Corbion Simplifies Management of Cloud-based Microsoft SharePoint 2013 Environment for 2,000 Users with DocAve

Critical Needs

  • Fast and flexible data migration from one version of SharePoint to another while preserving all associated metadata with full fidelity
  • Easier management of permissions and the ability to automatically enforce policies across SharePoint
  • Comprehensive reporting on SharePoint analytics

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Success Highlights

  • Migrated three terabyte SharePoint environment to a newer version within four months, restructuring site collection architecture in the process and preserving associated metadata with full fidelity
  • Simplified permissions management and automated policy enforcement for 2,000 users in the cloud
  • Automatically generated monthly reports to review user permissions for sites containing sensitive data to make changes according to governance policies
quote DocAve offers one centralized platform for SharePoint management, which makes us more efficient. quote
Feitze Mast Manager of Collaboration & Productivity, Corbion

The Challenge

As a global organization with offices in 35 countries, Corbion utilizes SharePoint as a business critical application and document collaboration environment for 2,000 users. In addition to providing access to important information on the company’s intranet, the platform is utilized by the company’s research and development team to share and collaborate on all content related to products, including specifications, research, and plans for new innovations. “SharePoint continues to grow throughout our company,” said Feitze Mast, Manager of Collaboration & Productivity at Corbion. “By integrating with other applications like our CRM and ERP systems, we are providing one centralized location where our employees can work.”

In 2013, Corbion merged three different companies into one entity. Bringing new users into the environment, the company decided it needed to improve the architecture of its SharePoint 2007 farm to meet Microsoft’s recommended site collection size of 100 gigabytes (GB) or less while migrating to SharePoint 2010. “Our entire environment was two very large site collections – one was 700 GB and the other was 800 GB,” Mast said. “It was too big and we had too many departments on one site collection.”

In the midst of major organizational changes, Corbion needed a way to easily migrate all of its content to a new SharePoint environment and also simplify management of the platform. “We knew we couldn’t carry out such a migration without a third-party tool,” Mast said. “It’s the only way to keep important information like metadata and permissions intact on the new system.”

The AvePoint Solution

Based on previous experience and a partner recommendation, Mast chose to utilize AvePoint’s DocAve Migrator – part of the DocAve Software Platform for SharePoint infrastructure management. DocAve Migrator provides an efficient, cost-effective solution for migrating business-critical content to the latest releases of SharePoint. After architecting Corbion’s new environment with 25 site collections, the migration began and ultimately finished according to plan within four months. All metadata and permissions were preserved throughout the process. “DocAve made it really easy to migrate data in batches,” Mast said. “For each department, I was able to schedule jobs to take place over the weekend outside of business hours, perform check-ups on Sunday, and then go live in the new environment on Monday.”

Two years after completing its SharePoint 2010 migration, Corbion moved its entire three terabyte environment to SharePoint 2013 hosted in Microsoft Azure. By moving to the cloud, Corbion no longer needed to make hardware upgrades and could scale its environment with ease. With SharePoint continuing to grow, the company had a need for solutions that allowed them to easily manage permissions and report on the environment beyond what native platform capabilities would allow. Due to a positive experience throughout its migration, Corbion chose to implement additional DocAve products for SharePoint management to replace an existing management tool serving similar functions. “DocAve offers one centralized platform for SharePoint management, which makes us more efficient,” Mast said. “It’s useful to access the full toolset from the same interface.”

DocAve Administrator allows Corbion to manage and easily change settings, configurations, and permissions in bulk at any SharePoint object level. The company utilizes DocAve to ensure SharePoint stays within defined policies, such as enforcing versioning settings on libraries and automating the process for dealing with content stored by employees who leave the company. “When an end user leaves, their manager receives an email noting the content that is left on their OneDrive,” Mast said. “The manager can then let us know if the content should be deleted, moved to another location, or if they should be given permissions to clean up the content themselves. If the manager does not respond after one month, the content is deleted. DocAve makes automating this process easy.”

DocAve Report Center gives Corbion single-pane access to a wide variety of SharePoint analytics, which is especially helpful for monitoring permissions to sites with sensitive data. “Every month, we run a report on all sites for our Finance department to see which users have full control permissions,” Mast said. “Using DocAve and the comprehensive information it provides, we can remove users from groups they should not be a part of and reset their permissions according to policy.”

The Bottom Line

Throughout the evolution of its SharePoint deployment, Corbion was able to rely on fully integrated solutions from AvePoint for its migration, management, and reporting needs both on premises and in the cloud. With access to 24/7 technical support, the company was able to simplify platform administration for its global user base at all times. “Our experience with AvePoint’s support team has been great,” Mast said. “They always respond quickly and help us until the issue is entirely resolved.”

About Corbion

Corbion is the global market leader in lactic acid, lactic acid derivatives, and lactides, and a leading company in functional blends containing enzymes, emulsifiers, minerals, and vitamins.

Corbion