If you have already decided on moving email to the cloud and are fairly certain that you don’t want to perform a self-service migration, then the next step on your migration journey is to select an email migration service provider – but how do you pick the right one? While your selection should by no means be taken lightly, there are a few tips to narrow down the list of potential providers.
Migration Methods There are three main migration methods that providers can offer. These are staged, hybrid, and cut-over. Staged involves moving over users and data in batches, or stages, whereas cut-over entails migrating everything all at once. Hybrid migrations are usually the safest, but also most expensive because they create copies of all the mailboxes so users can use the Office 365 platform or standalone Exchange Online while also still having access to the old version during the migration. Based on your company’s timeline and needs, you may want to go with a certain migration method versus another, but depending on a provider’s service capabilities, that may not be possible. So before you sign a contract or otherwise make arrangements, be sure that the organization you want to work with offers the migration method that you feel would be best suited to your needs.
Policy and Compliance Keeping up with updated policies, compliance laws, and new regulations can be very tough, but dealing with it while simultaneously migrating all of your mailboxes can be virtually impossible without help from an experienced email migration specialist. It’s important to have a discussion with prospective providers and ascertain whether or not they are capable of handling all of the issues that pertain to your organization specifically and to your industry as a whole. For example, if your organization works within the healthcare industry, you are probably familiar with the HIPAA and know that if you fail to comply, you can face severe civil, and even criminal, penalties. Finding a provider that has experience dealing with similar clients who have to comply with the same policies can help your organization avoid such calamities.
Additional Solutions Beyond the email migration service, does the provider offer additional solutions to sustain and improve your new email solution post-migration? There are a multitude of add-ons that migration specialists provide for additional costs, so being smart about which options are necessary to the health of your organization is crucial. Two examples of additional solutions that many organizations utilize are email archiving and encryption and managed anti-virus and anti-spam. While these add-ons are not mandatory, having them can improve your productivity levels and increase your financial agility.
Client Commentary One of the most simple, but most important steps is to do a little detective work and find out how previous clients felt about that provider’s service offerings and quality of work. There are several ways to dig up the truth; some of which include looking at Internet forums, running a quick search engine check, or even contacting former customers and asking them about their email migration experience with the provider in question. Another option is to visit the email migration specialist’s website and see if they have customer testimonials or case studies that you can review. Whatever the case, it’s good to be objective in your search and weigh the pros and cons of each provider and select the email migration service that best suits your organization’s needs.
The Email Migration Service Fit For Your Organization Unfortunately, there’s no one size fits all email migration solution that can work with every organization. That’s why many businesses choose an email migration specialist because they are able to tailor their solutions based on the company’s needs, deadlines, and budget constraints. With that being said, it’s important to not be hasty with the final decision as the wrong choice could lead to a painfully slow deployment, overrun budget, or worse yet, a failed migration. So make sure you’re giving your email migration the proper due diligence it deserves so you can get the most out of your email.
AdrianG replied
230 weeks ago