As an organization grows and diversifies, the need for an email service that can improve communication and collaboration becomes vital. You might even consider switching from one email service to another if it's in the best interest of your organization. However, considering the risk of data loss, security breaches, reputation damage, and service interruption, migration can be a daunting task.
According to an Adobe survey, a typical employee spends 4.5 hours per day on work emails, and no company can afford to have its email service disrupted by a botched migration. Nevertheless, if you have the know-how, email migration can be a breeze.
Consider the case of Mr. Kim, an IT administrator who recently completed a successful migration for his organization. For him, migration was seamless, since he conducted a test migration with a few users in his organization, assessed the advantages and disadvantages, and then decided to proceed with the email migration. Let's take a closer look at how Kim performed his migration.
Avoid problems by running a test migration
Kim has a thousand users in his organization. So he decided to conduct a test migration for 10 users, hand-picked from various departments like sales, customer support, marketing, and development. In this way, he was able to analyze and assess the usability, security and convenience of the migration process.
Instead of fully migrating the 10 users, he chose to set up Dual delivery, wherein the emails will be received both in the existing and the new email services, to prevent any failed delivery of emails. This gave him an opportunity to compare the features between the two email services, such as deliverability and spam protection, to name a few.
Also, he registered a new domain to host the new email service provider for temporary and new users in the organization. This gave him the opportunity to explore the new email service with a fresh eye.
Once he was satisfied with the service and features of the new email service provider, he decided to migrate the whole organization.
Having made the decision to migrate, what things need to be considered to ensure its success?
Preparation is half the victory
Nobody wants to arrive on a Monday morning and find themselves locked out of their accounts or unclear on how to navigate a new email environment. To avoid this, Inform the employees about the email migration process, including their new login credentials, when it will be completed, and what will be migrated.
For example, Kim didn't intend to migrate the trash folder, so he informed all employees ahead of time, shared login credentials before the migration, and got in touch with them about any concerns. He also prepared them for the new environment with a demo to ensure an easy transition.
Decide what to migrate
A move to a new apartment is an opportunity to clean up. Similarly, for an organization, migration is an ideal time to clear out old unwanted data and duplicates. Nobody knows the data like the department that uses it, which is why Kim included them in the decision-making process. He also made a backup of all the important and sensitive information he didn't want to lose under any circumstances. No one wants to see data lost, but if you're prepared, the majority of potential harm can be prevented.
Aim for minimal disruption
Try and plan your migration on days with minimal utilization. Kim has a clear understanding of the amount of data his organization has, which helped him estimate the time needed for migration. So he planned his email migration over the weekend, minimizing any work disruption.
Hence, migration can be done quickly with the proper tools, processes, and guidance.
With Zoho Mail's simple email migration process, you can easily switch from your current email service while ensuring secure business email communication. If you don't have a Zoho Mail account, sign up today!
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