Rhode Island IT Firm Completes Office 365 Migration for Local Non-Profit
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE
Contact:
Lindsey McColl
Brave River Solutions
401.828.6611 ext: 226
lmccoll@braveriver.com
Brave River Solutions assisted Polaris MEP in transitioning to Office 365.
Warwick, RI - December 18, 2015 - Brave River Solutions’s team of IT support professionals performed an on-premise Exchange 2010 migration to Office 365 for Polaris MEP. Polaris MEP, a Rhode Island non-profit organization serving the state’s manufacturing industry, wanted to transition to Office 365 in order to make it easier for offsite users to access Microsoft Outlook (to send and receive emails) without a virtual private network (VPN) connection, and to be able to share and collaborate on files in real time.
Prior to the migration, Polaris MEP relied on a local file server, which required users to be either on-site or have access the organization’s VPN, to store and collaborate on files. With Office 365, Polaris MEP will now use OneDrive for Business, which allows users to update and share files from anywhere, and multiple users can work on one Office document at the same time. Files stored and shared through OneDrive can be edited online and/or on a user’s local machine.
“All Polaris MEP users, whether inside or outside the office, can now share files and communicate easily and efficiently,” said Brave River’s President, Ernie Gaines. “Office 365 is a great tool for increasing productivity.”
In order to reduce and eliminate downtime, Brave River’s IT specialists spent several days preparing and moving MX records before the migration. Due to this, Polaris MEP’s email was offline for no more than a few minutes, ensuring no interruption to work flow. Additionally, Brave River’s team used a sync tool to synchronize all Polaris employees’ emails to the cloud in order to prevent any data loss. The result of the thorough preparation and planning was a successful and smooth migration with no loss of data — all old email messages, histories, conversation chains, contacts and auto-complete records were retained.
Office 365 is hosted in the cloud by Microsoft, and features 99.99% uptime and 24/7 tech support. As such, an Office 365 migration can also serve as a disaster recovery plan; even if the power or internet connection at Polaris MEP’s office is down, offsite users will still be able to access email and all files on OneDrive. To learn more about Office 365 and Brave River’s migration services, please contact Brave River Solutions.
ABOUT POLARIS MEP:
Polaris MEP is a statewide non profit organization that provides competitive manufacturing business improvement programs to grow RI’s manufacturing industry. Polaris MEP is an affiliate of the National Institute of Standards and Technology’s Manufacturing Extension Partnership (NIST MEP) and a business unit of the University of Rhode Island Research Foundation. Since 1996, Polaris MEP has delivered improvement solutions to over 750 Rhode Island manufacturers to help them achieve sustainable and profitable growth.
ABOUT BRAVE RIVER SOLUTIONS:
Located in Warwick, RI, Brave River Solutions is a leading provider of technology solutions, including IT support, to businesses in the Providence and Boston areas. Since 2000, the experts at Brave River have partnered with their clients to create solutions that enhance productivity and efficiency, and improve ROI through state-of-the-art technology. To learn more about Brave River’s technology services, please browse our website.