Migrated an investment and asset management firm onto one cloud workplace for documents, communication and collaboration

Our client is an investment and asset management firm. It invests and manages money on behalf of its clients, and its work depends on the right information reaching the right people, safely.

Firms like this run on documents: investment papers, portfolio reports, client records and the agreements behind each mandate. Much of that material is confidential. Who can open a file matters as much as whether the right person can find it, and a clear history of how it changed can matter long after the work is done.

The firm's documents, communication and information sharing were spread across several disconnected platforms. Each extra system added duplication, and with it, risk.

Files sat in several systems with no clear owner. When the same document lives in two places, nobody can be sure which copy is current, or whose job it is to keep it that way.

Communication was just as split. Competing tools carried different conversations, so the discussion behind a piece of work could sit in one tool while the file sat in another.

Access control, security and version history varied from system to system. For a firm that holds confidential client and investment information, that inconsistency is a real exposure. Meanwhile, people relied on manual workarounds to find, share and reuse information. Workarounds keep work moving, but they cost time and leave the underlying problem in place.

Consolidations like this often stall. Moving files is the easy part. The harder part is deciding where everything belongs, who owns it and who can see it, then helping people change how they work. Skip that, and the new platform becomes one more silo.

The firm needed:

• One platform for documents, communication and collaboration
• Clear ownership of its files
• Consistent access control, security and version history
• An easier way to find, share and reuse information
• A setup people could use from day one

We ran the consolidation end to end: platform selection, migration and setup, then the productivity tooling that made the new workplace usable from day one.

First, we selected the platform: a single cloud workplace that brings documents, communication and collaboration together in place of the competing tools.

Next, we migrated all of the firm's files into a governed document structure. Governed means the structure has rules: each area has a set place, a named owner and defined permissions, so information does not drift back into scattered copies.

With the files moved, we configured the workplace itself:

• Role-based access, so permissions follow a person's role rather than one-off requests
• Ownership and security settings, applied consistently
• Team channels, with conventions for which conversations go where
• Productivity tools and standard ways of working

The conventions mattered as much as the configuration. A shared channel only replaces scattered messages if everyone agrees how to use it.

Throughout the migration, we tracked progress and reported status to leadership, so they could see where the move stood at every stage.

The firm now works from a single cloud workplace. Its documents, communication and collaboration sit on one platform, with clear owners and consistent access.

Every legacy tool consolidated

The separate systems now sit on one platform, so there is one place to look for a file or a conversation.

People trained on the new way of working

The team was trained on the new systems and the processes around them, because the change was about how the firm works, not only where its files live.

New tools in place

New tools and systems were deployed alongside standard ways of working, improving productivity for the people who use them.

For a firm that handles confidential information every day, the gain goes beyond tidier storage. It now knows where its information lives, who owns it and who can see it.