Behind MigrationWiz stands a team of customer success experts ready to help MSPs build their M&A migration business. The team can offer guidance with MigrationWiz, specifically during the crucial stages of configuration and testing. They are also available to assist with migration strategy development. The team has the knowledge and experience to advise on vendor API limitations and communication. Finally, the team stands ready to help MSPs communicate with users to prevent complaints and unnecessary help-desk calls.
However, with all the complex logistics involved in a migration, it can be easy to forget that at the root of the process are people. In many M&A scenarios, it’s likely that the MSP will need to work with some employees who are not pleased with the transition. That’s why it’s important for an MSP to develop trust from all parties at the onset of the migration. Understanding the people who you’re working with will help you outperform MSPs that only concern themselves with the technical side of a migration.
As most experts know, only about 20% of a migration is spent moving data. The rest involves communicating, planning, and documenting.
Before anything is moved, a thorough, two-part assessment should be conducted. The initial step is understanding what needs to be migrated. This means capturing a clear picture of existing data, the source and destination environments, and a reasonable timeline for the migration. This part of the assessment is meant to get a clear picture of the total user count, the type of data to be migrated, the number of versions of a document that needs to be migrated, and the hierarchy of the environments.
Risks and Stakes
Finally, it’s important to build out your migration protocols as a repeatable process. This streamlines migrations and allows you to create the foundation of a repeatable business. To do this, MSPs will want to create a standard methodology and cadence for large migrations that prevent you from having to start from scratch each time. A good migration tool can help you create a standard methodology that works for you and your clients.
For more information on the benefits of MigrationWiz and how it can fulfill your migration needs, head here: Building a Robust, Repeatable M&A Migration Business with MigrationWiz®: A Guide for MSPs.
As an MSP who understands the big-picture stakes and risks of the M&A process, you’ll be better positioned to be a more effective and valuable partner than others who are too narrowly focused on technology alone. There are a few things you’ll need, though. This article will explain the risks and stakes and offer a tool to help MSPs win M&A migrations.
Migration Best Practices
At the heart of a successful migration is clear and intentional communication. This is often captured in a key document called an organizational change management (OCM) plan. The OCM captures key details of the migration while outlining how the migration and subsequent changes will be communicated to leadership and end users. Clear communication ensures end users don’t encounter any surprises that might result in leadership halting the migration.
IT teams, too, are often at maximum bandwidth. Adding a complex migration to a full plate of regular tasks just isn’t feasible for many teams. Their existing IT infrastructure, too, might not be adequate to handle such a high-stakes job. This is where MSPs with the right tools can make sure the migration is done right.
There are many tools available to help with migrations, but MSPs who handle large complex jobs turn to MigrationWiz. Fully automated and scalable, MigrationWiz is a 100% SaaS migration solution that is accessible anytime, from anywhere. It helps MSPs with migration setup, management, and execution from a single, controlled, and centralized interface.
With M&As heating up in 2024, MSPs would be wise to build a robust, repeatable M&A business. The sector is ready for experienced, knowledgeable third-party partners to handle high-stakes migrations quickly and seamlessly. MigrationWiz and BitTitan are ready, too, to help MSPs take advantage of this moment.
After a few years of stagnation, mergers and acquisitions are back on the rise. In our current economic landscape, companies are looking to expand, transform their models, and invest in emerging areas such as AI.
Once you’ve established a clear picture, the second step involves security concerns. These include permissions, group policies, workflows, and other considerations. Security policies often vary widely among organizations, which can make for complex migrations. MSPs should make sure to consider data retention, password requirements, multi-factor authentication, device policies, and data storage before beginning the migration.
How MigrationWiz Helps MSPs win M&A Business
Because MigrationWiz is a SaaS tool, it minimizes the impact on the client’s infrastructure. And as service providers expand APIs and the requirements for migrations change, MigrationWiz is constantly updated to handle new and unique migrations.
Market watchers are estimating a 20% increase in M&A deals in 2024. Because integrating IT among organizations is a critical part of a successful M&A, IT leadership is now a central player in the process. This means that IT leaders often turn to third-party specialists like MSPs to handle key parts of tech integration.
An M&A migration is a high-stakes proposition. You are integrating the systems of two or more different companies into a single, functional system upon which day-to-day business operations rely. The goal of every migration is to achieve this integration seamlessly, clearly communicating the process and changes to leadership and end users so that there are no interpretations or surprises.
So why might in-house IT teams need the help of third-party specialists like MSPs? First, IT teams might not have the necessary experience with M&A migrations. This expertise is often a high-value add when MSPs are brought in to handle the migration.
Smaller migrations can often be handled in-house with scripted solutions. However, M&As are often too complex for IT teams. MigrationWiz is a powerful tool for third-party MSPs that gives them the scalability and flexibility to solve massive migrations. From tenant to tenant, every migration will be different in terms of groupings, permissions, users, and overall structure. MigrationWiz’s GUI gives MSPs a point-and-click experience that makes even the largest, most complex migrations easier to manage.
MSPs bring essential knowledge and experience to what are often make-or-break deals. The rise of M&As, then, represents a golden opportunity. For MSPs with a broad, comprehensive scope of the M&A process, migrations are an ideal way to expand your business.
By Aaron Wadsworth
