FAQs

There are many factors to consider:

A. End users often don’t understand what their role is in the migration.
B. It is difficult and time consuming to locate all the PST files in an organisation.
C. PST files can be corrupt, or password protected, yet still need to be processed effectively.
D. PST files are entrenched in end-user workflows, and getting users to change is often difficult.
F. Communication with end users is often over looked in the migration process.

Users have been using PST files ever since mailbox capacity limitations were put in place – and have got accustomed to the PST files. The fact that most organizations, depending on their industry, typically have between 1.2 and 1.8 GB per user show that PST files have become part of the user’s daily work life. When migrating these files into an email archive solution, the IT organization will have to realize that:

a) PST files have a large degree of flexibility (users can reorganize, move, copy and do what they want) which is not the case with an Archive.
b) Users can organize the data as they want between files and folders
c) PST files can be available offline on notebooks
d) Automatic archive rules can ensure that a mailbox gets “pruned” and mails moved into the “right” folders.
e) User will become heavily involved in the actual migration process
f) Users may not want to migrate all their PST files – they have backup copies and personal PST files with contact information. The company’s data policy (if it has one) needs to be verified and determined how it is going to be used and tested during a POC.
g) For a user with multiple PST files, the final migrated result may not fit their needs or expectations, planning, testing and UAT (User Acceptance testing) should be carefully carried out to ensure that the Users are able to work comfortably post migration.
h) Because some users password protect their PST files, the POC must test the cases of dealing with both business and private/personal PST files and emails.

There are a number of things to consider:

A. Helpdesk questions and user concerns should be addressed
B. Handling exceptions, process and procedures.
C. Dealing with password protected files, manual intervention or automated responses.
D. Dealing with retries because of broken off migration because of network issues, client reboots or other disruptions.
E. Laptops with PST Files that are not always online, ask yourself how these are handled.
F. Network congestion and overload that and impact other applications.
G. System performance and feasibility.