Modernising SharePoint workflows during a complex on-premises to online migration
At a glance:
Client: ASMPT
Industry: Semiconductor and electronics manufacturing
Location: Global
Services provided: Migrating all data and workflows from SharePoint On-Prem to SharePoint Online in four cutover events.
Number of sites migrated: 959
Number of legacy workflows replaced: 2,500
Total data migrated: 5TB
The Client:
ASMPT is the leading global supplier of hardware, software, and service solutions powering intelligent factories in the semiconductor and electronics manufacturing industries. They design and manufacture advanced machinery and tools used in semiconductor and electronics assembly – enabling the world’s most advanced technology to come to life.
Headquartered in Singapore with operational leadership based in Shanghai, ASMPT has a presence in more than 30 countries and employs over 10,000 people worldwide, with regional offices across Asia, Europe, the Americas, Australia, and Africa.
This project was delivered for ASMPT SMT Solutions, a key business segment within ASMPT focused on helping electronics manufacturers build intelligent, connected, and highly automated factories. They provide integrated hardware and software solutions that power digital transformation across various industries, playing a vital role in ASMPT’s mission to enable the digital world.
Workloads:
10 Standardised workflows
10+ Custom content types
25 Custom columns
40+ Flow approvers
150+ Flow actions
1,918 Sites deployed
Tools & Features:
Sharegate as supplied by ASMPT
PowerSyncPro Redirect (for SharePoint link Redirection)
Find the full case study here: pdf
The Need:
SMT had been using SharePoint On-Premises for over a decade. While it had served them well, the platform was beginning to show its age – it was outdated, costly to maintain, and increasingly unsuitable for a modern, global enterprise. Aging infrastructure, unsupported software, and rising security risks posed a significant threat to operational continuity. Collaboration between teams was also hampered by inconsistent environments across multiple versions of SharePoint being used globally.
To support the business’s ongoing digital transformation and to better enable collaboration across its international teams, SMT made the strategic decision to migrate to SharePoint Online. The move promised a range of benefits: greater flexibility, improved security, enhanced user experience, and reduced operational costs.
Nero Blanco was engaged to lead the migration – tasked with moving SMT’s entire SharePoint environment to the cloud, with minimal disruption to users and no compromise to business continuity.
However, the migration would not be a simple lift-and-shift – their SharePoint environment contained business-critical data, thousands of legacy workflows, custom content types, and complex, deeply embedded departmental automations. Some data formats were incompatible with SharePoint Online, and many of the legacy workflows needed to be rebuilt or replaced.
With tight timelines and global stakeholders, the success of this migration project depended on careful planning, technical expertise, and a highly collaborative approach. SMT’s existing SharePoint 2013 environment was out of support, lacking security fixes, and running on ageing hardware. This posed a significant risk, as any hardware failure could lead to substantial data loss and business disruption.
The need to upgrade or move to SharePoint Online was also driven by SMT’s aim to consolidate its business operations with the broader ASMPT group, which had its own set of SharePoint challenges, including operating multiple versions of SharePoint, hindering effective collaboration.
THE SOLUTION
Discovery and Planning
Nero Blanco conducted a comprehensive assessment of SMT’s SharePoint On-Premises environment, mapping dependencies, critical data, documents, content structures, and workflows that would need to be migrated. This audit revealed that more than 2,500 legacy workflows were in active use – many created over a decade ago and tightly integrated into departmental processes.
Working collaboratively with SMT’s IT and project management teams, Nero Blanco developed a detailed phased migration plan, outlining timelines, stakeholder responsibilities, and mitigation strategies for potential risks.
To migrate content efficiently, the team leveraged ShareGate to transfer documents, libraries, and lists from SharePoint 2013 to SharePoint Online. Custom scripts were developed to handle legacy data types and ensure integrity. Rigorous testing validated the completeness and accuracy of the migrated data.
To minimise disruption and maintain control throughout the process, the migration was delivered in four structured cutover events. Each cutover was carefully planned to align with regional and business unit needs, ensuring a smooth and phased transition for ASMPT’s global teams.
Workflow redevelopment
One of the most complex aspects of the migration was replacing ASM SMT’s legacy workflows. Nearly 2,500 workflows were in use across the business – many of them deeply embedded with departmental processes.
While Microsoft’s SharePoint Migration Tool offered basic migration for the client’s workflows, the results were incomplete and often unusable. Nero Blanco initially explored the feasibility of programmatically fixing gaps using Graph API but found this approach unsustainable at scale.
After conducting a thorough market review, the Nero Blanco team recommended Encodian Trigr – a tool that enabled the deployment of a single Power Automate flow instance that could be reused across the entire SharePoint Online tenant by eliminating weeks to months’ worth of manual flow duplication and painful future maintenance. This key innovation allowed us to standardise workflow logic and reduce ongoing maintenance at an unprecedented scale by removing development duplication efforts.
Ten new Power Automate flows were designed, built, and tested using Agile methodology, with features mapped to detailed User Stories and refined in collaborative sprints. This ensured the new workflows were not only functional but also future-ready.
Training and enablement
A critical success factor for this project was user adoption. Nero Blanco delivered live training sessions and created detailed handover documentation for the BAU Team across the organisation. This included guidance on Power Automate usage, SharePoint Online navigation, and best practices for using the new platform effectively. Ongoing support ensured a smooth transition and addressed post-migration queries promptly.
“It took longer than we anticipated to get it delivered, but what was delivered met our requirements exactly.
Nero Blanco saved us a bunch of time and effort. They gave us the expertise and resources that we needed when we needed them.”
–Terry Child – Senior Manager, Digital Workspace Architect, ASMPT
THE RESULTS
The migration from SharePoint 2013 to SharePoint Online was delivered swiftly with no disruption to business operations and complete preservation of critical data and workflows. ASMPT’s teams now benefit from seamless, real-time collaboration from anywhere in the world.
By moving to the cloud, employees across more than 30 countries can access shared content, contribute to projects, and stay aligned without the limitations of a legacy on-premises system. This has dramatically improved teamwork and productivity across different time zones.
“A highlight feature I particularly liked was the redirection plugin that Nero Blanco provided. This was something no other company offered us. That was a genius, move on your side. It worked really, really well.”
–Terry Child – Senior Manager, Digital Workspace Architect, ASMPT
Replacing nearly 2,500 legacy workflows with ten streamlined Power Automate flows modernised ASMPT’s business processes and eliminated countless manual steps. The new automations are not only easier to maintain but also more adaptable to future changes, improving operational efficiency across departments and regions.
In addition, the shift to SharePoint Online significantly reduced ASMPT’s reliance on aging, unsupported infrastructure, enhancing both resilience and security. The risk of hardware failure and data loss – once a pressing concern – has been eliminated. With Microsoft managing platform updates and security patches, ASMPT benefits from enterprise-grade protection and compliance by default.
Financially, the migration has also delivered some significant long-term savings. The cost of maintaining outdated systems, including hardware, third-party tools, and IT overhead, has been replaced with a predictable, scalable cloud model. This allows IT resources to focus on innovation and value-added initiatives rather than system upkeep.
Finally, the move brought SMT’s collaboration platform into alignment with the broader ASMPT Group, laying the groundwork for unified systems and governance. This strategic shift supports future integration, accelerates digital transformation efforts, and positions ASMPT to grow with confidence in a secure, modern digital environment.
CONCLUSION
This migration was about more than just moving platforms – it was a catalyst for modernisation across ASMPT’s global IT operations. By partnering with Nero Blanco, ASMPT SMT Solutions was able to mitigate significant business risks during a high-stakes transition, as well as preserve mission-critical workflows, and embrace a platform built for agility, security, and scale.
The result: a future-proof SharePoint environment that supports ASMPT’s global growth and their vision of enabling the factories of tomorrow.
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