G Suite to Office 365 Migration to Improve Email Management

Summary

A UK-based IT company offering SAP consulting and managed services found that G Suite lacked structured storage and convenient search for project documentation and emails, hindering collaboration and project management — and it couldn't integrate mailboxes and calendars with Skype for Business. Already holding an Office 365 subscription, the firm engaged INNERLUXES to migrate its email to Office 365 and unlock Exchange Online and Office 365 Groups for better communication and collaboration.

About the Client

The Client is a UK-based IT company that offers SAP consulting and managed services.

The Challenge

The Client used G Suite, which didn't provide structured storage and convenient search for project-related documentation and emails — hindering employee collaboration and project management. G Suite also didn't allow integrating its mailboxes and calendars with Skype for Business, making internal and external communication inefficient since employees couldn't schedule meetings via Skype for Business.

The Solution

The Client already had an Office 365 subscription, so it decided to transfer emailing from G Suite to Office 365 to gain the extended functionality of services like Exchange Online and Office 365 Groups — for sending emails, sharing files, collaborating on projects, scheduling meetings, and more. The Client chose INNERLUXES as a trusted Office 365 services provider to handle the migration.

After analyzing the Client's needs, INNERLUXES's team began migration planning. They received access to the company's mailboxes and performed mailbox mapping, keeping mailbox information up to date via regular reports from the Client listing current employees and their email addresses — so the team could map new hires' mailboxes and exclude employees who had left or were expected to leave during the project.

After planning, INNERLUXES's team performed a test migration of the mailbox with the largest number of items, which helped detect potential issues such as missing emails that could arise during the G Suite-to-Office 365 migration. The main phase then consisted of two stages:

• Migration of mailboxes. To transfer mailboxes from G Suite to Office 365, the team used the built-in migration tool available in Exchange Online on the subscription.
• Migration of distribution lists. To download distribution lists from G Suite, the team used the Gmail API; to upload them into Exchange Online, they used PowerShell. To handle distribution lists created during the project, INNERLUXES's team applied incremental synchronization.

To let the Client's employees easily schedule meetings via Skype for Business, our team integrated the app with Exchange Online.

The Results

• Migration to Office 365 improved employee communication and collaboration, as Exchange Online provided intuitive, convenient email management — and let new employees access all previous project email communication for the teams they joined.
• As required, employees could easily schedule meetings using Skype for Business.
• Employees could also leverage Office 365 Groups to create team collaboration spaces — including a shared Outlook inbox, a shared calendar, and a document library — and make notes on emails.

Technologies and Tools

G Suite, Office 365, Exchange Online, Gmail API, PowerShell.