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Things That Could Go Wrong in Google Workspace Migrations and How to Mitigate Them

When we say system migration, it’s a tremendously tedious procedure or method in which all business process IT resources are transferred from one platform to another–whether it’s a software platform or hardware infrastructure. Does that sound like a large task to execute? Well, you’re not exactly wrong. Especially when you take it to the context of full system Google Workspace migrations.

Google Workspace Migrations

Take for instance, migrating the data of your business from Microsoft Office 365 platform to Google Workspace.  All the parties involved really need to be careful and follow a strict protocol, not only because sensitive data is involved, but one fatal error in the migration process could cost you a lot, like the trust of your clients and significant amounts of time and money.

For this reason, you really need to do your own research and ask for the aid of professionals and experts when it comes to the field of migrations. 

Onsite Helper, the Google Workspace experts, has been migrating business systems to Google Workspace all over Australia for years. We have already encountered every problem one can encounter in a migration process and learned how to properly address these problems – basically, Onsite Helper has mastered the craft of Google Workspace migrations.

To help ease your minds about the things that can go wrong during the migration process of your business’ data and system, Onsite Helper has made the ultimate guide on what to prepare for, what to look out for, how to reduce the likelihood of errors occurring during the migration, and everything else that you need to know about the migration process.

And of course, to know how transferring to Google Workspace will help boost your business’ capacity check this out! 

Problems that can occur when migrating and how to mitigate them

Clients changing their minds

One factor that can really delay the migration is the client’s last-minute changes. Even when the parties involved already agreed upon a concrete plan, some clients can’t help but change something during the migration. This can really set things back since you can’t change the migration settings once it’s already ongoing. Additionally, if the client has set a strict deadline, changes in the plan can cause you to miss the set deadline.

Solution: Emphasise the importance of sticking to the plan for the client. At the same time, make sure that the client understands the whole process and effects of the migration to their business. 

As for the part of the client, communication is key. The client should be able to communicate the desired goal to the migration partner so that changing the plan in the middle of the migration process will be avoided.

Users uploading large amounts of data while in migration

While the migration is ongoing, you can still use your old system. Your old email can still send and receive emails, you can still store files on your company drives, and it won’t affect the migration process. Rest assured that after the whole migration process, all of the emails and data you saved while the migration was ongoing will still be migrated.

But here’s where the problem occurs: when someone stores hundreds of gigabytes or terabytes of data. Uploading data that large to your drive and wanting to have that migrated will drastically increase the expected time for the whole migration process to finish. If your company expects the migration to finish on a set deadline, you’re likely to exceed that deadline when you upload large chunks of data.

Solution: It’s best to upload and work on small amounts of data during the migration (e.g. emails, spreadsheets, word documents). When you really need to upload data with a large size, it’s advisable to upload it on the new system instead once the migration is complete.

3rd-party IT provider and Security restrictions

3rd-party IT providers can often cause a lot of delays due to miscommunication. Oftentimes, clients would have to talk to their IT provider first to get their credentials. Unfortunately, it’s not always readily available.

In worse cases, the 3rd-party IT provider won’t give the migration partner like us, Onsite Helper access to the necessary credentials to change some configuration or settings that are required for the migration to occur. It’s very time consuming to have to communicate with the IT provider the changes that you need to integrate in order for the migration to happen.

Solution: As a client, you should get your credentials from your IT provider ahead of time. If possible, tell them to let your migration partner access and change the necessary configurations for a much quicker and smoother migration.

Not all of your data was migrated

We’ve heard stories about clients being agitated after the migration process once they found out that some of their data weren’t migrated to their new system. The truth of the matter is that some of your data won’t be migrated from your old system to the new one. This is due to the API limitations. The type of data that can’t be migrated would depend on your source system and destination system.

This becomes a big problem when the client doesn’t fully understand that there are limitations and that is the nature of migrations.

Solution: As a client, make sure that you communicate well with your migration partner. Mention your expectations in full detail and take note of the limitations of the process. With Onsite Helper, it’s standard practice for us to fully inform our clients about the full scope and limitations of the migration process.

Preparation is everything

Google Workspace migration is a process, and as with any process, the best way to ensure its success is to properly plan it. The key to a successful Google Workspace migration is thorough planning and preparation. This is why before the migration process, your Google partner should discuss with you the full scope of the migration. With Onsite Helper, we take pride in the level of communication that we have with our clients to ensure that we are all on the same page and that their data will be safe.

 

During the discussion, it’s important to talk about:

  • The Goal of the Google Workspace migration
  • Limitations of the migration process
  • Duration of the migration process from start to finish
  • Scope of the services of Onsite Helper or your Google partner
  • Necessary credentials for the migration to take place

The Goal of the Google Workspace migration

Before you embark on migrating all of your data from one system to Google Workspace or vice versa, make sure that you understand exactly what is going to happen. Here are some questions that might better help you understand your goals:

  • How would this migration improve my business?
  • How can this migration help my employees?
  • What problems in my system can this migration address?

Onsite Helper or your Google partner should be able to help you answer these questions, and if it’s decided that the Google Workspace migration will help achieve your goals, we can now proceed.

Limitations of the migration process

Not all of your data can be migrated – this should be made clear to you by your Google Partner. Not every type of information can be migrated due to API limitations from either the source system or the destination system. However, with that said, some data can be converted to a version that is compatible with the destination system. (e.g. Google Docs in Google Drive or Microsoft Word in OneDrive)

Normally, if Onsite Helper will do the migration for you, we will provide you with a list of all of the information that can and cannot be migrated to Google Workspace or to your system of choice. To give you an idea, here are a few examples of data you cannot migrate from the following systems to another:

  • Microsoft Office 365
    • Mail settings such as colour-coding for categories, server-based and dynamic distribution lists, and personal MRM tags
    • Calendar notifications for invitations or cancellations
    • Contacts categories
  • Google Workspace
    • Calendar reminders
    • Google Keep Notes
    • Google Analytics
    • Youtube Account
  • Dropbox
    • Notes
    • Bookmarks
    • Tags

Should you need more information, feel free to contact Onsite Helper. We can help you with your migration every step of the way.

Duration of the migration process

The duration of the migration will depend on several factors, such as the size of data to be migrated, server availability, Google or Microsoft daily upload limit, and more.

With that said, no one can really tell exactly how long the whole migration process will take. At best, here at Onsite Helper, we will be able to give you a range. We’ll be open, transparent, and we will keep you updated on any changes during the migration process so you’ll have a more accurate estimate of when the migration will finish.

Scope of Service

Make sure that the scope of your migration specialist is clear so that no one will be expecting more or less. Will there be training included after the migration? Who’s going to check the status of the system post-migration? These are just some of the questions that should be answered. With Onsite Helper, we’ll be providing you with a checklist to make sure that every facet of the migration has been completed. At the same time, we can provide the necessary guides to help you and your employees adjust to the new system that you migrated into. Rest assured that you will not be feeling lost and business will be back to normal when you’re with Onsite Helper.

Necessary credentials for the migration

One factor that can really prolong the migration process is the necessary credentials or the lack thereof. Often, the whole Google Workspace migration process has already been planned and mapped out but we cannot start with the migration because the credentials required are unavailable. It’s troublesome when no one remembers the credentials and time-consuming when clients still have to talk to 3rd-party IT support to ask for their system’s credentials.

Having your credentials ready will drastically reduce the amount of time it takes to do the migration. Make sure you have it already or look for it ahead of time if you plan on doing a migration.

It’s fair to say that conducting system migrations is really stressful. But hey, this is what we exist for! Onsite Helper always tries to give you the smoothest and efficient migration of all your business data. 

Not only that, but we also ensure that after migration, you are well-equipped in doing important things on Google Workspace. Get the best out of Google Workspace by clicking here. 

Onsite Helper has been a friend to many businesses. So, for any concerns and questions, feel free to contact us.

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