Data & Migrations.

Where this starts.

A system retirement, merger or contract deadline usually sets the date.

The plan establishes what moves, what can be archived and what must work on the first day people return to it. Agree the destination access model before mapping permissions.

What this looks like in practice.

• A national insurer's website: its content converted by a purpose-built transpiler, then migrated in two weeks with no specialist needed.
• An Azure subscription move delivered in two weeks against a six-week estimate.
• A 3 TB file-share migration into SharePoint Online, and 125+ collaboration sites in 14 months, for foundations.
• A legacy content system reverse-engineered with AI to build its migration tooling, tests and Power BI oversight.

What leaders ask.

How long will this take, and how much downtime will our people have?

Length depends less on total size than on what makes it up: the number of files, version history and how fast the old system can be read. A test run on your own content is the estimate worth trusting. Where the source allows it, copying runs in the background and people mostly feel the final switch-over.

What drives the cost, beyond the consultant?

How much content is worth moving, the tools and licences the source needs, and the time your own staff spend on decisions, cleanup and testing. Some routes carry Microsoft licence costs, such as a one-time add-on per user to move OneDrive or mailboxes between tenants.

How do we make sure people use the new system instead of keeping copies on the old drive?

Tell people early, train the helpdesk before the switch, and move everyone at one switch-over so nobody keeps editing a duplicate. Visible sponsorship from leaders matters most. Matt runs workshops with business teams to decide where content lives, then supports them through the change.

What project teams ask.

Should we clean up before we move, and who decides what stays?

Yes, and the people who own the content decide, not IT. A scan finds blocked file types, invalid characters and paths that are too long; duplicates and files untouched for years show up by checksum and date.

Will permissions, metadata and links survive the move?

Some will, depending on the source. From a file share, advanced and deny permissions are removed and links inside documents are not updated. Between tenants, workflows and flows need rebuilding. Matt plans tenant moves around permission mapping and keeping site structure and metadata.

What does the run look like, and how do we prove it worked?

A pilot with a small group, then waves in the background ahead of one switch-over, with go/no-go criteria and a rollback plan agreed first. For a national insurer, Matt built automated tests and Power BI dashboards so everyone could see progress and coverage.