Client story Facilities Management Company Overhauls Email Environment

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By  Insight UK / 22 Jan 2021  / Topics: Collaboration

Due to rapid organic growth, a Facilities Management company was running three separate email environments. The IT team was experiencing multiple problems trying to make the three environments work as one. As well as struggling to keep communication running smoothly, the business was worried about the security risk posed by outdated platforms and hardware. The environment was also experiencing regular outages, which was proving detrimental to the company. Insight overhauled the entire environment and helped the IT team successfully migrate all staff onto the cloud-based Exchange Online platform.

The Challenge

The client was running three email environments, two of which were no longer supported by Microsoft and running on outdated hardware – presenting a serious security risk.

Making the email environments work together was challenging. A user with an account in one environment would need to be added as a contact to the other two, and then included in the appropriate distribution lists. The large contact lists posed a security risk, and the forwarding system was very complex. These issues were causing frequent outages – often up to 12 hours at a time.

The Solution

The client was keen to migrate all users to Exchange Online as quickly as possible, but remedial work needed to be done first.

Some users had three different identities and these needed to be merged before progress could be made. Due to the complex email forwarding rules, this needed to be done very carefully, to maintain the flow of information between users.

During the migration, Insight encountered an issue with a firewall, which was preventing web traffic being moved from the old mail server to the new Hybrid Exchange server. As the firewall supplier wasn’t able to resolve the issue, Insight engaged a third party, which installed virtual firewalls to handle the traffic and bypass the firewall appliance.

The end result was a smooth mail migration process, with end-users easily updated on progress.

The Benefits

  • The client now has a much simpler email environment with just one mailbox per user.
  • The company is saving money, as it no longer has the expense of running three separate email environments.
  • Further savings are made as the client does not need to maintain outdated hardware.
  • The email environment is much more stable and is no longer subject to regular outages.
  • The email environment is also much more secure as it is no longer unsupported, and each user has a single identity.
  • The company also benefits from the enhanced security features of Exchange Online.
  • The move to Exchange Online is the first step towards a wider adoption of Microsoft Office 365 – enabling the team to collaborate more easily and work securely anywhere.

The Results Highlights

FM Email Environment Highlights

Quick Overview

Client:

A UK-wide Facilities Management company.

Size:

8,000 employees

Challenge:

Merge three separate email environments and migrate all staff onto Microsoft Exchange Online.

Insight Solution:

Consulting and Migration Services.

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