Microsoft 365 migration services for Australian businesses.
In short
What does a Microsoft 365 migration involve?
- Cutover, staged and hybrid
- Mailboxes, OneDrive, SharePoint and Teams
- SPF, DKIM and DMARC rebuilt
- Out-of-hours cutover
1000+
Mailboxes migrated
We have moved more than a thousand mailboxes, and we move them both ways: Google Workspace to Microsoft 365, and Microsoft 365 back to Google Workspace, as well as webmail and cPanel onto either platform.
That second direction is the one worth asking about. A provider who resells Microsoft licences has every reason to move you onto 365 and very little reason to be good at moving you off it. We do not resell licences, so we have no stake in where you land. If Microsoft 365 is the wrong fit for your team, we would rather say so now than migrate you twice.
What a Microsoft 365 migration actually involves
Most quotes describe a Microsoft 365 migration as "moving your email". That is one line item out of seven. Here is the real scope of work, so you can compare quotes on the same terms.
Tenant setup and licensing
Your Microsoft 365 tenant is the container everything else lives in. It has to be created in the right region, named in a way you will not regret in five years, and secured before a single mailbox lands in it. That means an administrator account that is not a shared login, multi-factor authentication switched on, conditional access rules that match how your people actually work, and the correct licence assigned to every user before their mailbox is created. A mailbox migrated to an unlicensed user goes into a 30 day grace period and then stops working, which is a spectacular way to end a project.
Domain verification and DNS
Microsoft has to prove you own your domain before it will accept mail for it, which means a TXT record at your DNS host. Then the MX record, the autodiscover record, the SPF record and the DKIM selectors all have to be updated in the right order. Get the sequence wrong and mail either bounces or lands in junk. This is where a Microsoft 365 migration lives or dies, and it is the part cheap quotes tend to skip.
Mailbox migration
Messages, folders, contacts, calendars, rules, signatures and shared mailboxes all move across. The method depends on where you are coming from and how many mailboxes you have: cutover in one event, staged in batches, or hybrid alongside an on-premise Exchange server. We cover which one suits you in the next section, because picking the wrong one is the most expensive mistake in this project.
OneDrive and SharePoint data
Email is half the job. The mapped network drive, the old file server, the Dropbox account nobody admits to using: all of it has to land somewhere sensible. Personal files go to OneDrive, shared department files go to SharePoint document libraries. Folder structure, version history where it exists, and above all the sharing permissions have to be reapplied so the wrong team does not inherit the payroll folder. We also switch on known folder move so desktop, documents and pictures back up without anyone thinking about it.
Microsoft Teams
Teams comes with the licence, so you may as well set it up properly rather than let it grow wild. We build the team and channel structure around how your business is organised, connect each team to its SharePoint library so files land in the right place, and set the meeting, guest and external access policies before people start inviting the world in.
Mobile device re-enrolment
Every phone and tablet has to drop the old mail account and add the new one, then pass multi-factor authentication. Nothing about this is automatic, and a phone that quietly stops syncing generates more support calls than any other part of the migration. We prepare the instructions in advance and staff the first working day after cutover.
Decommissioning the old platform
You do not turn the old system off on cutover night. It stays available, read-only, until mail flow, permissions and file access have all been verified and you have signed off. Then we retire it properly: cancel the licences you are still paying for, export a final archive, and remove the leftover DNS records that would otherwise send stray mail into a black hole.
Cutover, staged or hybrid: which migration type do you need
This single decision sets your timeline, your budget and your risk. An Office 365 migration quote that does not name the method is not a quote, it is a hope.
| Migration type | Best for | How it runs | Trade-off |
|---|---|---|---|
| Cutover | Small businesses with a modest mailbox count, typically under about 50 users, moving off a single source in one hit. | All mailboxes are copied, then everyone switches to Microsoft 365 on the same night. The old system is retired straight after. | Everyone reconfigures their Outlook profile and phone on the same day, so all the support load lands at once. |
| Staged | Mid-size organisations where a single-night cutover would overwhelm the help desk, or where teams have to move department by department. | Mailboxes move in batches over days or weeks. Migrated and un-migrated users coexist while the batches run. | Longer project, and you are managing two mail environments until the last batch lands. |
| Hybrid | Organisations keeping an on-premise Exchange server alongside Microsoft 365, for compliance, a line-of-business application, or a deliberately phased move. | On-premise Exchange and Microsoft 365 are connected. Shared address book and free/busy calendar lookups work across both. Mailboxes move when you choose. | Materially more complex. Directory sync, certificates and connectors all have to be right, and it needs ongoing maintenance. |
Choose cutover when you are a small team on hosted Exchange, Google Workspace or plain IMAP, everyone can be moved in one weekend, and you have no reason to keep the old system. It is the fastest and cheapest route, and for most Australian small businesses it is the right one.
Choose staged when the mailbox count is high enough that moving everyone on one night would create a support queue you cannot clear, or when different departments have to move on different dates for operational reasons. You trade a longer project for a much calmer one.
Choose hybrid only when you genuinely have to keep Exchange on-premise. Be honest about that, because hybrid is materially harder: it adds directory synchronisation, certificates and mail connectors, and it needs to be maintained, not just built. If nothing forces you to keep the server, do not choose hybrid because it sounds safer. It is not.
What goes wrong in a Microsoft 365 migration, and how we prevent it
Migrations rarely fail on the mailbox copy. They fail on everything around it. These are the seven that cause the calls, and what we do about each one.
Mail flow gaps at cutover
MX changes take time to propagate, so mail can arrive at the old system after everyone has moved to the new one. We keep the old platform receiving and forwarding through the propagation window, and monitor both message trace logs until the last delivery lands where it should.
SPF, DKIM and DMARC breaking deliverability
The classic day-after disaster: mail leaves Microsoft 365 but lands in everyone's junk folder, because SPF was never updated to authorise Microsoft and DKIM was never signed. We rebuild the full authentication set as part of the cutover, then test against real external inboxes rather than assuming.
Lost shared mailbox and calendar permissions
Shared mailbox access and calendar delegation do not always survive the move, and rebuilding them from memory afterwards is grim. We export the permission set during discovery, reapply it in the new tenant and test each one before sign-off.
Send-as delegation gone missing
The person who sends on behalf of the director, or as accounts@, suddenly cannot. Send-as and send-on-behalf rights are configured separately from mailbox access, so they get missed. They are on our cutover checklist and they get tested, not assumed.
Autodiscover misconfiguration
If the autodiscover record still points at the old host, Outlook cannot find the new mailbox and users get an endless password prompt. We correct autodiscover in the same change window as the MX record and verify it from outside the network.
Licence assignment gaps
An unlicensed user has no working mailbox once the grace period ends. We reconcile the user list against the licence list before migration and again after, so nobody is left holding a mailbox that is quietly counting down.
Users not re-authenticating on mobile
Phones keep showing old mail and silently stop syncing, and the user assumes the migration lost their email. We send the re-enrolment steps in plain English before cutover and staff the first working day afterwards, which is when this always surfaces.
Licensing, briefly
Three Microsoft 365 business plans cover almost every small and mid-size Australian business. The right one comes down to two questions: do your people need the desktop Office apps, and do you need the advanced security and device management.
We advise on the fit as part of the migration plan. You can buy the licences directly from Microsoft or through us, and either way the licence cost stays separate and visible on your quote so you can see exactly what is a Microsoft fee and what is our fee. We deliberately do not publish licence prices here, because Microsoft changes them and a stale number on a web page helps nobody.
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Business Basic
Web and mobile versions of the Office apps, plus Exchange email, Teams, OneDrive and SharePoint. Suits people who live in a browser and do not need Word or Excel installed on the machine.
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Business Standard
Everything in Basic plus the desktop Office apps installed locally. This is the common choice for teams that work in Excel and Word all day and want them running natively.
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Business Premium
Everything in Standard plus the advanced security and device management layer: tighter identity protection, device compliance and data protection controls. The right call if you handle sensitive client data or have a compliance obligation.
What a Microsoft 365 migration costs
There is no honest per-mailbox rate, and any agency quoting one before they have seen your environment is guessing. Four things drive the price.
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01
Mailbox count
The number of users, plus every shared mailbox, distribution list and resource calendar. Shared mailboxes are the ones people forget to count.
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02
Data volume
How many years of mail, and how big the file shares are. Copying two decades of archived mail takes real time, and time is the cost.
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03
Migration type
Cutover is the cheapest route. Staged costs more because it runs longer. Hybrid costs the most because it is genuinely harder engineering.
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04
Scope beyond email
Whether OneDrive, SharePoint, Teams, an on-premise file server and device management are in scope, or whether this is mailboxes only.
We scope all four on a short discovery call, then give you a fixed written quote for the migration work with the Microsoft licence fees listed separately. No hourly meter, no surprise variation on the invoice, and no number invented before we have looked at your environment.
Microsoft 365 migration, answered
The questions Australian businesses actually search for before they commit to an Office 365 migration.
It depends on mailbox count, data volume and migration type. A small cutover migration for a single team is usually planned, tested and cut over across a weekend. A staged migration for a mid-size organisation runs in batches over one to three weeks. A hybrid deployment takes longer because the on-premise Exchange environment has to be prepared, connected and kept in sync. We give you a written timeline after the discovery call, not a guess before it.
Yes. Your domain moves with you. We verify the domain in the new Microsoft 365 tenant, add every alias and shared address, then switch the MX record when the mailboxes are ready. Your staff keep the same address, the same signature and the same reply-to. Customers see no change at all.
The plan is built so you do not. Mail keeps flowing on the old platform while data is copied across, and the MX cutover is scheduled outside business hours. Anything that arrives during the switchover window is queued by the sending server and delivered once the new tenant is live. We keep the old mailboxes intact until you have signed off, so there is always somewhere to fall back to.
A cutover migration moves every mailbox to Microsoft 365 in one event and then retires the old system. A hybrid migration connects your on-premise Exchange server to Microsoft 365 so both run together, with a shared address book and free/busy calendar lookups, and mailboxes move across gradually. Cutover is simpler and cheaper. Hybrid is for organisations that need to keep Exchange on-premise, whether for compliance, a line-of-business application or a phased move.
Microsoft caps a cutover migration from on-premise Exchange at 2,000 mailboxes, but the practical limit is much lower. Once you are past roughly 50 to 150 mailboxes the single-event cutover becomes hard to support, because every user reconfigures their profile on the same day. Above that we recommend a staged or hybrid approach.
Yes. Mailboxes are only part of the job. We migrate file shares and existing cloud storage into OneDrive and SharePoint document libraries, rebuild the folder structure, and reapply sharing permissions so the right people keep the right access. We also set up the OneDrive sync client and known folder move so the desktop, documents and pictures folders back up automatically.
Teams comes with the tenant. We create the team and channel structure, connect each team to its SharePoint document library so files land in the right place, and configure meeting and external access policies. If you are moving from another chat platform, be aware that full chat history rarely transfers cleanly between vendors, so we plan an overlap period rather than promising a lossless history import.
Yes, and this is the step most migrations underestimate. Every user has to remove the old mail account from their phone and re-add the new Microsoft 365 one, then complete multi-factor authentication. We send plain-English instructions before the cutover and stand by on the Monday to walk people through it, because a phone that silently stops syncing is the number one support call after a migration.
They will if they are documented before the move. Shared mailbox access, calendar delegation, send-as and send-on-behalf rights do not always carry over automatically, and rebuilding them from memory afterwards is painful. We export the existing permission set during discovery and reapply it in the new tenant as part of the cutover, then test each one.
We do not advertise a partner tier we have not earned. What we do have is hands-on experience running Microsoft 365 and Office 365 migrations for Australian businesses, including tenant setup, domain verification, cutover and staged mailbox moves, SharePoint and OneDrive data, and the DNS and authentication work that keeps mail deliverable afterwards. Judge us on the migration plan we put in front of you, not on a badge.
For most buyers, none. Microsoft renamed the Office 365 business plans to Microsoft 365 in 2020, so the two names describe the same family of cloud services. If someone quotes you for an Office 365 migration and someone else quotes you for a Microsoft 365 migration, they are quoting for the same work.
The price scales with mailbox count, how much data has to move, whether files and SharePoint are in scope, and whether you need cutover, staged or hybrid. A small cutover migration for one team is a fraction of the cost of a hybrid deployment with an on-premise Exchange server in the mix. We scope it on a short discovery call and give you a fixed written quote before any work starts, with your Microsoft licence fees kept separate and visible.
Microsoft 365 migration, city by city.
A migration is scheduled around your working day, not ours, and that changes with your timezone. We run cutovers to your local clock wherever you are.
Microsoft 365 migration Sydney
We are in Parramatta, so onsite is an option if you want us there for the cutover.
Microsoft 365 migration Melbourne
Same timezone as us every day of the year, including daylight saving dates.
Microsoft 365 migration Brisbane
Queensland skips daylight saving, so we write every cutover time in Brisbane time.
Microsoft 365 migration Perth
AWST is two to three hours behind us. We schedule your cutover to Perth hours.
Pairs well with
A Microsoft 365 migration touches your email, your identity and your network. These are the services that usually sit either side of it.
Ready to move to Microsoft 365 without losing a single email?
Tell us how many mailboxes you have and what you are moving from. We will tell you whether you need cutover, staged or hybrid, what is really in scope, and what it will cost, in writing.
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