Using SharePoint can unlock new levels of collaboration, security, and innovation with your business. However, a successful transition to this cloud platform requires careful planning in order to prevent complications.
This is a comprehensive guide on the steps you should take when looking to make the move to SharePoint. We will cover how to manage access permissions and data consistency.
So let’s look at how best to achieve success on your SharePoint migration journey!
What is SharePoint
SharePoint is the ultimate web-based solution for businesses to easily store, manage and share large amounts of data in a secure environment. It enables users to customise websites according to individual needs, whilst leveraging all of SharePoint’s powerful capabilities. With flexibility at its core, SharePoint ensures valuable information remains accessible around the clock.
Most common uses for SharePoint
No matter the size of your organisation, SharePoint grants you access to a world of flexible possibilities. Put simply, it allows any device with an Internet connection to confidently serve as a gateway for essential information at all times.
– Unlocks unprecedented levels of collaboration and organisation by keeping projects on track, storing documents securely, and enabling teams to work together seamlessly.
– Provides a groundbreaking way for companies to effortlessly construct and maintain an intranet perfectly suited to their needs. From sharing news, announcements and links, to sharing important documents, policy and procedure resources, and calendars, retrieving must-have information has never been easier.
– Provides comprehensive document management, with powerful version control capabilities and automated approval processes. Documents can be tagged to aid in classification and searching.
– Offers powerful search capabilities, with its sophisticated search engine helping organisations to easily uncover and access valuable content within their network.
– Provides an invaluable tool for organisations to create and foster a vibrant web presence. It features tools like discussion boards, blogs, surveys, and wikis which can be used to engage visitors of all kinds.
Why migrate to SharePoint?
Microsoft SharePoint is gaining traction as a premier platform for managing digital information. It offers an impressive range of tools, including document storage, version control and collaboration features. These impressive features allow businesses to customise their library with intelligent solutions that enable secure data sharing, whilst maintaining data security.
By migrating to SharePoint, users can benefit from streamlined workflow processes, improved content management capabilities and simplified team/customer collaborations.
Planning the migration
Assess the current environment and identify key stakeholders
Creating a successful business plan requires comprehensive assessment of the current environment and identification of relevant stakeholders. It’s important to understand who will be impacted by your plans and ensure that their needs and expectations are taken into consideration before implementation. This can further assist in creating an effective plan to meet stated goals.
Taking time for careful evaluation prevents issues from arising down the line, and provides invaluable insight when appealing to potential customers. This should ultimately give your business greater chances at success with the SharePoint roll out.
Determine the scope of the migration and set goals accordingly
When planning any migration, a thorough assessment of the current environment is essential for success. To do this, you need to evaluate existing infrastructure, user workloads and applications to uncover potential challenges as well as to foresee costs and desired outcomes.
It’s important to establish attainable goals with clear objectives from the outset, so that time-consuming issues are avoided later. Establishing your goals and objectives also helps to create an actionable plan you can refer to when completing the migration process.
Develop a migration plan and timeline
To smoothly transition from one software platform to another, and avoid potential headaches, it’s a wise idea to map out a comprehensive migration plan.
When mapping out your plan, ensure all aspects of the process are considered. Establish tasks to be completed as well as their estimated timelines—incorporating checkpoints to regularly assess progress.
Having in-depth knowledge of your current system’s data structure and other requirements is helpful at this stage, as it will ensure you have everything necessary before starting on the journey towards meeting the demands of your new SharePoint environment.
Preparing for the migration
Identify and organise data and content to be migrated
When transitioning data and content over to a new platform, it’s essential to plan ahead with precision. You should thoroughly assess the assets being migrated, while taking into account their suitability for retrieval before starting. Once located, each element should be captured in an appropriate file format compatible for future use; otherwise information may become lost during migration or may cause delays due to incompatibility issues. Either of these situations could prove costly if played out, so consider them at initial stages of preparation.
By dedicating time towards understanding every aspect involved with relocating your digital elements, you can make great strides in ensuring a seamless transition to SharePoint.
Set up the SharePoint environment and configure settings
Setting up a SharePoint environment requires meticulous attention to detail and an in-depth understanding of the various configurations needed. As part of this, you will create users, select authentication methods, introduce networks/security requirements, grant access rights based on roles, and install relevant updates or services. Each of these steps must be carefully considered for accuracy and security purposes. By carrying out all necessary set up processes with precision, your organisation can achieve a functioning SharePoint platform that is both secure and highly responsive to user needs.
Test the migration process and troubleshoot for issues
Smooth and successful migration to a new environment requires diligent troubleshooting of any potential issues.
Carry out thorough test procedures in order to prevent problems that may arise during the transfer. If these problems are identified early, you can prevent disruption to services and avoid loss of data.
This testing should also detect if existing system glitches will continue into the next setup, allowing them to be resolved preemptively so as not to affect user experience in the future. Ultimately, robust pre-migration tests are essential for eliminating risks and strengthening performance after transition occurs.
Executing the migration
Move data and content to SharePoint
As part of the transition to SharePoint, your business will need to move relevant data and content to the new platform. This is where you will enact the plan discussed in ‘Identify and organise data and content to be migrated’.
Once you have moved your data and content, you can take advantage of SharePoint’s powerful security features, automated workflows, advanced search functions and accessible from any location.. In addition, your staff will appreciate the intuitive user-friendly instructions and troubleshooting support that is available at any time of the day, no matter where they are located.
Train users on how to use SharePoint
Training users on how to use SharePoint is a key factor in achieving maximum productivity within an organisation. By understanding the full capabilities of this software, employees can gain skills that will result in improved communication and collaboration across departments—ultimately leading to greater efficiency and effectiveness among teams.
To train your staff on SharePoint, it’s worthwhile running a training program that employs multiple teaching techniques such as hands-on activities and one-to-one coaching sessions. It’s also useful to have learning resources available like tutorials and videos.
With thorough instruction at every user’s disposal, organisations have all the tools they need for the successful deployment of their SharePoint intranet system.
Managing and maintaining the SharePoint environment post-migration
A successful SharePoint migration is just the beginning. To maximise performance and user experience, you need to develop an effective strategy for managing & maintaining your platform.
As part of this, you should:
- regularly check the health of the SharePoint system in your business. Ensure security measures are kept up to date and monitor services to ensure they are functioning correctly.
- Check that content management policies are adhered to.
- Use information gained from SharePoint’s data analytics tools to improve services for users.
- Stay on top of advancements in SharePoint technology, and integrate these when beneficial.
Conclusion
Benefits of migrating to SharePoint
The modern workplace needs an efficient platform to maximise collaboration capabilities and empower teams. SharePoint provides just that. It is a secure, feature-rich environment where documents can be created quickly and shared globally with unparalleled accuracy, and instant updates on progress are available in real time. Strong security measures combined with unmatched search functionality mean you’ll never waste precious resources searching for the information you need again, and information will be secure! With lower overhead costs due to streamlined processes, migrating to SharePoint is the perfect choice for organisations looking to optimise their workflow systems while staying competitive.
Success with SharePoint
With so many diverse and customisable resources available, it’s easier than ever for organisations to sustain success with SharePoint. From immersive training courses and insightful blog posts, to engaging webinars facilitated by experts, users have the solutions they need at their fingertips, enabling them to reach new levels of productivity.
With the right resources and expertise, organisations utilising SharePoint can rest assured that they are staying up to date with innovative content collaboration tools. The interactive nature of these resources guarantees a high-value experience which will help businesses better understand how it fits into their IT strategies as well. For complete confidence in success, experienced professionals can provide personalised guidance on customising solutions specific to each business’s needs.
Key takeaways
A comprehensive and organised SharePoint migration process helps organisations streamline their business operations and realise dramatic boosts in efficiency. Stakeholders must assess the current environment, define goals for success, and develop a step-by-step plan that covers setting up the new platform. As part of this, they will organise data appropriately, configure settings to achieve intended outcomes, thoroughly test before usage begins, and finally, move all pertinent information over.
Providing proper training on how to use SharePoint ensures its most effective implementation and leads to enhanced productivity levels across an organisation’s entire scope of activities.
We can help
If your business is struggling to make the move over to SharePoint, Technetics Consulting is here for you. As Melbourne’s leading managed IT services provider, we offer specialised resources that can expertly guide your organisation through any digital transformation project involving SharePoint, and help maximise operational efficiency. Don’t go it alone! Trust in a proven leader today! Contact us.