A Business Agility Guide

Business Cases in SharePointGuide #1: Upgrade

Upgrading SharePoint:Support for your

business case

Business Agility is expert in the delivery of solutions built on Office 365 and SharePoint.

We build solutions to both the common and the uncommon. This can be anything from:

• Intranets, Document Management Systems, workflow processes

• Migrating you to a new version of SharePoint

• Planning your information architecture around SharePoint

• Hosted SharePoint, SharePoint Online and Office 365

• Building industry-specific solutions

Table of contents

• Building your business case for upgrading SharePoint............................P4

• Upgrading to SharePoint Online (the Cloud) .......................................................P5

• Upgrading to SharePoint 2016 (on-premises, not in the Cloud) ...........................................................................................P7

• Beyond 2016...SharePoint 2019.............P9

• The practical steps and business case for actual migration .......................................................................................................P10

• Return on Investment ..........................P13

• Conclusion ..............................................P16

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A system/software upgrade can be on the cards for many different reasons. Commonly, the need to move to a newer version of an application includes:

• Making your life/job easier! • Cost saving (e.g. moving to the Cloud)• Improving security and governance• Increasing user adoption• The old system may no longer be supported • Reducing reliance on legacy systems• Introducing more efficiency and automation • Ensuring your system is mobile-friendly• Adopting a system that better fosters collaboration, workflow and more robust processes

Since it was first introduced in 2001, SharePoint is a platform which has continually evolved – both by the user community (which drives true innovation), by Microsoft Partners (developing, configuring and building on it) and by Microsoft itself (forging the roadmap and releases of SharePoint)

Some organisations may have adopted SharePoint right at the beginning and gone through several versions since – however, commonly we see companies using SharePoint 2007, 2010, 2013 and 2016 as the foundations for various business processes.

You may want to upgrade to a newer version of SharePoint; for example, 2010 to 2013. (You can’t upgrade from 2010 to 2016). Alternatively, if you’re not keen on having an on-premises system and you want all your data to reside in the Cloud, then SharePoint Online may be the option for you. (It doesn’t matter which version of SharePoint you currently have if you’re looking to upgrade to SharePoint Online).

Whether you want to upgrade your SharePoint system and start from scratch or upgrade and migrate all your info, this guide will illustrate some good arguments for upgrading and help you build a business case to get the sign off you need.

Building your business case for upgrading SharePoint

Did you know?SharePoint 2007 will go ‘out of support’ this year, so it could be worth upgrading just for that reason alone.

Moving to the Cloud can seem like a daunting task when everything has always been on-premises. A lot of people can find the idea of their data residing in the Cloud a bit difficult to comprehend. However, there are plenty of advantages to going down this road. This is especially true if you’re upgrading from SharePoint 2007 to SharePoint Online. Seeing as there won’t be any support for 2007 from later this year, SharePoint Online can be a worthy option.

Firstly, what is SharePoint Online?A component of your Office 365 enterprise subscription, SharePoint Online is a Cloud based collaboration platform that lets you and your organisation store, organise, and share data and easily communicate with each other. With SharePoint Online, you can share common resources and applications on portals, search to discover information and expertise across your organisation, and stay in the know with personalised news in SharePoint home and the SharePoint mobile apps.

Get rid of the cost of on-premises work:If you’ve always had SharePoint on-premises, you’ll be familiar with the various costs associated with it. Costs such as patch maintenance, security and hardware fixes can add up. It can also be difficult to shoehorn customisations into your existing system and getting those customisations to work with other functionalities on the system. SharePoint developers and administrator costs can add to this cost too,

Upgrading to SharePoint Online (the Cloud)

Did you know?Business Agility has been delivering Business Process Automation solutions on SharePoint since its first iteration in 2001…in fact, even before when it was formerly called ‘Tahoe’

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making the cost of SharePoint as a whole seem a lot more than it should be. SharePoint Online can eliminate some of these large costs.

24/7 access to the most upgraded software:Upgrading to SharePoint Online means that you’ll have access to a constantly updated platform. These updates are applied automatically and you don’t have to do anything. An improved UI, mobile access and advanced collaboration on all of your documents make SharePoint Online an easier option for businesses of all sizes. Workplaces today are more digital than ever, and having flexible access to a central, core system can transform SharePoint from a dated chore to an efficient necessity.

If you currently have an older version of SharePoint (2007 onwards), you’ll need to consider whether the hybrid option (part on-premises, part Online) is best for you, or whether you want to be fully in the Cloud. Good preparation and organisation with your infrastructure can achieve this.

SecurityIf security is your main worry, then you should be concerned with having all your data in one physical location. If you have sensitive data on an employee’s laptop or scattered around various devices, this in itself is a huge security risk.

With SharePoint Online, your data will be in one place and managed by permissions rather than who has physical access to the data in question.

When it comes to document management, security is at the forefront of this process. You can automate lots of things with SharePoint Online, and how you manage the permissions determines how strong your security is. There’s no need to think about getting extra security software and spending money on third party options when you can manage some of the biggest risks yourself.

Expert alert:Our Principal Consultant, John Votaw: “Things that are unlikely to ever be offered on-premises are Delve, Sway and maybe Teams (because of its close association with Skype for Business).”

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The below are the major improvements in SharePoint 2016:

Improved User Experience The user interface has been vastly improved. Hybrid users will see almost direct parity in the UI experience of SharePoint 2016 through Office 365 with SharePoint Online, reducing user friction and adoption problems in hybrid environments. On-premises-only customers will see an improved document library experience and many other UI improvements. The biggest boon is content parity and the user experiences across screens of all sizes, including mobile devices!

Improved governance and controlSecurity in SharePoint and Office 365 has always been a priority and more than reliable, however the latest SharePoint Server installment delivers more control. Tighter compliance, authorisation and auditing are more centralised in SharePoint 2016.

Your sensitive data can be centrally managed and controlled and Hybrid customers can utilise a new set of features that provides insight into analytics streams for both compliance and usage reporting purposes. This allows you to have the ability to understand who is accessing what, from where, and when.

No loss of functionality or ability to use other (older) applications Unlike previous versions of SharePoint, there are no user-facing tools removed. InfoPath still functions as it did previously, and you can use InfoPath 2013 as your client application. Additionally, SharePoint Designer 2013 can still create workflows in the style of either SharePoint 2013 or SharePoint 2010. Finally, with Office Online Server, you can find what you need and more with Excel and other Office programs!

Upgrading to SharePoint 2016 (on-premises, not in the Cloud)

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Upgrading to 2016 from 2013? Upgrading to SharePoint 2016 from 2013 is a very simple process. You’ll have access to lots of new functionality without having to do a huge amount of work. All you need to do is create your new SharePoint 2016 farm, copy the databases from your old system to the new farm, apply all of the necessary upgrades required and that’s pretty much it.

Did you know?If you have an ‘Out of the box’ implementation (i.e. no customisation) then to upgrade you must be on the previous version to be able to upgrade to the new one. i.e. you can upgrade from SP2013 to 2016, but you cannot upgrade directly from 2010 to 2016.

(However, if you’re going to use SharePoint Online, then it doesn’t matter which version you’re on).

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Beyond 2016...SharePoint 2019Yes, another version of SharePoint is in the works. Changes such as unified and more secure sharing experiences across Office 365 will change the landscape for those who aren’t completely sold on working so much in the Cloud.

Personalised search will also be included. Currently, when you click the search bar, you instantly see your most recent and relevant data before you even start to type a single character. Folders will also show up in your results, which will hopefully cure lots of headaches!

The ability to launch Teams directly from SharePoint is also happening. It doesn’t sound much, but it’s an interesting development considering how much work is being put into Teams. In fact, it’s going to be replacing Skype for Business.

Further development with Teams includes the ability to preview all 270+ file types in Teams. You can now add SharePoint pages easier, including your team site’s homepage, as tabs in Microsoft Teams.

Governance and compliance?Governance and compliance is, as always being taken into account too. There’s going to be a new SharePoint Admin Center. It’s similar to the Office 365 admin center, and has graphs to show you your usage data. Additionally, it has messages that tell you which features have been added and removed from your specific tenant. Service-level encryption will be included and with the new OneDrive restore capability. Users will be able to get their data back all by themselves, reducing the risk of data loss.

Expert alert:Dave Nixon, Microsoft Practice Manager at Business Agility said: “SharePoint 2019 is on-premises software only. Microsoft are showing their commitment to on-prem software, which is really interesting (and good news for many companies). We don’t know when on-prem support will cease, so watch this space.”

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Employee onboarding, offboarding and trainingA migration tool will keep all your existing metadata intact – and when your metadata works well, then your SharePoint capability multiplies!

There are roughly five various ways to upgrade to Office 365 or SharePoint Online:

• Microsoft FastTrack• Using the Office 365 Migration API• Using third party tools• Manually copying files • Go Hybrid

It’s worth noting that if you rush your migration or don’t pay sufficient attention to detail, then it could completely skew the process and the product you end up migrating your information to. So, it’s worth taking the time to make sure you have everything in place and the capability to migrate before you go ahead. Here are a few tips:

Be mindful of securityWhen there’s a lot of data to be moved, security can inadvertently take a back step, especially if you find yourself in a rush to get it done. Don’t fall into the trap of becoming slack with your security. Even if it’s old data, make sure it’s destroyed properly if it’s not getting migrated. That includes making sure it’s not residing anywhere else.

Review your contentThere’s no point migrating across old content – it’s either dated or irrelevant (usually both). So take it out of the equation completely. The less you migrate, the easier the process will be.

The practical steps and business case for actual migration

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Pick your migration strategyAs mentioned above, you have several options – you can go down the manual route (laborious but customised to your needs as you go), or automate the process. Alternatively, you can do a bit of both, for various pieces of information.

• Go Hybrid Hybrid migration is a great solution for those of you who don’t want to fully use SharePoint Online, but also don’t want all your data to reside on-premises. It can be a good solution if migrating everything to SharePoint Online is too much of a big task and/or some of your data just needs to be on-premises. This is a good solution for businesses who want to ‘phase out’ their on-premises SharePoint system.

• Microsoft FastTrack: If you have 150 users or more using Office, then you can use Microsoft’s free migration data service. This service assists SharePoint administrators with migration. You can find out more about this on the FastTrack website.

• Use the Office 365 Migration API: This is a newer way to approach a migration that boosts the swiftness of migration of files by leveraging Azure. You transfer your content into a migration package that is sent to Azure Storage. Once Azure runs this, they’ll take the package and place the content in your Office 365 setting. Your package settings will influence how this is done.

• Using third party tools: Depending on your environment this solution can work for you. However, we recommend you take the time to look into what’s offered with the third party tool and what work you’ll need to do. There can also be other budget considerations to be made if you go down this road.

• Manually migrating: This is self-explanatory – manual processes are incredibly painful for users. Of course, once it’s done it’s done – and it’ll be completed to your requirements too. If you have the time and the energy, then a manual migration can be a viable option. Most of this will be a copy and paste job, which is arduous; however if you’ve reviewed your content properly then it can be relatively easy.

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Microsoft’s Migration toolThe Migration Tool is designed to help you migrate content from on-premises SharePoint sites and file shares to SharePoint or OneDrive in Office 365 (the Cloud).

You may be looking to migrate from file shares on-premises to SharePoint or OneDrive. Or, you may want to migrate from on-premises versions of SharePoint. The SharePoint Migration Tool is designed to support the smallest of migrations to large scale migrations with support for bulk scenarios. This means businesses of all shapes and sizes can take advantage of this free piece of kit.

Many businesses may have put off the idea of migrating to Office 365 (Cloud) software. This is because of the implications with their data security and the way they store data on their own servers. It’s not an uncommon dilemma. We’re here to help you whether you want to use a mixture of both Cloud and on-premises (hybrid, if you will) or just wholly on-premises, or migrate everything to the Cloud.

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As with any software change, there are numerous costs involved. However, investment you make in upgrading your system now will pay off in the long run when it comes to cutting down your existing unnecessary costs. If you’re currently spending lots of your budget on maintenance fixes, numerous SharePoint administrators and third-party companies to patch up your existing software, those costs will be eliminated once you’ve migrated to a newer, more secure system.

If you’re spending time and money on training users on how to use an outdated system, you can make this back by migrating to a simple and easy to use UI with fewer complications.

The ultimate ROI here is security. With data security at the forefront of many business’ strategies, upgrading to a more secure system couldn’t be more important. The financial consequences of data leaks can be catastrophic – the best strategy here is to prevent an outbreak before it happens. With newer features in SharePoint 2016, the reporting capabilities are second to none. What you spend now in third party reporting tools and various Excel spreadsheets can now be concatenated within SharePoint.

Return on investment

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ConclusionThere are lots of variables when considering a migration of information to a new platform. Things like security, governance and permissions are all incredibly important yet often sidelined. Depending on what your existing environment is like, you may have an easy road ahead (such as migrating from 2013 to 2016) or a more complicated one (2007 to SharePoint Online).

As long as you plan how you’re going to proceed with your migration, the end result can be rather lucrative. A better UI, enhanced security, mobile access, better collaboration (to name a few) are all things you can look forward to when you upgrade your software. If your SharePoint system is currently stale and seldom used, it may just become to most necessary piece of kit you’ve ever invested in.

We’re SharePoint experts with a huge amount of knowledge when it comes to migration. You name it, we’ve seen it! If you’d like to know more about migrating your SharePoint systems, get in touch with us and we’ll be happy to help.

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Contact us for support and adviceinfo@business-agility.com

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Business Agility Consulting LtdSpirella Building

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01462 470 160info@business-agility.com