Business Pain Points That Migration Tools for SharePoint Miss

Though seemingly straightforward, migrations to SharePoint Online usually come with several challenges. And many migration tools for SharePoint Online fail to address some of the key challenges businesses face, such as aligning the migration with the desired business goals, ensuring migration accuracy in ways that do not create communication silos in SharePoint Online and within its sites. 

CloudFuze is an industry-leading migration tool that overcomes the gaps in SharePoint Online migration and its associated business pain points. In this post, let us delve into the business challenges in SharePoint Online migration and how CloudFuze can help solve the issues.

Lack of Pre-Migration Analysis

In most business scenarios, generic migration tools proceed with the data transfer without performing a thorough pre-migration analysis along with the human intervention of the migration team. This can result in missing out on unforeseen challenges that may put the migration process off track.

Your internal IT team must audit the source data and understand the dependencies and structure. It is essential to filter out unwanted user account data to reduce server load and shorten the migration timeline.

It is also important to finalize which file features (in-line comments, versions, embedded links, timestamps, etc.) to retain while moving the data from the source to the destination cloud. Opt for reliable third-party tools like CloudFuze to execute an in-depth pre-migration assessment that will help inform the overall migration strategy.

Inability to Replicate all the Permissions

Another challenge in moving your source cloud data to SharePoint Online is to retain the same permission levels in the destination. And when permissions are not accurately transferred, end-users get impacted as they cannot access or manage files and folders smoothly. In many cases, it also raises security concerns, as unauthorized users can access the files/folders with incorrect permissions.

To overcome this issue, utilize a SharePoint Online migration tool that has the capability to transfer the exact permissions.

Overcoming Specific SharePoint Online Migration Limitations

Many migration tools for SharePoint Online cannot fully address the specific limitations of SharePoint Online. For example, compensating for unsupported special characters, file/folder names, and restricted file size limits.

Robust and competent third-party migration tools for SharePoint Online, including CloudFuze, have built-in features that can overcome these limitations. Check how CloudFuze’s features can address SharePoint Online restrictions.

Failing to Prepare the SharePoint Online Environment

Before initiating the migration, your team must prepare the destination environment by creating the respective SharePoint Online Sites, lists, and libraries. It is also essential to check whether the correct configurations are set to ensure seamless data transfer.

A versatile SharePoint Online migration service provider like CloudFuze extends its functionality to include this preparatory step for optimum compatibility and performance.

Shortcomings in Error-Handling

One of the common business pain points when migrating to SharePoint Online is gaps in error handling. Some tools halt the entire migration process once they encounter any error or sometimes even ignore it without estimating the severity of the underlying issue.

Reliable migration tools for SharePoint Online, like CloudFuze, have auto-retry mechanisms that automatically re-migrate files and folders that have gone into conflict, ensuring steady data transfer. It helps detect and fix errors as part of its efficient error-handling process.

Non-Tailored Migration Solutions

A one-size-fits-all approach does not work for data migrations, as each business has unique needs. Unfortunately, many migration tools for SharePoint Online fail to cater to the need for working with a highly specific migration strategy that addresses all the migration needs.

Leveraging a third-party SharePoint Online migration tool that provides customized migrations helps in meeting distinctive migration needs.

Not Maintaining File/Folder Hierarchy

In a bid to speed up the migration process, some SharePoint Online migration tools fail to maintain file/folder hierarchy between the source and the destination clouds. It results in a non-uniform structure and raises the risk of disruption in user productivity.

Your internal migration team must utilize a SharePoint Online migration tool that can verify the SharePoint Online Sites, lists, libraries, and author names. In case of missing values or incorrect file/folder structure, the tool must migrate the values or raise an error to alert the team.

Lack of Extensive Migration Reports

Without comprehensive migration reports, businesses are left to wonder if the migration has been truly successful or not. Migration tools that generate only basic reports do not suffice in helping the migration teams understand the deep details of the completed migration.

SharePoint Online tools that focus on extensive reporting can help streamline the validation process which can further help businesses and their team to make sense of the migrated data.