Moving your email without being properly prepared? “It’s like when you unpack in the wrong place whilst moving house and, whilst sitting on the loo, you realise you’ve put the toilet paper in the kitchen.” But if you plan it properly, everything will end up running faster, more efficiently and more securely. Let’s see what makes a migration a success (or a total failure).
What is email migration, and why does it make life more complicated?
A correspondence migration It’s simple: you take the company’s email infrastructure and migrate it to a new (ideally more modern and secure) system. This typically involves:
- Post office boxes (because nobody likes losing their entire correspondence)
- Groups or distribution lists (alias, group, distribution group – depending on the terminology used by your IT team)
- Messages (including letters marked „urgent” but which were never opened)
- Calendar entries (so that you can continue to consciously avoid unnecessary meetings)
- Contacts (because who would want to retype all the partners?)
Why do you need to worry about this?
Because your 15-year-old Exchange server is now shaking more than the old air-con in the server room.
If you don’t want to work on a system that is slow, unreliable and prone to crashes, then email migration is inevitable. Moving to the cloud can help minimise the IT maintenance, and it may well be that your monthly expenses will also be easier to plan.
The benefits of email migration: Why is it worth it?
Once you’ve taken the plunge, you can be sure of the following:
- Safety on steroids: Protection against spam, phishing and malware, because it’s not much fun when the CEO clicks on a fake banking email.
- Faster search: So that you can finally find something without having to go to the trouble of fiddling about with the Ctrl+F shortcut.
- More effective collaboration: Integrated calendar, group chat and AI-powered email reply suggestions. (Because, yes, even artificial intelligence knows better than we do what we want to say.)
- Automation: Filters, automatic replies, spam filtering – because your email should work for you, not the other way round.
But what will happen to the users?
Everyone starts to worry when they hear that the IT team is going to surprise them with a new system, especially if email is their most important work tool. That’s why, amongst other things, it’s definitely worth making sure of the following:
- A quick guide (rather than a 100-page PDF that nobody ever reads).
- The timing of the migration (at the weekend or during a public holiday period, when there is little email traffic).
- The documentation on client- and server-side settings, because certain features (e.g. signatures, inbox filters) do not always migrate automatically.
Avoiding a nightmare: What shouldn’t you do?
- Don’t leave it until the last minute! The „I’ll sort it out on Friday in five minutes” mentality has never led to anything good.
- Don’t miss a test! There should always be a pilot group to try out the new system first, before you throw everyone in at the deep end.
- Don’t forget to save! Because there’s nothing worse than realising that the last 10 years’ worth of correspondence has gone missing somewhere along the way.
Email migration isn’t rocket science, but if you don’t pay attention to it, it can easily turn into a month-long headache. If you do it right, you’ll end up with a faster, more secure and more efficient email system. It’s worth giving it a go, but make sure you’re properly prepared!
A Survival Guide to Email Migration – Avoiding the Most Common Pitfalls
Desktop application vs. web interface – which way forward?
If you use Outlook, Thunderbird, Mac Mail or another popular email client, there’s a good chance you won’t have to start from scratch after the migration – most of your settings can be transferred over without any problems.
On a web interface, however, there may be a surprise or two: a new design, unfamiliar buttons, or a changed menu structure. If the environment in question supports web-based access, it’s worth organising a quick training session or providing a brief guide so that people don’t find themselves asking after the migration: „OK, but where’s the send button?”
Aliases, forwarders and DNS wizardry
Are all aliases, group emails and domain settings in place? Are you sure? Even after updating your MX and DNS records, keep an eye out for any potential issues – you may need to add a few new entries (e.g. DKIM, SPF, DMARC), and it’s better to find this out sooner rather than later.
Don’t forget the hidden systems!
Printers, scanners, websites and financial software won’t automatically detect the new email system. There’s nothing worse than finding out a week later that the invoicing programme has been trying to send emails to the old mailbox ever since… If you’re using cloud integrations as well, make sure you review the connections in good time – because nobody wants to be stuck using two systems just because we forgot about them in the middle of the migration.
Permissions – who can view whose mailbox?
If there’s one rule that people always forget before a migration, but everyone immediately remembers afterwards, it’s the list of shared mailboxes: „Why can’t I see my boss’s emails?!” asks a colleague two hours after going live. So it’s best to check the shared mailboxes, delegated permissions and all those other mysterious connections in advance.
Patience, time and a little openness
Yes, the new system will feel a bit strange at first. Yes, you’ll have to search for everything in it to begin with. But in the long run, it’s faster, more transparent and less of a headache – so it’s worth sticking with it.
💡 If you have a migration nightmare story that others can learn from, please write to us at howdy@manawize.io to that address!
Email migration at Manawize – with coffee and expertise
When we migrate, we do it properly – because every project is different, and that’s exactly what we love about it. A double dose of caffeine and a few furrowed brows certainly play their part on the day, but in the end we build a cleaner, smoother system.
- Simpler removals: If you’re migrating from Google Workspace to Google Workspace or between other similar platforms, the process is quick and painless. Even so, we still double-check everything – you never know…
- More complex challenges: If, for example, we’re migrating from Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace, we can always expect a bit of extra fiddling around with authentication or a few twists and turns during the data transfer. But don’t worry – with twenty years’ experience behind us, every account will end up in the right place.
- From on-premises to the cloud Migration (or from cloud to cloud) is a key focus for us, as this is one of the most common forms of email migration these days. Due to the cloud’s flexibility and cost-effectiveness, many companies are choosing this route, and we help to ensure that the transition is seamless. That said, we’re not just experts in scaling up: whether you want to set up a smaller or older environment for cost-efficiency reasons, or need to migrate between on-premises servers, you can count on us for that too. We’re also happy to help with the consolidation of multiple email servers, so you can manage all your accounts and domains in one place – whether this involves different systems or the consolidation of multiple servers.
Fun fact: Is Outlook the „embodiment” of email?
Did you know that Outlook is just a client, and not the email system itself? Even if it freezes or crashes, you can still access your account easily via the web or on your phone. If you also have a web interface, it’s worth giving the team a bit of training, and then there’ll be no need to panic if Outlook decides to play up.
Migration is never boring – a few classic „experiences”
- The Mystery of the Missing Letters – Because what could be more exciting than when important emails simply vanish into the digital ether? (Everyone did back up their files beforehand, didn’t they? DIDN’T THEY?)
- A tsunami of duplicate emails – Who wouldn’t want to receive the same emails two or three times? That could even count as a backup, couldn’t it? … No.
- Password amnesia – The new system asks for a new password, which everyone is bound to forget by the end of the first day.
- Compatibility Adventures – „But it’s been working fine so far!” – Yes, because one of the hidden features of the previous system isn’t compatible with the new one. What a surprise!
Leave it to us, and just enjoy life!
If you’d rather be building Lego spaceships, painting Warhammer Ultramarines or doing anything else whilst your post is being moved, we’ll gladly take on the stress for you. By the time you get back, everything will be in place – and all that’s left is a quick briefing.
📬 Do you have any questions? Get in touch! The ManawizeThe door (and the postbox) is always open there.
