IT Tips & Tricks
Top Tips for a Box to SharePoint Online Migration
Published 16 April 2024
Are you ready to make the switch from Box to SharePoint Online? Are you champing at the bit for all the tools that the Microsoft 365 ecosystem has to offer? While this change may require careful planning, our collection of tips will help ensure a smooth transition — and we like smooth — while maximizing the benefits of the SharePoint cloud suite for your business.
Important Similarities and Differences That Can Impact a Data Migration
If you’re migrating from Box, it’s probably a given that you’re familiar with how Box functions and is structured. But are you equally familiar with SharePoint?
Being aware of the key differences and similarities can help you achieve a migration with minimal downtime and data loss, which means fewer support tickets for you to deal with and a reduced chance of the boss stalking around the IT department giving you the evil eye.
Although Box and SharePoint are different, there are also similarities. And there’s comfort in the familiar, so you may find these similarities reassuring.
Similarities:
- Hierarchical Structure: Both Box and SharePoint Online use a hierarchical structure to organize data, with folders (Box) or document libraries (SharePoint Online) serving as containers for files and other content.
- File Management: Both platforms allow users to upload, share, collaborate on, and manage files and documents within their respective structures.
- Access Controls: Both Box and SharePoint Online offer access controls to manage who can access, view, edit, and share content, although the granularity and customization options may vary between the two platforms.
Is your data functioning as it should? Yes? Success! No? Uh-oh.
- Metadata: Both platforms support metadata to provide additional context and information about files and other content, enhancing search, organization, and categorization capabilities.
- Versioning: Both Box and SharePoint Online maintain version history for files, allowing users to track changes and revert to previous versions if needed, ensuring data integrity and compliance.
While their shared similarities in hierarchical structure, file management capabilities, access controls, metadata support and versioning functionality may be familiar, there are distinct differences in their focus, terminology, customization, integration and permissions model.
Differences:
Differences:
Box: Box is primarily focused on file storage, sharing, and collaboration, with a straightforward hierarchical structure based on folders and files.
SharePoint Online: SharePoint Online is a broader platform for content management, collaboration and intranet capabilities, offering a more diverse range of features beyond file storage, such as lists, pages, and integration with other Microsoft services.
A successful migration goes beyond simply transferring files or data dumping.
2. Terminology:
Box: Box uses terminology like folders, files, and shared links to organize and manage data.
SharePoint Online: SharePoint Online uses terminology like sites, document libraries, lists, and pages to structure and manage content.
3. Integration:
Box: While Box integrates with various third-party applications, its integration options may not be as extensive as SharePoint Online's integration with the wider Microsoft 365 ecosystem.
SharePoint Online: SharePoint Online integrates seamlessly with other Microsoft 365 services such as Teams, OneDrive, Outlook and Office applications, providing a more unified experience within the Microsoft ecosystem.
4. Customization:
Box: Box offers customization options such as metadata, access controls, and collaboration features, but its customization capabilities may be more limited compared to SharePoint Online.
SharePoint Online: SharePoint Online provides extensive customization options through features like metadata, custom lists, pages, workflows and web parts, allowing for tailored solutions to meet specific business needs.
5. Permissions Model:
Box: Box offers granular access controls at the folder and file level, but its permissions model may be simpler compared to SharePoint Online’s more robust permissions management capabilities.
SharePoint Online: SharePoint Online provides highly granular permissions management, allowing administrators to control access at the site, library, list, folder and item level, with support for security groups, permission inheritance and fine-grained permission levels.
Strategic User and Data Mapping in SharePoint
If you’re new to SharePoint, we’ll briefly address sites and site collections. If you’re already familiar with these, skip ahead to the next section.
SharePoint offers two different types of sites.
Team Sites: According to Microsoft, “When you want to create a place where the members of a workgroup or project team can collaborate on project deliverables, plan an event, track status, or exchange ideas, you want a Team Site. In a Team Site, all members are content authors where we jointly create and edit content. Think of team sites as a place where work gets done. My project team needs a place to collaboratively work on deliverables. Even though we have individual assignments, we are collectively collaborating to create one or more assets. Our project team needs a Team Site.”
Did you know that you can replicate the user collaboration structure from Box within Microsoft 365?
That’s a bit different from a Communication Site.
Communication Sites: Per Microsoft, “When you want to ‘broadcast’ a message, tell a story, share content for viewing (but not editing) to a large audience or the entire organization, or showcase services or people, you want a Communication Site. In a Communication Site, there will most often be a small number of content authors and a much larger number of content readers or consumers. Think about your corporate intranet. Even if you have collaborative parts of the intranet, the primary purpose of your intranet is to communicate a story such as corporate news or showcase services and information such as your benefits and policies. Your intranet sites are examples of Communication Sites.”
Now that we’ve clarified sites, we should also address site collections. As the name implies, a site collection is a collection of sites that consists of one top-level site, with several other sites below it. For example, let’s say we’re talking about the Marketing Department. Maybe their top-level site contains data such as an outline of their annual strategy, key goals and milestones. This will most likely be a Communication Site. Below that could be dozens of sites containing data on various campaigns, clients, vendors, budgets and so forth. Most of these will be Team Sites where Marketing team members can work and collaborate. All combined, this is the Marketing Department’s site collection.
Want to ensure a smooth transition from Box to SharePoint Online and unlock the full potential of the Microsoft 365 landscape?
This structure differs from Box, which is why mapping is so important when migrating data from Box to specific SharePoint sites.
To achieve the smoothest migration, it is best to create all the relevant sites you’ll need to house your Box data. Once your sites are created, you can migrate the relevant data, users and teams to them.
This structure differs from Box, which is why mapping is so important when migrating data from Box to specific SharePoint sites.
To achieve the smoothest migration, it is best to create all the relevant sites you’ll need to house your Box data. Once your sites are created, you can migrate the relevant data, users and teams to them.
Here’s a recommended approach:
- Create Departmental Sites: Establish SharePoint Online sites structured around departments such as Management, Product Development, Operations, Sales, Marketing and so on. This facilitates user and data separation for targeted departmental migration to the relevant sites you’ve set up.
- User Mapping with CSV (Comma-Separated Values): If using a CSV-based migration tool, map users with the path of the relevant SharePoint Online Sites.
- Validation is Key: Ensure the user mapping list is reviewed and validated by your IT department’s migration team — or your migration service provider — to avoid errors.
Data mapping helps you see the big picture and ensures that data is accurately and efficiently transferred from one system or environment to another.
How to Preserve Functionality
A successful migration goes beyond simply transferring files or data dumping. You need to know that your data is functioning as it should — or risk the wrath of everyone from the end users all the way up to the top execs. To unlock the full potential of Microsoft 365’s benefits for your business, consider migrating essential features linked to the user data from Box to OneDrive (for the users’ personal data) and SharePoint Online (for shared storage and collaboration), including:
- Sharing Permissions: Maintain both root-level and inner-level file- and folder-sharing permissions.
- Timestamps: Preserve file timestamps (creation or modification dates) during migration.
- Embedded and Shared Links: Ensure embedded links within documents — and shared links — remain functional. (Hint: LinkFixer Advanced.)
Protecting your links is the smarter, more modern and efficient way to reduce downtime and data loss due to broken links — ensuring the uninterrupted availability of your organization’s linked data.
- Version Control: Migrate all or specific file versions for comprehensive version history.
- Collaboration Features: Transfer in-line file comments for seamless user collaboration.
- External Sharing: Maintain external sharing access for relevant users.
- Incremental Changes: Migrate ongoing edits and updates to avoid data loss.
By migrating these features, you can replicate the user collaboration structure from Box within Microsoft 365. Furthermore, collaboration tools such as Microsoft Teams, Outlook, and Calendar further enhance these features.
Invest in Training and Management
Beyond the migration itself, maximizing the benefits of Microsoft 365 requires seamless user adoption and ongoing management. Microsoft conveniently offers SharePoint training. Alternatively, investing in a service that provides professional Microsoft 365 employee training and management services offers significant advantages.
These services can:
- Reduce Internal Workload: Outsource the tasks of training employees on using Microsoft 365 effectively.
- Expert Cloud Management: Benefit from professional management of the cloud suite across your entire organization.
Training helps ensure cooperative, happy end-users. Don’t skimp on it.
These tips can help ensure a smoother transition from Box to SharePoint Online and unlock the full potential of the Microsoft 365 landscape.
Migration Protection
You may be aware that the potential for link breakage is exacerbated during a migration. For those unaware of the solution to this problem, it became common practice, following a migration, to invest in expensive man-hours to locate and repair broken links.
However, protecting your links ahead of the migration is the much smarter, more modern and efficient way to avoid this common problem. Using LinkFixer Advanced offers you just that: the modern, efficient way to protect your links, saving you boatloads of time, reducing downtime and data loss, and ensuring the uninterrupted availability of your organization’s linked data. As a side benefit, this also reduces end-user complaints about their missing data and that’s a win-win for any IT department.
For more information visit LinkTek.com.
Not sure how many links are contained in your data or what their status is? Knowledge is power, so download this free tool to give you an eagle-eyed insight into your links, or call a Service Consultant at 727-442-1822 to discuss protecting your linked data during your SharePoint migration.
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