Migrating to Microsoft 365 – Why Move Over to The Cloud? Datastore 365’s Gary Witts Explains in Conversation

Offering Microsoft 365 licensing and transferral support to businesses of varying sizes and scope, Datastore 365 is helping to usher enterprise owners into a new, more flexible age of working - with the added benefits of the familiarity of Microsoft's intuitive platform design.

However, many business owners may still be a little unsure about how to move across to Microsoft 365 and its apps. What's more, why should they partner with Datastore 365 for the migration?

Gary Witts, Managing Director at Datastore 365, explains why - in conversation - the need for third-party migration support is so crucial for businesses embracing the Microsoft 365 standard.

If you are already considering moving your business into the cloud - this may be useful food for thought.

How can Datastore 365 help with businesses moving to Microsoft 365?

"Our team works closely with each client to understand their unique needs and goals for migrating to Microsoft 365 - we want to make sure our customers receive that 'bespoke' support they deserve. Ultimately, all businesses' needs are likely to vary from case to case.

The biggest challenge is making sure everything works together – from the user experience to the technical aspects. We always look at new services like this with ‘can I?’ questions: is it possible to do what we want? Can you make it work for me and my organisation? How would that impact my existing user base?

We add value because our customers don’t need to be experts in cloud technology or IT infrastructure to manage their own systems. They just need to understand how to use the application-based interface of Microsoft 365, then they can simply get started.

Moving over to Microsoft 365 when you have years of experience, perhaps, in other means - can be a bit of a culture shock. It's important we really help our clients and customers ease over, and we have the expertise to handle every stage of the process."

Why should an enterprise owner move to Microsoft 365 through Datastore 365 - rather than go it alone?

"We offer the benefit of expertise - whereas many of our customers will come to Microsoft 365 completely new, perhaps with a little knowledge of the classic Office suite, it's not always easy to know how to tailor everything to your specific needs. That's where we come in - our experts can take care of your migration from start to finish.

We're also able to advise on how best to deploy Microsoft 365 into an environment, helping movers to improve efficiency, ensure security and boost productivity. Our extensive experience handling large migrations allows us to save time, money and effort, so they'll immediately see more return on investment.

Data protection and backups, too, are also extremely important - and these are areas where we can be of support from the get-go. It's easy to assume that Microsoft products are easy to use straight out of the box. Yes, they are amazingly intuitive - but part of our appeal lies in the fact that we can help you get to that stage of intuition all the faster."

What do companies need to know about moving to Microsoft 365 before they do so?

Ideally, it's very important that customers have at least some idea of what Microsoft 365 has to offer them, including the suite's various features and services.

For example, there's a whole range of collaboration tools, which could include things like SharePoint Online (SPO) for file sharing, OneDrive for business, Power BI, Visio as well as the Skype for Business service. We would assume that our customers know at least some of the benefits of these services before they make the change.

We don't expect you to know how to manage the migration yourself - however, it makes prudent sense to at least acclimatise to Microsoft 365 before doing so.

If a client chooses to migrate Microsoft 365 to their organisation, it's important to note that while this may be quite a simple process to achieve, it isn't necessarily a straightforward one. You really need to consider carefully how much you want to invest in the transition.

Do you think it's worth the hassle and expense? Or do you plan to keep using the older version until you've completed your migration? There are pros and cons to each approach, and this really depends on your individual circumstances. A good thing is that we can provide expert advice on how best to proceed.

Is there anything a company might not keep in mind while moving across?

It's very important for a business owner to consider all the benefits of the various products and services before they migrate - simply because there are large differences between enterprise versions of Microsoft 365. It's a good idea to look carefully at the variations, rather than to end up choosing a package that simply doesn't provide the functionality desired.

We'd also recommend that business owners look at the bigger picture when it comes to choosing the ideal solution. Consider looking at security options and the further benefits of operations in the cloud infrastructure than purely adopting the package for its mainline apps.

Finally, we'd advise to always bear in mind that there's no such thing as 'one size fits all' when it comes to organisations migrating to any software platform. The way in which one organisation runs and works will dictate exactly how useful the product will be - whether or not they choose to go fully cloud based, or stay with locally installed systems, for example.

How has Datastore 365 helped companies move to Microsoft 365 in recent times?

We've helped businesses in need of scalability and greater data security move to a seamless, flexible platform that grows with them in the post-COVID age - one that's more demanding of remote working and its benefits.

We work closely with small to medium businesses who may only be at the start of their cloud journeys - and by moving to Microsoft 365, they gain new levels of power to run their business from anywhere, anytime. This includes being able to access their email, files and content securely via the web, whilst still having access to collaboration tools to improve communications and productivity.

Datastore 365 provides an easy and cost-effective option for SMEs to benefit from many of the latest innovations in cloud computing without the complexity of managing servers themselves. As part of our service, we'll help set up and maintain the full Microsoft Office 365 environment so they're able to quickly get back to business.