The Challenge
In 2017, the Jane Goodall Institute made the strategic decision to shift from its use of Google Docs and Gmail, to a unified system for its global operations. One of the drivers for this decision was to improve how the organization communicated to its globally dispersed workforce.
After the AvePoint analysis, the Institute decided to migrate to Office 365. After a competitive RFP process, AvePoint was selected as a migration partner for its platform expertise.
The AvePoint Solution
For the Institute, AvePoint provided its expertise in the Microsoft Cloud, including Office 365 and Azure, to ensure the Institute was setup for success from the beginning of the project and throughout its use of the Microsoft Cloud stack. AvePoint helped the Institute migrate to Office 365 and Azure with the following steps:
- Discover exactly how much of what content (Exchange, ERP, Folder Shares, and other databases) exist in the Institutes current systems.
- Assess the data, by type, to identify what it is and ensure the implications of moving that data are documented and which tools within Office 365 and Azure would best fit the business needs associated with each data types.
- Pilot a migration of 50 end-users, their mailboxes, and associated content into Office 365 to validate assumptions made in previous phases and ensure the Institute’s end users gain the value expected by the migration.
“AvePoint had workshops so the various JGI offices could be interviewed to give their input on technology, what employees felt was not working and what was working,” said Linda.
AvePoint’s conducted study helped the Institute outline a roadmap highlighting three initial areas:
- Moving the world’s largest primate database to the Cloud: AvePoint estimated it would take a year to sift through the Jane Goodall Institutes’ collection of artifacts, digitize them, and reconfigure the Institute’s Primate Database to move it to the cloud. The database is estimated at 30 TB in size. As a mission-critical tool, it is imperative that nearly 60 years of data collection is preserved and stored in Azure.
- Upgrading JGI’s accounting system to Dynamics 365 and Nav 2017: In the non-profit world, transparency is key. The Institute needed to make financial information easily accessible.
- Implementing Outlook, Microsoft Teams, SharePoint and Skype for Business to improve collaboration: Through the adoption of Outlook, Skype for Business and Teams, the Institute hopes to gain efficiencies in collaboration across its 40 office locations worldwide, including Africa, the core location for the Institute’s continuing research.
AvePoint then led a 50-user migration with the Institute using its Elements Fly tool to migrate email and documents. In two weeks, the 50 users were ramped up in Office 365 and 333 GB of data was migrated into the cloud.
“Moving to Office 365 was a really key inflection point for our organization. This allowed us to have a base platform for all JGI offices around the world to then layer additional capabilities with multiple products,” said Linda.
The Bottom Line
Following the pilot Office 365 migration, the organization is looking forward to improved efficiencies and scalability. They also look forward to leveraging their AvePoint Philanthropy donated AvePoint Cloud Management tool soon.
“We have about 200 users coming on board for Office 365, all who previously used Gmail and Google docs. The goal is to put these new tools into their hands for efficiency, and time-saving advantages,” said Linda.
About JGI
Jane Goodall Institute (“the Institute”) builds on Jane Goodall’s scientific work and humanitarian vision to empower people to make a difference for all living things. They do this by providing research, public education, and advocacy for the great apes; combining conservation with education; and development of a global network of young people who, through these other tenants, have learned to care deeply for their human community, all animals and the environment, and who will take responsible action to take care of both. To better support its current research, conservation, and education mission, the Institute is modernizing its Information Technology Infrastructure.
You can see the full case study here.