Company Data Migration on SharePoint Server
Consolidating Data Between SharePoint Environments
Introduction
The Ardonagh Group is a leading UK-based insurance broker and underwriting organisation with a growing portfolio of acquired businesses operating across multiple regions and platforms. As part of its strategic growth, Ardonagh acquired Corant Global and its subsidiaries, including Besso, in 2021.
Following this acquisition, the organisation faced a critical requirement to unify disparate systems inherited from these businesses into a single, standardised digital environment. A key component of this initiative involved consolidating multiple legacy SharePoint 2013 environments into a unified SharePoint structure aligned with Ardonagh’s corporate domain and governance standards.
Due to the complexity, scale, and highly customised nature of the environments involved, Dolphin IT Solutions was engaged to lead the full SharePoint migration and consolidation programme.
Challenges
The acquired Corant Group environments contained multiple independent SharePoint implementations, each configured differently and heavily customised over time. These systems had evolved organically across business units, resulting in significant fragmentation across domains, structures, and workflows.
The primary objective was to consolidate all SharePoint content into a single, unified environment while maintaining data integrity, security, and business continuity.
Key challenges included:
- Domain consolidation at scale: Migrating multiple legacy SharePoint environments (including Besso and other Corant entities) into a unified Ardonagh domain structure.
- Full-scope migration requirements: Every site collection, subsite, document library, and list needed to be migrated without exception.
- Complex permission structures: Existing environments contained highly granular permissions, including unique list-level and item-level security configurations that needed to be preserved.
- Nintex workflow dependency mapping: Hundreds of workflows were embedded across environments, each with specific triggers, dependencies, and business logic.
- Risk mitigation and continuity planning: Full backup and recovery mechanisms were required to ensure safe migration and rollback capability.
- Workflow control during migration: All workflow triggers needed to be disabled prior to migration to prevent unintended execution in the target environment.
- Given the scale and bespoke nature of the environments, this was not a straightforward lift-and-shift migration but a carefully engineered consolidation programme.
Our Solution
Dolphin IT Solutions designed and executed a structured, PowerShell-driven migration strategy tailored specifically to the constraints of legacy SharePoint 2013 environments.
The approach prioritised accuracy, repeatability, and control, ensuring that all content, permissions, and workflows were migrated safely into the new unified environment.
PowerShell-Based Migration Framework
Due to the limitations of the legacy platforms and lack of modern migration tooling compatibility, Dolphin IT Solutions developed a suite of custom PowerShell scripts to manage the migration process.
These scripts enabled:
- Automated extraction and transfer of SharePoint content
- Preservation of site structure, lists, and document libraries
- Controlled migration sequencing across environments
- Validation of data integrity during transfer
This scripting framework formed the backbone of the migration process, enabling consistent and reliable movement of large volumes of content between environments.
Site-by-Site Structured Migration Approach
Rather than performing a bulk migration, Dolphin IT Solutions adopted a controlled, incremental approach.
Each site collection, subsite, list, and document library was individually reviewed and migrated to ensure alignment with the target environment’s structure and governance model.
This method ensured:
- Accurate mapping of legacy structures to the new domain
- Reduced risk of data inconsistency
- Improved visibility during migration phases
- Controlled validation at each stage of delivery
This granular approach was essential given the complexity and variability of the source environments.
Permissions Analysis and Rebuild
One of the most complex aspects of the migration was the replication of existing security configurations.
Dolphin IT Solutions performed a full audit of all permissions across the legacy environments, including:
- Site-level permissions
- List-level unique permissions
- Item-level security configurations
- Group-based and user-specific access rules
These configurations were documented in detail and then programmatically rebuilt within the target SharePoint environment to ensure consistency.
This ensured that users retained appropriate access rights post-migration without introducing security gaps or overexposure of sensitive data.
Nintex Workflow Discovery and Deactivation
A significant component of the migration involved managing embedded Nintex workflows across the SharePoint environments.
Dolphin IT Solutions conducted a full discovery exercise to identify:
- All active Nintex workflows
- Workflow triggers and initiation points
- Dependencies between lists and processes
- Cross-site workflow relationships
Once identified, all workflow triggers were systematically disabled prior to migration to prevent unintended execution or process disruption during data transfer.
This ensured a controlled migration environment where workflows could later be revalidated and reactivated safely in the target system.
Backup, Recovery, and Risk Mitigation Strategy
Given the critical nature of the data involved, a comprehensive backup strategy was implemented prior to migration.
This included:
- Full site-level backups
- Site collection backups
- Web application-level backups
- Structured rollback planning for recovery scenarios
This approach ensured that all data and configurations could be restored or compared if required during validation or post-migration review.
Post-Migration Validation and Assurance
Following completion of the migration, Dolphin IT Solutions carried out extensive validation checks to ensure system integrity and operational readiness.
These checks included:
- Verification of content completeness
- Confirmation of site and library structure accuracy
- Validation of permissions and access controls
- Testing of migrated workflows and dependencies
- User access and functionality testing
This ensured that the new unified SharePoint environment operated as expected and maintained business continuity from day one.
Results
The project successfully delivered a full-scale consolidation of multiple legacy SharePoint environments into a single, unified Ardonagh Group domain.
By leveraging a structured PowerShell-driven migration approach, Dolphin IT Solutions ensured the safe transfer of complex data structures, permissions, and workflows across highly customised environments.
The result was a standardised SharePoint platform that improved governance, reduced operational fragmentation, and simplified long-term system maintenance.
The consolidation also enabled a more consistent user experience across the organisation and significantly reduced the overhead associated with managing multiple legacy systems.
Ultimately, the migration provided The Ardonagh Group with a stable, unified SharePoint environment aligned with its broader digital transformation and post-acquisition integration strategy.
