Overview
Most of our Microsoft 365 work starts with a migration, usually off Google Workspace. We move mail, calendars, and contacts to Exchange Online and restructure Google Drive content into a governed SharePoint architecture, in planned waves, so your team keeps working while the move happens around them.
The phone system can make the same move. We implement Teams Phone as part of the migration or as its own project: existing numbers ported, auto attendants and call queues configured, and calling landed in the same platform as chat and meetings. After cutover, we can run the tenant day to day or hand it back to your team with documentation.
How We Work
Assess and design
We inventory mail, files, identity, and phone numbers, design the target tenant to a documented security baseline, and build a wave schedule around your business calendar.
Pilot first
A small group migrates fully before anyone else. The pilot surfaces the surprises, and the fixes are in place before the waves that follow.
Migrate in waves
Mail, files, and numbers move on scheduled dates with coexistence in between, so each cutover is small enough to support well the next morning.
Run or hand off
After go-live and 30 days of hypercare, we either manage the tenant ongoing or hand your team a documented environment they own outright.
What's Included
Migration assessment and plan
Mailboxes, shared drives, DNS, and phone numbers inventoried, the target tenant designed, and a wave schedule published so everyone knows their date.
Mailbox migration
Mail, calendars, and contacts moved to Exchange Online in waves, with coexistence between the platforms so email keeps flowing throughout.
File migration to SharePoint
Shared drives and My Drive content restructured into a governed SharePoint architecture, with permissions and external sharing rebuilt deliberately rather than copied over.
Teams Phone
Existing numbers ported, auto attendants and call queues configured, and desk phones or headsets provisioned, so the phone system moves with everything else.
Identity and tenant hardening
Entra identity with multi-factor authentication and Conditional Access, plus security baselines, sharing policies, and email protection in place before the first wave lands.
Training, hypercare, and beyond
Side-by-side guidance for people coming from Gmail and Google Drive, 30 days of hypercare after cutover, and ongoing administration if you want us to keep running it.
The First 90 Days
For a company of 10 to 75 people, the migration typically lands inside a quarter, with mail, files, and phones moved by day 90.
The map before the move
- The Microsoft 365 tenant built to a documented security baseline: identity, multi-factor authentication, and Conditional Access before any data moves.
- Mailboxes, shared drives, DNS, and phone numbers inventoried, and licensing right-sized against what you use today.
- A wave schedule published around your business calendar, so no department cuts over during its busiest week.
Pilot, then waves
- A pilot group migrates fully, mail and files, and the process is adjusted from what the pilot surfaces.
- Remaining waves move on scheduled dates, with Google Workspace and Microsoft 365 in coexistence so email keeps flowing.
- Teams Phone built in parallel: auto attendants, call queues, and the number-port paperwork filed early, because porting has lead time.
Cutover and hypercare
- Final waves, DNS cutover, and the number port completed, with the old phone system running until the moment it is not needed.
- Side-by-side training for people coming from Gmail and Google Drive, timed to each wave so it sticks.
- 30 days of hypercare, then either ongoing management or a documented handoff to your team.
Timelines scale with headcount and data volume. The wave structure stays the same; larger companies get more waves, and the 550-mailbox migration ran on this same playbook.
Migration Options
Three ways to start, depending on how much certainty you want before you commit. Estimates and rates are quoted in your proposal.
T&M Migration
- The full migration on time and materials, billed to actual hours as consumed
- A written estimate up front, revisited at every phase gate
- Design and build run in parallel: the blueprint evolves while early phases are already being delivered
- Scope stays flexible, with changes approved through a written change order
- Simpler footprints with a clear picture of their requirements
- Teams comfortable steering scope as the work unfolds
Fixed-Fee Discovery & Design
- The first phase of a full migration, run as a standalone engagement with its own deliverables (we call it Phase 0)
- Current state documented, future state designed, and the migration blueprint delivered
- A fixed-fee migration proposal, priced against confirmed scope
- Deliverables are platform-agnostic, not tied to Microsoft or to us, and detailed enough for any qualified partner to quote a fixed fee
- The fee is credited in full toward the migration if you proceed with us within three months
- Complex or unclear scope, where guessing is expensive
- Boards and leadership teams that prefer the certainty of a detailed roadmap and fixed-fee scope before implementation kicks off
Fixed-Fee Migration
- Follows a completed Discovery & Design engagement
- The migration at a fixed price, quoted against the scope confirmed in discovery and design
- Milestone billing tied to deliverables you can verify
- Change orders only when the scope itself changes
- Budget certainty required before kickoff
- Regulated or board-governed purchases
Support & Training Options
The migration is a project; running the platform well is a relationship. You choose how much of it you hand to us: time and materials, co-managed alongside your team, or fully managed. The co-managed and fully managed plans run on a rolling 90-day commitment; T&M carries none.
Learn more about Co-managed IT and Fully managed IT.
T&M support
- Support billed hourly, as you need it, with no monthly fee
- Escalation straight to the engineers who built your environment
- Changes and additions scoped in writing before work starts
- Teams with in-house admins who want expert backup
- Stable environments that change a few times a year
Co-managed IT
- Reduced professional services rates for your migration and project work
- Tier 2 and 3 escalation behind your internal lead, who stays in charge
- Shared administration of Microsoft 365: monitoring, patching, and documentation your team can also drive
- User onboarding and offboarding, with real handoffs during absences
- Quarterly roadmap reviews so the platform keeps pace with the business
- Teams with an internal admin who wants senior depth behind them
- Leadership that wants continuity and coverage without giving up ownership
Fully managed IT
Everything in co-managed IT, plus the rest of your IT:
- Our lowest professional services rates for your migration, as part of a holistic ongoing engagement
- Microsoft 365 administration
- Endpoint monitoring, patching, and security configuration
- Security monitoring, threat response, and email security
- IT vendor and license management
- vCIO strategic advisory
- SLA on system-blocking issues
- Companies that want one outside partner across the whole footprint
- Teams consolidating away from a patchwork of vendors
Who This Is For, and Who It Is Not
A strong fit if
- You are moving off Google Workspace, and mail, shared drives, and phones all have to land without stopping work.
- You have anywhere from 10 to several hundred mailboxes to move, with years of files behind them.
- Your Google Drive structure grew department by department and needs a governed SharePoint architecture on the other side.
- You are on Microsoft 365 already, but the tenant was stood up quickly and never hardened.
- You want calling in the same platform as chat and meetings, with your existing numbers ported.
A poor fit if
- You need the whole company cut over in a single weekend. We migrate in waves so people keep working through it.
- You want mailboxes moved and nothing else. Files, identity, and domain records travel with them, and leaving them behind moves the problem rather than solving it.
- You are committed to Google Workspace and want it managed. We work on the Microsoft platform.
Frequently Asked Questions
All questionsWhat is Microsoft 365?
Microsoft 365 is the platform your business probably already runs on: Outlook email, Word and Excel, Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint files, and, underneath it all, the identity system that controls who can get into everything. Our service is setting it up properly, securing it, and running it. For what a proper setup involves, see the Business Premium setup checklist.
How much does Microsoft 365 cost?
Licensing is per user, per month. Business Basic, Business Standard, and Business Premium run up to 300 users, and above that the enterprise plans take over. The tiers differ in what comes with them: Basic is web and mobile Office with email, Standard adds the desktop apps, and Premium adds the device management and security tooling that most of our work builds on. An annual commitment costs less per seat than a monthly one, which trades some flexibility for a lower rate. You can mix plans across the company within the seat limits. Microsoft publishes current rates on the Microsoft 365 for business comparison page.
How is this different from Google Workspace, or our old email server?
Compared to Google Workspace, it is deeper on desktop Office, device management, and security controls, and it is the default in regulated and professional industries. Compared to an aging on-premises Exchange server, the cloud service removes the hardware, the patching, and the single point of failure.
Who is Microsoft 365 for, and who is it not?
Any business that lives in email and files, and especially any business whose tenant settings have accumulated by accident over the years; most of our security work starts with straightening out a Microsoft 365 tenant. If your company runs well on Google Workspace and has no Microsoft-specific needs, staying put is reasonable. We administer both.
Will email go down during the migration?
No. The two platforms run in coexistence during the waves, so mail keeps flowing the whole time. Each mailbox cuts over at a scheduled moment, typically overnight or over a weekend, and the next morning that person opens Outlook to find their mail, calendar, and contacts waiting. The pilot wave exists to catch anything that would make that morning bumpy.
What happens to our Google data?
Mail, calendars, and contacts move to Exchange Online. Shared drives and My Drive content move into SharePoint and OneDrive, restructured with governance and permissions rebuilt deliberately rather than copied over. We keep the Google tenant in read-only mode for a defined window after cutover as a safety net, then retire it so you stop paying for two platforms.
How long does a migration take?
A company of 10 to 75 people typically lands inside a quarter. The pacing driver is usually people rather than data volume: waves are sized so each group gets real attention on its cutover morning. Larger environments run the same structure with more waves; our largest moved 550 mailboxes and 6.5 TB of files.
Can our phone system move to Teams too?
Yes. We implement Teams Phone as part of the migration or as its own project: existing numbers ported, auto attendants and call queues configured, and desk phones, headsets, or softphone setups matched to each role. Number porting has lead time measured in weeks, so we file the paperwork early and keep the old system running until the port completes. Calls then live in the same platform as chat and meetings.
Do you mark up Microsoft licensing?
No. Licensing passes through at Microsoft's list price. As your partner of record we handle procurement, true-ups, and renewals, and we flag the licenses you are paying for but not using. Our fees are for our work; licensing is not a profit line.
How fast do you respond?
Tickets go to an engineer first, with an average first response around 30 minutes during business hours. System-down issues carry an SLA. Support hours flex to where your team works, including multi-time-zone remote teams.
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