Cognifide Google Drive to M365

Cognifide is a marketing technology consultancy that works with some of the world’s leading businesses to deliver exceptional customer experiences. Today’s dominant companies are built around the customer experience. They have a clear vision of what that experience should be and can quickly and continuously bring it to life. Our technical and transformational expertise gives marketers control, helping them to get to market faster, improve execution, innovate and be more efficient.

The Need:

Wunderman Thompson, part of international advertising group WPP plc, operates in 90 markets around the globe. Its corporate family consists of over 20,000 experts, working within a large number of businesses – each of which uses different tools and platforms to manage and store its own data.

The migration from Google to Office was a huge endeavour for us, not least because everyone loved Google! Nero Blanco made an extremely complex process smooth sailing, and the perception from our CEO was that the migration was ‘flawless’.

Most businesses have experienced IT consultants that force you to change your internal processes to make their lives easier. That’s not the way Nero Blanco work. Rather than forcing us to adopt something we didn’t want, they delivered what we needed, how we needed it.

– Michal Wojciechowski, Head of IT, Cognifide

It’s a digital divide that makes it hard for the businesses within the group to work together. The eventual aim is for each of the companies within the group to migrate to Office 365 in the WPP Cloud, to enable full collaboration, seamless communication, and operational efficiency.

With tens of thousands of users and vast amounts of data throughout WPP, this mega migration is an exceptionally complex and unique project that can only be handled one business at a time.

For Cognifide, the switch from Google Drive to Office 365 involved migrating vast quantities of data and access rights within an extremely tight timescale. The project needed to be completed by the start of November 2019, working around national holidays in Poland to minimise disruption to employees.

 

The Solution:

With over 50 years’ experience of tackling complex, large-scale migration projects, Nero Blanco were the obvious choice to take on the challenge.
Big enough to work with some of the most well-known companies around the globe, yet agile enough to provide a personal and highly efficient service, Nero Blanco have developed a reputation for their high-calibre service and guaranteed no-risk, on-time delivery.

As with all end-to-end migrations, the project combined the use of a best of breed SaaS solution with Nero Blanco’s transparent, collaborative approach and creative problem-solving.

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

Under the guidance of project lead, Twan van Beers, Nero Blanco delivered
on the following scope of work:

Agreed deliverables:

  • planning and discovery
  • pre-migration tasks
  • configure the selected best of breed SaaS solution
  • run pilot
  • single cutover event by 6 November 2019
  • post-migration support

Migration of Dropbox Business to Office 365:

  • source data of around 2.5TB
  • accessible by over 180 users
  • initial sync of data older than 90 days
  • final delta pass on migration weekend
  • migration of file and folder permissions
  • ongoing support during the week after migration, during which only one support ticket was raised

cognifide.com

Download the full case study: pdf

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Users

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(TB) Results, in figures

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
From Nero Blanco’s early involvement through to completion of the project, project lead, Conrad Murray, and the team demonstrated a vital understanding of the cultural issues and etiquette inherent in working with a Japanese organisation – something many vendors overlook.They were delightful to work with, and there’s no doubt in my mind that the project wouldn’t have gone as well without them. I can’t recommend Nero Blanco strongly enough and wouldn’t use anyone else in future.Senior management in Chugai Japan are delighted with the end result, as are the management teams in Europe and US.If you’re thinking of carrying out a Microsoft 365 migration for your business, I’d strongly recommend making sure you have the right partner – in the form of Nero Blanco – on your side. It makes life a whole lot easier.
David Howell, David Howell, Head of IT Europe, Chugai Pharma Europe
"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
"Since 2016 our tech team has grown from 35 to 90. The cost of retaining the latest skills, experience and knowledge internally is prohibitive, and we don’t always have the time, funds or ability to achieve our objectives.Thanks to the ongoing managed service we have with Nero Blanco, they feel like a seamless extension of our team. They complement the strengths and skills we have in-house, and we’ve established a strong relationship with good rapport – so much so, it’s hard to imagine how we’d manage without them!Our monthly retainer gives us access to their services as and when we need them, yes, but it’s more than that. Nero Blanco are a true strategic partner for RNIB, and their involvement is based on a deep understanding of our goals and the challenges we face as an organisation.When it came to launching our new three-year roadmap, I invited Conrad and the team to road test and review the plan before anyone else. They helped us to identify our priorities, and to create a plan to get us from where we are to where we want to be – despite Microsoft moving the goalposts throughout the process.With the plan signed off, Nero Blanco are now facilitating the delivery of our goals – starting with moving data and resources to Azure, enhancing security, and leveraging the complete Office 365 security stack.Since we began our collaboration with Nero Blanco the partnership has delivered measurable value. Simply put, they have enabled us to drive the organisation forward dramatically, and made it easier for us to do the vital work we do with ease.”
Aidan Forman, Director of Technology, RNIB
"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
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
Data migration of any kind is always tricky but the project went incredibly smoothly. It’s a long time since I’ve worked with a vendor that was able to deliver such a seamless transition, and I was both impressed and amazed by how well it went.
Peter Leslie, IT Manager APAC, WaterAid
“Nero Blanco made an extremely complex process smooth sailing. The perception from our CEO was that the migration was ‘flawless’.”
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
“Nero Blanco just got it. There was no problem we could throw at them that they couldn’t handle! I was both impressed and amazed by how well the migration went.”
Peter Leslie, IT Manager APAC, Water Aid
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, Breast Cancer Now