“Divestitures require cautious planning and execution, however they’ll create super alternatives for corporations to rework their companies and unlock new development potential.” – Ginni Rometty, former CEO of IBM.
Divestitures are widespread in enterprise, and IT professionals and MSPs needs to be ready for them. There are totally different varieties, however normally, a divestiture includes a enterprise being acquired by a separate firm, leading to a merger with the brand new firm’s IT atmosphere. This could possibly be Workplace 365, Google Workspace or one other tenant.
Whether or not corporations create a brand new group, purchase an current firm or spin off a brand new enterprise, they sometimes have to restructure information property. Belongings can vary from enterprise data to doc databases, emails and extra. This restructuring typically means MSPs have to execute a migration.
Migrations, in fact, are not any easy job. There are quite a few steps, challenges and finest practices MSPs ought to contemplate to make sure a clean migration throughout a divestiture. Whether or not that is your first divestiture or not, it’s by no means too late to hone the method.
Challenges
It’s necessary to determine which environments are concerned within the divestiture. Does it make sense emigrate to an current atmosphere or create a brand new one? Maybe one firm makes use of Microsoft Workplace 365 whereas the opposite firm is utilizing Google Workspace. MSPs are sometimes tasked with both making a greenfield atmosphere the place the whole lot is ready up from scratch or working with the CIO and IT groups to find out which productiveness suite and practices work finest for the merged firm.
“Divestitures are an necessary method for corporations to divest themselves of companies that aren’t performing and concentrate on their core enterprise and development areas.” – Satya Nadella, CEO of Microsoft.
One problem MSPs face is matching a number of items with the mother or father firm. These embrace safety parameters, licensing schemes and even e-mail setups. For instance, the mother or father firm may use firstname.lastname@companyname.com for his or her e-mail addresses whereas the acquired firm makes use of firstname_lastname@companyname.com. This creates a problem for the mother or father firm, which now has to inform its new staff they’re getting a brand new e-mail tackle after 20 years.
MSPs additionally need to be sure that safety protocols between the environments match. Mismatched protocols create alternatives for hackers to entry the atmosphere and injury operations.
Geography can even current a problem. Divestitures can occur between corporations in numerous international locations, creating an IT barrier that may complicate migrations. For instance, an organization in Germany that shops nearly all of its information on native methods would possibly have to migrate all of it to the OneDrive of a brand new mother or father firm in Japan. This causes an immense problem as a result of many international locations have totally different restrictions in place concerning information migrations. Consequently, it’s necessary to grasp what information could be moved relying on regional regulation for the international locations concerned within the divestiture. This can be a time-consuming course of, however will probably be value it in the long run.
What to know earlier than migrating
Earlier than a divestiture migration, contemplate just a few questions. What are the prices related to the migration? What are its staffing wants? What’s the timeline for ending? How a lot information must be moved? These are key questions that have to be answered beforehand.
As well as, you want the best instruments. The precise migration instrument can make sure the transition is profitable and minimally disruptive to finish customers. These instruments additionally supply predictability. Migration instruments with numerous bundles assist MSPs choose the most suitable choice for his or her particular migration. This tells them how a lot a migration will value and helps them keep away from disastrous surprises.
MSPs must also contemplate bringing in a buyer success engineer as quickly because the divestiture pre-sale is finished. Handover between pre-sales representatives and the buyer success staff is a necessary step to the success of a divestiture migration. A buyer success engineer may also help tackle any points or issues that come up throughout a posh migration. This may guarantee there may be added assist throughout the migration course of to forestall mishaps and maintain finish customers happy.
Greatest Practices
Whether or not it’s earlier than, throughout or after a migration, there are a number of finest practices that assist guarantee a clean course of. In case you’re utilizing a migration instrument, at all times ensure that to observe the timestamps and monitor the migration because it progresses. Don’t watch for the instrument to let you know the migration is full. Some information might not have migrated, which might trigger complications for the top consumer and delay the venture. All the time be sure that every file is really full by checking for any errors that will happen throughout the transition. One easy strategy to confirm that is to match file sizes.
It is best to at all times ask extra questions than seem on the usual working process (SOP). All buyer environments have hidden quirks. An organization might have stopped utilizing EMC SourceOne over three years in the past however doesn’t understand there are nonetheless stubs pointing to the e-mail system. Now, it’s the final day of the migration, and this info hasn’t been moved. Unknowns like these can hobble your entire migration, delaying each authorized and enterprise deadlines for the divestiture.
Lastly, ensure that finish customers are educated within the new environments and productiveness suites. A brand new suite will at all times have a studying curve. Due to this, it’s best to supply coaching to staff unfamiliar with new environments. With entry to coaching sources, staff can guarantee they perceive methods to use the platform and its instruments and work throughout groups effectively with out slowing down operations.
Migrating information throughout a divestiture could be sophisticated, but it surely’s not unattainable. By following these steps and finest practices, MSPs can guarantee migrations run easily, enabling CIOs and executives to concentrate on the general divestiture course of and reassuring finish customers their information is safe and guarded.
By Tosin Vaithilingam
