Email has to move off an old host, an old server, or another company’s system, and there is a date it has to be done by.
Move email to Microsoft 365 and know every mailbox arrived.
Email Migration
Email is moved on the agreed date, mail is arriving and sending on the new path, and every mailbox is checked against the original list.
No access to your tenant (your Microsoft 365 environment), no credentials, and no sensitive files are requested through this website.
What is going wrong
The number of mailboxes is roughly known but nobody has counted them: which are real people, which are shared or long dead, and which carry archives, forwarding rules or legal holds that have to come across too. The records that tell the rest of the internet where to deliver your mail have not been written down. Neither has the answer to what would make you stop the move halfway, or who gets to make that call at two in the morning.
Signs you can check yourself
- Your email host is being retired, or you have been told to leave it by a date
- Nobody has counted the mailboxes, so the real number is a guess
- Some mailboxes are shared, or belong to people who left, and no one has decided what happens to them
- You do not know who controls the records that tell the internet where to deliver your mail
What waiting affects
- A mailbox nobody counted before the old system is switched off can only be got back by paying to keep that system running past the date it was meant to end.
- Mail that keeps arriving at the old host after the switch lands where nobody is watching, and you usually find out when a customer asks why their message went unanswered.
- With no written rule for stopping, the choice to carry on or go back gets made in the moment by whoever is awake, and the business hears about it afterwards.
- An archive or a legal hold that did not come across is noticed weeks later, once the old system is gone and there is nobody left to ask.
What AZ changes
Not findings. These are the things that are different afterwards.
- 1Every mailbox in scope is counted before anything moves, and each one gets a named destination.
- 2The things the old system quietly owns are mapped, including the records that tell the internet where to deliver your mail.
- 3The conditions that stop the move are agreed in writing beforehand, naming what would trigger a stop rather than promising to be careful.
- 4The move runs on a dated schedule in groups, and each group is checked before the next one starts.
- 5The new system is checked mailbox by mailbox against the old one, and every gap is closed or given an owner.
How you know the job is finished
The engagement ends when all of these are true and demonstrable.
- Every mailbox on the agreed list has arrived at its destination
- Sending and receiving are tested on the new path
- Every mailbox is counted back against the list you started from, and anything missing is either recovered or handed over with a named owner
What moves the price
The figure comes from what is actually in the environment. Headcount is one input among several, and rarely the one that matters most.
- How many mailboxes are moving
- What system the mail is coming from, and whether both systems have to work side by side during the move
- Whether archives, shared mailboxes, public folders or legal holds are included
- Whether the switch has to run outside business hours
You may not need this engagement
- The mail is leaving your own Exchange server, which is a different job
- Both sides are Microsoft 365 tenants, which is a tenant move
- There are too many unknowns to price on a call, in which case the plan comes first
The migration tool does this automatically, does it not?
It moves the mailboxes it is pointed at, and it does that well. It does not tell you which mailboxes nobody counted, which archives and legal holds have to come across, or what to do at two in the morning when a batch stalls. The tool is not the risky part. The list, the order and the check afterwards are.
The full scope
Everything this engagement commits to, in detail. None of it is a surprise on the last day.
What is not included
Stated so the scope means the same thing to both sides on the last day as it did on the first.
- Licenses needed to run the move
- Fixing faults in the old system before the move
- Cleaning up mail before it moves
- Help desk and staff support
What you provide
Named up front, because these are the things that stall an engagement when nobody owns them.
- Approve the date and time of the switch
- Tell your staff what is happening and support them on the day
- Give administrator access to the old and the new system
How changes are made, and how they are undone
Work on live systems carries risk. This is the method, not a reassurance.
- Mailboxes move in dated groups, and a group is not started until the one before it checks out.
- The conditions that stop the move are agreed before the first mailbox moves, and they name conditions rather than intentions.
- The records that route your mail are changed with their timers shortened in advance, so undoing it takes minutes instead of a day.
What you get at the end
Yours to keep whatever happens next, including handing it to your own team or another provider.
- The counted list of every mailbox that moved
- The dated schedule, as it actually ran
- The map of what the old system quietly owned
- The agreed conditions for stopping
- The check sheet proving old and new match
Plan the Email Move
Describe what is happening, what has to be working differently, and any deadline behind it. A reply comes within one business day with the most direct next step, or a clear answer that AZ Innovations is not the right fit.
Plan the Email Move →