From On-Prem to Anywhere: A Microsoft 365 Shift

This well-established architecture practice is known for delivering complex commercial environments with precision and creativity. Their strength lies in navigating intricate project demands; coordinating across clients, consultants, and teams to bring buildings to life.

With deeply embedded workflows and a reputation for delivering at scale, the business had long operated with a traditional on-prem email server and public folders. It worked, until it didn’t. Remote collaboration was becoming the norm, and their infrastructure needed to catch up.

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Industry: Architecture‍

Organisation Size: Medium-sized practice‍

Service Areas: Digital Transformation, Cloud Migration, Collaboration Tools

The firm had relied on an on-premise Microsoft Exchange server and legacy public folders for years. These tools were woven into the fabric of the business: familiar, functional, and good enough for the pace of work at the time.

But as the team grew and remote collaboration became essential, those same tools started to feel like friction. Communication slowed. File access became unreliable. And maintaining ageing hardware brought increasing risk and cost.

Still, change wasn’t an easy sell. Staff were rightly concerned about losing historical emails, disrupting daily workflows, and adapting to unfamiliar tools. The infrastructure was reaching end-of-life, but trust in the existing setup ran deep.

The challenge was clear: modernise without creating chaos. Migrate email, files and collaboration tools to the cloud, without breaking what people already relied on.

This was all about designer a smoother, smarter way of working across the firm. To move them from static systems to a modern, flexible cloud environment, we rolled out:

• Full mailbox migration to Microsoft 365: Ensured continuity of access to all historic emails with zero disruption to users.
• SharePoint site structure in place of public folders: Recreated their folder logic with cleaner, centralised libraries that support versioning and secure sharing.
• Microsoft Teams implementation: Equipped the team with chat, meetings, and project collaboration tools that work across devices.
• Targeted onboarding sessions: Ensured everyone, from partners to project assistants, felt confident using the new setup.
• On-call support during transition: Maintained momentum and trust while staff adapted to the new platforms.

This was a focused rollout designed to minimise friction and maximise adoption. Everything changed, but nothing broke.

The firm now runs fully on Microsoft 365, with cloud-based tools that match the pace and precision of their work. Historical emails were preserved in full, familiar folder structures were thoughtfully replicated in SharePoint, and collaboration is no longer tied to a physical office or a clunky VPN.

Teams and SharePoint are used daily, whether it’s sharing design files, running project meetings, or liaising with consultants. Staff report faster access, simpler workflows, and greater confidence working remotely.

Best of all, this wasn’t a disruptive overhaul. It was a quiet transformation that unlocked flexibility without sacrificing the way people like to work. The business is now futureproofed; ready for the next project, the next platform, or the next pivot.