COMPAREX Completes Fast and Flexible Microsoft SharePoint Migration for Sächsische Informatik Dienste with DocAve
Success Highlights
Customer Location Germany
Industry Public Sector
Platform SharePoint 2013
Critical Needs
- Fast, full-fidelity migration from SharePoint 2007 directly to SharePoint 2013
- Complete the migration process within one month without disrupting users
The Challenge
SID implemented SharePoint to provide employees with a centralized location for document sharing, collaboration, and project management. After utilizing SharePoint 2007 for eight years, SID decided to upgrade to SharePoint 2013 to ensure platform support from Microsoft and provide a much-needed technical update.
However, SID had a few requirements that could not be met using native SharePoint capabilities. The most challenging of these was to complete the migration within one month while ensuring uninterrupted access to the existing SharePoint environment for end users. IT also ruled out any plan involving migration to and from SharePoint 2010 before SharePoint 2013, which would take up too much valuable time.
With these restrictions in place, SID’s IT administrators did not have the capabilities to perform the necessary upgrades and migration jobs on its own. To complete a swift SharePoint migration without disrupting its business users, SID sought a third-party solution.
Senior SharePoint Consultant, COMPAREX
The AvePoint Solution
SID brought in IT provider COMPAREX to ensure the project was a success. In order to carry out the migration quickly and effectively, COMPAREX chose to utilize DocAve Software, AvePoint’s enterprise-class infrastructure management platform for SharePoint. DocAve Migrator would enable to COMPAREX TO satisfy the SID’s requirements for migration to SharePoint 2013.
With DocAve, COMPAREX was able to scan SID’s source environment and determine which content it wanted to migrate to SharePoint 2013 – allowing it to restructure and clean up unwanted content as desired. This enabled COMPAREX to carry out a flexible migration with granular content selection while preserving all metadata. COMPAREX then used DocAve’s mapping functionality to customize migration jobs and send content to the correct destination, including sites created on the fly.
DocAve also gave COMPAREX the ability to migrate data directly from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2013 – eliminating any need to upgrade to SharePoint 2010 beforehand. “We considered using PowerShell scripting as a migration solution, but decided that such a plan would use too many resources and involve an intermediate step to SharePoint 2010,” said Zoltan Marton, Senior SharePoint Consultant at COMPAREX. “With DocAve Migrator, we were able to create a direct migration path from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2013 and complete the project very efficiently.”
In the early stages of migration, DocAve enabled COMPAREX to analyze SID’s source environment and gain an understanding of where features had to be updated. By scanning the source environment, COMPAREX was able to easily identify any legacy elements that need to be mapped in order to migrate successfully into SharePoint 2013.
During the migration, DocAve allowed COMPAREX to minimize business disruption for users by enabling them to continue working within the SharePoint 2007 environment while the migration took place. This ensured continuous access to critical content, which was a high priority for the organization. “Our project goal was achieved in line with our budget and also within our tight schedule thanks to COMPAREX’s comprehensive and above-average know-how,” said Jens Keller, Section Leader for SharePoint at SID. “In addition, they provided us with on-the-fly training for our administrators.”
The Road Ahead
With DocAve’s flexible migration capabilities, COMPAREX was able to upgrade SID to the latest version of SharePoint and retain all metadata. COMPAREX was able to streamline its migration from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint 2013, eliminating the need to migrate content to SharePoint 2010 and keeping the project on track to be completed within a month, meeting the client’s strict time requirements. “To sum it up, our project was successfully implemented, our portal works, and the new platform is fun to work with,” Keller said.