Join Mel and Wietze de Vries, Principal IT Architect at MWV, for a live webcast on Thursday, March 25, 2010 at 2:00 p.m. EDT / 11:00 a.m. PDT / 7:00 p.m. GMT. Mel and Wietze will talk about MWV's approach to moving 12,000 employees to Google Apps from multiple mail systems. Please note that registration will occur on a third party site.MWV is 164 years old, and there were days when it showed. We had grown extensively through acquisitions, leaving us with 12 siloed email systems, including multiple instances of Microsoft® Exchange and Lotus Notes®/Domino® across the globe. We had to consolidate more than 10 email systems into one – a major undertaking.
From a technical standpoint, we saw that Google Apps would offer superior functionality, and would enable us to standardize globally and rapidly integrate new acquisitions. We checked out Google’s security capabilities in-depth – a major concern for us – and ended up satisfied. From a user standpoint, we conducted a pilot with 115 participants, 12 countries, and 40 functional groups. Ninety percent of them recommended Google.
For migration, we used a series of waves organized around one or more legacy email systems: sort of a mini “Big Bang” or a rolling thunder approach. Each time we did a go-live, we did not migrate email, we just changed user settings in Postini. We provisioned users a month in advance, letting them know how to sign on. We rebuilt fresh distribution lists and used a self-service tool to migrate personal contacts. We re-created calendar events with a fresh start.
To make sure we had mobile access covered, we piloted Google Apps with BlackBerry® devices, iPhones® and Android phones.
Communications, change management and training – including recruiting volunteers to be “Google Guides” were key throughout the process. From a technical standpoint, we can tell you about the more trouble-prone areas of our implementation such as how legacy systems can contain a log of stale email accounts.
If you want to learn about the benefits and best practices of legacy email migration, we have a lot of experience. We welcome the opportunity to share the lessons we learned in moving a major enterprise to Google Apps.
Please join us for this live event.
MWV on Consolidating 10 Email Systems Down to One: Google AppsThursday, March 25, 2010
2:00 p.m. EDT / 11:00 a.m. PDT / 6:00 p.m. GMT
