There are several reasons why your organization may be considering SharePoint for document management. Whether your files live somewhere else and you’re looking to build out a new document management system from the ground up, or you have an existing SharePoint environment that lacks clarity and direction, this blog will break down the process and key decisions needed to build out a SharePoint architecture and migrate your files into it.
First: Why a Migration to SharePoint?
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Your organization is using physical servers to store files and no longer wants to maintain them.
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You already are in the M365 eco-system and want to take advantage of the tools that come with your subscription.
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You’re interested in not only the document library features of SharePoint but also broader organizational communication capabilities such as news & announcements, events, and more.
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You may already have SharePoint sites set up but they are disorganized, lack governance, and don’t follow best practices.
If any of the above sound familiar to you, keep reading!
Premigration
Identify Source Content and Structure: Meet with stakeholders in your organization to determine where your files live. Are they on a server? Are they dispersed in different unmanaged SharePoint sites? Both? Identify what this content is. Combing through these files and folders at a granular level will come at a later step.
Run Reports on Content: Aerie likes to use Sharegate, which is a paid migration software to run pre-migration reports and executes the migrations themselves. There are other tools out there (paid and unpaid) but it is key to get an export of all the content you’re looking to analyze in a spreadsheet format for content owners to sort through before the migration. This becomes your migration tracker!
Identify Key Stakeholders and Department: Oftentimes, these are organized simply by departments that will end up having their own SharePoint sites to house their files.
Communicate the Migration to End Users: Before any migration work begins, notify all affected staff about what's changing, why, and what to expect. This should include a high-level timeline, what they'll need to do (if anything), and who to contact with questions or issues.
Pre-Migration Cleanup: Before mapping or moving anything, departments should review their source content and archive or delete files that don't need to be migrated. This reduces volume, avoids carrying over outdated or redundant content, and makes the migration faster and cleaner.
Determine Migration Mapping: Using the export listing (now your migration tracking spreadsheet) of your files and files at the source, identify:
Gather Destination Requirements: Work with folder owners to answer deeper questions about how content should be organized at the destination. Key considerations include:
- Should all content land in the default document library, or be split across multiple libraries?
- Are there varying permission needs (e.g., a library restricted to certain users only vs. content viewable by all)?
- Is the volume of content large enough (tens of thousands of files or more) that splitting into smaller libraries is recommended for manageability
Determine weather metadata and tagging will be applied during the migration:
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If the organization wants to apply metadata, column values, or tags to content in SharePoint efficiently at scale, those decision need to be made now - not after migration.
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If granular, document-by-document tagging is desired, export spreadsheets listing every file to be migrated. The department will need to go through those files one by one to assign tags. This is a significant time commitment and departments should be prepared for that effort before committing to it.
Complete the Migration Tracking Spreadsheet: Capture all mapping decisions, destination details, and permission requirements from above in a centralized tracking spreadsheet.
Build out SharePoint Sites and Libraries: The above migration tracking spreadsheet will determine that sites and libraries you need to build out so that you can migrate files into them.
Migration
Execute Initial Migrations by Site: Using migration software, migrate the content migrations in batches, organized by site, following an established schedule.
User Acceptance Testing (UAT): Following the initial migration, each department should log into their SharePoint site and review their migrated content before go-live. Users should verify that all files are present, nothing appears to be missing, and content is organized in the expected structure. Any issues — such as files landing in the wrong library or folder, or content that appears absent — should be reported for resolution prior to the cutover migration.
Plan the Cutover Migration Schedule: Develop a schedule so all users know when their department's files will be moving. Share this schedule broadly so departments can prepare.
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A cutover migration is a final delta migration run immediately before go-live that captures and moves over any content that was added or modified at the source since the initial migration was performed.
Post Migration
Review Migration Logs: After each site's files are copied over, review the migration logs to confirm everything transferred successfully and without errors.
Department Post-Migration Validation: Before fully signing off, the department should do a spot-check of their migrated content in SharePoint to confirm files look correct from their perspective. Whoever is executing the migration can confirm files copied cleanly; the department should confirm the content is accurate and accessible.
Notify Departments & Cut Over: Notify each department that their files are live on SharePoint and that SharePoint is now the working location for those files going forward.
Decommission the Source Location: Once all migrations are complete and validated, establish a clear plan for the source location:
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Set a formal sunset date after which the drive will be decommissioned
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Consider a read-only period between cutover and decommission to give users a safety net
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Communicate the decommission timeline clearly — if the old drive stays accessible, users will default back to it
Are you planning a SharePoint migration? We'd love to help.
Whether you're starting fresh, migrating from a file server, or untangling an existing SharePoint environment, Aerie can help you design a scalable information architecture, execute a smooth migration, and set your teams up for long-term success.
Let's talk about your SharePoint goals.
