UNISON: Data and Email Migration to Microsoft 365, with Power Platform Automation

Overview

Modernising how one of the UK's largest unions works

UNISON is one of the UK's largest trade unions, with around 1.3 million members. It represents people who provide public services in the public and private sectors.

UNISON's content, email and business applications were hosted on its own infrastructure, including SharePoint 2013. As staff increasingly needed to work from different locations, that environment limited collaboration and was costly to maintain.

Konsolute migrated UNISON's data and email to Microsoft 365 and used the Power Platform to automate business processes that had relied on legacy applications and manual effort. Together, these changes gave UNISON a modern, cloud-based way of working.

The challenge

Legacy systems and manual processes

UNISON held a large amount of content on on-premises servers, and email ran on infrastructure the union had to host and maintain. Moving both to the cloud had to be done without data loss or disruption to the union's work for its members.

Several business processes depended on custom applications built for the on-premises environment, along with manual steps. These would not work in Microsoft 365 as they were and needed to be rebuilt.

UNISON needed to:

Our approach

Migrate the platform, then automate the processes

We moved UNISON's data and email to Microsoft 365 in a planned, phased way, and rebuilt its business processes on the Power Platform.

Discovery. Konsolute ran requirements workshops with UNISON stakeholders and users to understand how content, email and business applications were used. This shaped a roadmap for migration and process redevelopment.

Data migration. Content was migrated from on-premises systems to SharePoint Online in phases, starting with an agreed pilot. Each phase was communicated in advance so that migration did not interrupt ongoing business processes.

Email migration. Mailboxes were migrated to Exchange Online in a planned way, so staff could continue to communicate with members and colleagues throughout.

Process automation with Power Platform. Business processes that had depended on custom on-premises applications were redesigned and rebuilt using Power Apps and Power Automate. Workflows were automated so that information moves between steps and people without manual handling.

Remote access. A full Microsoft 365 environment gave staff secure access to content, email and applications wherever they worked.

Result

A modern platform with automated workflows

UNISON's data and email now run in Microsoft 365. Moving off on-premises infrastructure reduced the union's hosting and maintenance burden and gave staff secure access from any location.

Business processes that relied on legacy applications were rebuilt on the Power Platform, with automation replacing manual steps. Processes are more consistent and easier to support in the cloud.

The phased approach, starting with a pilot, kept disruption to a minimum and allowed the migration to be tailored to stakeholders' needs. UNISON gained a modern platform for collaboration and automation to support its work for members.