Google Apps Domain Migration Case Study: Solve Media

Solve Media recently changed their name from AdCopy and used ShuttleCloud’s domain migration service to migrate their Google Apps data from the old domain to the new one.

SummaryDuring its name change, Solve Media used ShuttleCloud to migrate data for fifty users from their old Google Apps domain to a new one. The migration from their previous name to Solve Media combined a proven data transfer method with customized timing, resulting in very little business impact on the organization. The end result was a new Google Apps domain with the legacy data from the old domain and the appropriate branding that Solve Media can confidently use when interacting with clients and the public.

Client BackgroundTo reflect its emerging and specialized advertising technology, Solve Media chose to focus on the its new branding while phasing out all of the old company references. Solve Media helps both online advertisers and publishers alike optimize their advertising strategies for maximum benefit. They do this by using their TYPE-IN technology, which requires viewers to type in relevant information regarding the advertising that they see. This is somewhat like a CAPTCHA text entry but has more relevant context for users than just typing in a random phrase.

Client ScenarioSolve Media began using their new business name and created a solvemedia.com domain alias in their previous company’s Google Apps domain. It didn’t take long for the company to realize the limitations of using a domain alias in Google Apps (link to blog post regarding this here). They began to experience something known as brand confusion with their clients. Because of their presence the marketing and advertising industry, they were acutely aware of the problems that this could cause.

From a technical standpoint there were several issues. One problem directly affected employees of the company since they were still required to log in to their Google Apps accounts using the old.com domain name. Attempting to justify the reasons for logging into Google Apps with an outdated domain account can be perplexing. For users, their login credentials were still user@old.com at a time when they were now using user@solvemedia.com to send out emails after the brand transition.The company also had to deal with the limitations of Google Apps functionality while using a domain alias, which are listed by Google here. These problems were directly related to the fact that their new branding was set up as a domain alias instead of as its own separate Google Apps domain. That is where ShuttleCloud was able to come in and provide their expertise on data migration from the company’s previous domain over to a brand new Solve Media domain.

ShuttleCloud’s SolutionShuttleCloud was able to provide Solve Media with a solution to their problems by moving their existing data from the old.com domain over to a brand-new Google Apps domain at solvemedia.com. This was done while keeping Solve Media’s specific timing constraints in mind. That meant zero email downtime and minimal impact on users for Google Docs, Contacts, Calendars and Sites functionality.

Managed Migration Benefits While using ShuttleCloud’s proprietary managed migration process, there was very little time users could not utilize all of their Google Apps functions. There was no downloading or installation of any software for the process to kick off. The entire migration was handled by one of ShuttleCloud’s experienced project managers, who is well versed in this specialized process.

During the migration Solve Media experienced very little impact on their day-to-day operations. Yet they reaped big gains in terms of having their brand successfully spun off into its own Google Apps domain. Users’ ability to work with their clients on time-sensitive projects was not an issue during the entire process. The end result eliminated the problems associated with brand confusion as well as the limits of using a domain alias with Google Apps.

Ilia Fishbein of Solve Media had this to say about the process: “My company used ShuttleCloud to perform a large migration from one Google Apps account to another where timing and immediate account availability were crucial. We could not have asked for a better experience.”

To learn more about the ShuttleCloud migration process and how it can help your organization limit brand confusion, please check out our Google Apps to Google Apps domain migration page.