Breast Cancer Now - Nero Blanco IT Migration Specialists

Nero Blanco assisted Breast Cancer Now with the migration of 250 user mailboxes and OneDrive accounts, as well as shared mailboxes, archives, and data in SharePoint and Teams. Partnering with BitTitan, we got the necessary information from the team at Breast Cancer Now and mapped out the project within MigrationWiz®.

The Need:

In April 2019, Breast Cancer Care and Breast Cancer Now took the bold step forwards becoming one charity. Now known as Breast Cancer Now, the charity is steered by world-class research and powered by life-changing care.

The charity believes that if we all act now, we can change the future of breast cancer and make sure that, by 2050, everyone diagnosed with the disease lives – and is supported to live well. The merger was a perfect opportunity for the charities to combine the power of care and research and increase its impact. A key part of that integration was migrating employees from both organisations into a single Office 365 tenant.

“It’s critical from a day-to-day perspective, being able to share data and work together as colleagues of one organisation,” said Tom Bowlby, Head of IT & Facilities at Breast Cancer Now. “After a merger happens, you’re trying to move away from a culture of ‘us and them’ and the technical things we do behind the scenes like this work toward that end goal.”

Tom Bowlby, Head of IT & Facilities

Tom and Senior IT Manager Brigid Macdonald broke the project down into two phases: first, they needed to move both London-based organisations into the same space, set up trust relationships with Active Directories and telephony, and prepare the target Office 365 tenant. The second phase was the actual consolidation of users and data into one tenant. For this, they turned to Nero Blanco IT and BitTitan®.

The Solution:

Migrating Together with Nero Blanco IT and BitTitan

With the Breast Cancer Now team completing phase one work, the IT migration specialists from Nero Blanco turned to phase two: the migration of 250 user mailboxes and OneDrive accounts, as well as shared mailboxes, archives, and data in SharePoint and Teams. As a close partner of BitTitan, Nero Blanco got the necessary information from the team at Breast Cancer Now and began mapping the project within MigrationWiz®.

For this project, Nero Blanco used a pre-stage approach. In August, Nero Blanco began migrating user mailboxes and data in the background in preparation for a late September cutover. With the majority of data already migrated, Nero Blanco was able to cut over all users within a single weekend and move the combined organizations into a single Office 365 tenant with high fidelity and minimal escalations post-project.

The Right Team for the Job

Breast Cancer Now was connected to Nero Blanco through a BitTitan employee and frequent supporter of the charity after the merger was announced. For Breast Cancer Now, it was the expertise and specialization in this type of project that convinced them to engage with Nero Blanco.

“We work with many partners, but the ultimate decision came down to the fact that this was bread-and-butter for Nero Blanco,”

Brigid Macdonald – Senior IT Manager

“We were able to combine professional services on top of the BitTitan tool to deliver on-time and on-budget. For us, it was an enjoyable project because of the collaboration with Breast Cancer Now – good people to work with.”

Fabrice Barbier, Business Development Executive at Nero Blanco

With the tenant consolidation project behind them, Tom and Brigid continue to work with their internal IT team and partners to help Breast Cancer Now push ahead as a single organisation, providing support for today and hope for the future for anyone affected by breast cancer in the UK.

To learn more about Breast Cancer Now or see how you can get involved, visit breastcancernow.org

Download the full case study: pdf

This case study was originally posted on Bittitan website. Find that article here.

Choosing to deliver the project in four cutover events after months of discovery and planning was intense – but it was the right choice for us. I still can’t believe we pulled it off! Impressive.

Joshua Feliciano – Vice President, Global Head of Digital Workplace, S&P Global

"The project was completed quickly and effectively. What few issues there were with the migration were met with great support, and reassurance that a solution would be delivered swiftly. The knowledge was there, and delivery was checked and measured at every milestone. Minimal Post-migration support was required, due to the smooth nature of the migration, and the great level of response to emerging issues.We really appreciated that everything went as promised, with no post-migration headaches. Based on our experiences with other specialists we were most impressed with the level of professional planning and expertise from Nero Blanco, and we would definitely recommend them and use them again for future projects.”

Chris Alcock, IT Support Engineer, Signal

"Traditionally, and for many years, RNIB has partnered with other organisations and charities that complement the work we’re doing to help visually impaired people. In our most recent restructure, we decided to rehome these organisations – divesting them to other charities that can provide ongoing support so we can focus on our core activity.The discovery process for these divestitures was done by Nero Blanco as part of the ongoing retainer. Each individual process is then priced up as a separate project, and delivered in collaboration with the internal team.Nero Blanco have already helped us to divest five to six organisations, with another three to four still to be processed. Some are relatively small projects, while others – such as the divestiture of Loughborough College to Sense Scotland – are more complex, requiring VPN access and the move to a new server. Yet whatever the size of the project, all require the same smooth transition with minimal impact and disruption to the people involved.In the case of Loughborough College, one RNIB staff member transitioned across to manage the handover, which was super smooth and interruption-free. Without the experience, resources and support of Nero Blanco, we would have struggled to manage the divestiture process. It’s good to have their ongoing support and expertise on hand when we need it."

Aidan Forman, Director of Technology, RNIB

Nero Blanco enabled us to under-promise and over-deliver on what was a challenging and vital transformation project. From a design perspective, their expertise allowed us to understand the viable options and to shape the most sensible solution for our organisation.

Head of Technical Architecture

Where other consultants are rigid and system bound, Nero Blanco were flexible and responsive enough to adjust to our business requirements very quickly. Instead of having to wait for the following day until someone was on hand to help – as we’ve done with other suppliers in the past – Twan was there on the phone the moment we needed him, and quick to act decisively in response to any risk. This was unique and very precious.Ultimately, the adoption of any new technology depends on how well it is communicated within the team. Communication with Nero Blanco was clear and straightforward, and the project was delivered on time with minimal disruption to our business.The migration project was a true partnership, based on mutual trust and respect. The seamless implementation speaks for itself: Nero Blanco are true experts in their field and it was a pleasure to work with them.

Michal Wojciechowski, Head of IT, Cognifide

“As a smaller business, Nero Blanco were able to offer a level of agile flexibility we’ve never found with a larger organisation. Size simply wasn’t an issue with the level of skill, talent and experience they offer.”

Steve Bumba, Director, Portfolio and Solutions, Wunderman Thompson