Vitesco Technologies: From HCL Connections to M365

Vitesco Technologies has successfully carried out a ‘fresh start’ by migrating to Microsoft 365. Within the new environment, active and relevant communities and information have been given their own structured space, whether in Viva Engage, SharePoint or the novaCapta Wiki Asset.

Fusion of Two Worlds: Integration of HCL Connections & Microsoft, particularly focusing on knowledge and collaboration aspects from the HCL era 

Holistic mapping of infrastructure and tools from the HCL world in Microsoft 

Ensuring continuity for existing knowledge management and collaboration in the new environment for the smooth continuation of work practices 

Categorization of vast amounts of data (current and old) and simultaneous archiving of legacy data 

Migration from HCL Connection to Microsoft 365

Implementation of the novaCapta Wiki Assets

Transfer of existing network contacts from Connections to Viva Engage

Seamless and user-friendly continuation of knowledge and communication with easier access to relevant information 

Efficient work thanks to the data archive in a well-structured system 

Reduced maintenance effort through the focus on a single system 

Cost savings due to the reduction in licensing costs 

Previously, Vitesco Technologies utilized HCL Connections for collaboration, communication, knowledge management, while also using Microsoft tools such as Microsoft Teams, Outlook and SharePoint Online. The effort involved in maintaining two systems and keeping them up to date, as well as the high license costs, led to the desire to migrate entirely to Microsoft and focus on one provider. "It was important for us to find a service provider who is familiar with Microsoft and HCL Connections and has experience in migrating these systems. The service provider had to understand the infrastructure we were coming from and know the world we wanted to enter," says Catalina Man, Global Team Lead Collaboration Functions & Office 365 Team at Vitesco Technologies, explaining the decision to choose novaCapta as a partner.

Prior to the actual migration project, a proof of concept was conducted, which involved a complete analysis of the existing Connections infrastructure. This provided a precise overview of the data volume and types and enabled a more precise definition of the scope of the project: What has to be migrated? What needs to be archived? Because even if some of the data was not up to date, it had to find a new storage location. Another important aspect was the clarification of access rights and how migration could best be conducted within the framework of the existing cyber security and compliance guidelines. 

novaCapta created a filter for the classification of the data and communities. Based on the rules defined in advance, the entire system could be examined and categorized in a first step. 

The migration took place in three stages. In the first step, the migration was tested on a test tenant, and in the second on a development tenant. This allowed potential challenges to be identified early and relevant stakeholders were already provided with an illustration of the new working environment before going live. Only after that did the final migration of the data take place.

In total, fewer than 1,000 communities were migrated – the remaining over 6,000 communities ended up in a file archive. novaCapta created an HTML archive for the old data. Two nominated employees still have access to the data in the archive via a browser when needed. For Vitesco Technologies, the migration represented a kind of "restart", because only active and relevant communities and information migrated to the new Microsoft world. The communities from Connections found their new home in Microsoft Teams, Viva Engage, the intranet, and SharePoint pages. MS Teams pages were automatically generated using a PHP script.

In order to carefully examine the data archiving, Vitesco Technologies independently created a user-friendly Power BI dashboard. This allowed the community owners to examine their own communities, approve them for archiving or migration and keep track of the communities that had already been classified. During the migration, the dashboard was used as a monitoring tool, documenting status reports and maintenance progress. This transparency boosted the acceptance of the owners and saved time during the migration.

Vitesco Technologies considered it crucial to mirror existing solutions and features from its HCL Connections environment directly in Microsoft. This included also its wikis, which were already successfully used for knowledge management. To have a corresponding tool in Microsoft 365, the novaCapta Wiki Asset was implemented, and existing Connections wiki pages were migrated. This way, Vitesco Technologies maximized the functionalities in its new Microsoft environment and now offers its employees seamless integration.

Due to the long-term use of HCL Connections, many employees had built up an extensive "network" in the system; employees they followed and with whom they networked. In order to make it as easy as possible for the employees to get started, it was important for Vitesco Technologies to migrate these contacts entirely to Microsoft. For this, they also collaborated directly with Microsoft to create a suitable solution, as there was previously no existing interface.

"Our employees were able to find all their data, information and contacts in Microsoft. New tools, such as Viva Engage, have been very well received. We are therefore completely satisfied with the process and the results of this complex project," says Catalina Man, summarizing the project.

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