A Timely and Budget-Friendly Migration and Security Update for Longo’s SharePoint Portal

Longo Brothers Fruit Markets Inc., commonly known as Longo’s, is a Canadian chain of retail supermarkets and grocery delivery service that serves the Southern Ontario area.

 

SITUATION
Longo’s sought a partner to help solve some collaboration issues they were experiencing. They needed to improve the document repository and retention of shared files within the organization and help manage an end-of-life issue with old on-premise instances of SharePoint before it became a security issue. The decision to partner with CrucialLogics stemmed from a positive recommendation by the IT team.


SOLUTION
CrucialLogics assessed the two SharePoint environments developed in 2007 and 2010, documenting the system’s details and current state.
Following this audit, CrucialLogics presented Longo’s with proposal options to migrate to SharePoint Online, considering budgets and needs. Once the solution was identified, the transition from planning to execution was seamless. A dedicated technical lead managed the project’s progress and shared a wealth of knowledge during the execution phase, creating a learning environment for the Longo’s team.


The Longo’s stakeholders described the team’s professionalism and approachability as “real people” who made the project progression straightforward. Overall, the project was characterized by a lack of unnecessary complexity.

 

RESULTS
According to Jenny Wei, Continuous Improvement Manager, “This was one of the very successful projects we delivered within budget and the time we planned.” Michael Coladipietro described the project as “near seamless, and any issues that came up were fixable.” The few issues that did surface were swiftly addressed, resulting in a testing period that required only two out of the planned five days. End users reported no significant issues, and the change management process, often a point of contention in technological transitions, had minimal negative impact. Addressing the diverse technical proficiency of users, the project incorporated high-level training for power users, ensuring the adoption of best practices. This proactive approach to change management reflected the project’s commitment to user empowerment, with the technical assistance provided facilitating a smooth transition for all stakeholders involved.

The CrucialLogics team are “excellent business partners to help us understand the technologies out there, especially within the Microsoft environment.”

Michael Coladipietro, Senior Director, Risk Management & Continuous Improvement Longo's