How to Improve Migration Efficiency and Enhance Customer Confidence (Case Study)
Case Study – AdaptivEdge
The Challenge
Migrations are a critical service offering for IT consulting company AdaptivEdge, accounting for 30-40% of their annual projects. Steve Soper, AdaptivEdge’s founder, estimates they complete 40-50 migrations a year for their customers.
These migrations are necessary for many reasons, from digital transformation to new platform adoption. Different scenarios have different migration needs, and the IT consultants had been using five or six different solutions, depending on the situation.
“It was inefficient,” says Steve. “We had to constantly keep up with different tools and which did what – then decide which was most applicable to our current client and set fair pricing. It was so much extra time for our team.”
It was also resulting in mistakes. In one scenario, AdaptivEdge used BitTitan’s migration tool to migrate hundreds of SharePoint sites, only to realize after the move that the permissions were not moving with the sites. To recreate these custom permissions would take hours of manual labor.
“This was one of several painful projects that made us start to rethink our strategy,” Steve says. “We realized the little things – like the inability to migrate permissions – could result in huge problems.”
The AvePoint Solution
When AdaptivEdge discovered the missing SharePoint site permissions during the migration with BitTitan, they turned to AvePoint. AvePoint’s server-based migration tool, Fly Server, had already been part of the provider’s migration repertoire, and they recently adopted the SaaS-based migration tool, Fly. They were able to layer Fly on top of the other tool and successfully migrate the necessary permissions.
“When we saw the strength of the solutions and how many sources they could handle, it was a no-brainer to standardize to AvePoint,” Steve says. “While all customers’ needs are very different, Fly can handle it all.”
The AvePoint Fly Migrators deliver a three-step approach – via a self-guided tool or with help from AvePoint – to migrate on-premises or cloud-hosted mail, content, and collaboration into Microsoft 365 or SharePoint. Data can be migrated from existing Microsoft 365 workspaces or from SaaS providers such as Google Workspace, Box, DropBox, and Slack.
AdaptivEdge has previously used Fly Server for “every situation you can think of,” from small migrations on the cloud to larger, complex migrations requiring multiple servers. Some customers have compliance requirements, others are looking for speed, and still others need to move to more restrictive environments, such as GCC High. No matter the situations, “all deployment options are awesome,” says Steve.
Another big selling point: AvePoint’s customer support. While previous providers lacked timely support, the AvePoint team has been proactive, responsive, and collaborative, involving AdaptivEdge in the future direction of products and partner training and enablement.
Now that the IT consultants have standardized to the AvePoint Fly Migrators, their team is able to deliver better results. “We are no longer mediocre at five tools, but really good at one,” Steve says. “This results in more profitable projects because there are fewer mistakes, less impact to the customer, and faster migrations.”
The Bottom Line
“The Fly Migrators can do it all – all situations, all use cases,” Steve says. “The completeness of the solution is unparalleled. It is the best-in-breed based on capabilities for Slack, DropBox, tenant-to-tenant – you name it; AvePoint is the leader, and everyone else is playing catch up.”
The partnership has also enabled AdaptivEdge to offer additional AvePoint products, such as Cloud Backup for data protection and Policies & Insights for security assessments. Both are important to their customers and offer an annuity stream of business for AdaptivEdge.
For others looking for a migration provider, Steve recommends looking at it holistically. “If your priority is finding the cheapest tool, you will learn the hard way that some of the missing features and functionality can be a big deal. Instead, partner with a vendor like AvePoint, who provides an enterprise-level tool while investing in R&D to offer the latest capabilities.”
AdaptivEdge
AdaptivEdge is a cloud-focused technology company delivering secure solutions for demanding enterprises, growing businesses, and government agencies. As a Microsoft Gold Partner, they help customers evaluate various products and services from a financial, business, and technical/functional perspective to determine the best fit for each IT initiative.
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Kayla Haskins is a Content Marketing Manager at AvePoint, writing about all things cloud collaboration – including Power Platform, Microsoft 365, Google Workspace, and Salesforce. An advocate of operational governance and process automation, Kayla creates content that helps businesses manage technology to drive efficiencies in the modern workplace and make work/life balance a reality.
