.

You need to all the time ask extra questions than seem on the usual working process (SOP). All buyer environments have hidden quirks. An organization might 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 data hasn’t been moved. Unknowns like these can hobble the whole migration, delaying each authorized and enterprise deadlines for the divestiture.

Lastly, make sure that finish customers are skilled within the new environments and productiveness suites. A brand new suite will all the time have a studying curve. Due to this, it is best to supply coaching to workers unfamiliar with new environments. With entry to coaching sources, workers can guarantee they perceive the right way to use the platform and its instruments and work throughout groups effectively with out slowing down operations.

Migrating knowledge throughout a divestiture could be difficult, however it’s not unattainable. By following these steps and greatest practices, MSPs can guarantee migrations run easily, enabling CIOs and executives to give attention to the general divestiture course of and reassuring finish customers their knowledge is safe and guarded.

By Tosin Vaithilingam