What the organization was facing
The nonprofit’s files lived on Windows-based network storage whose permission hierarchy had become inconsistent over time. Inheritance was disabled in some folders and working in others. Even an administrator added at the top of the structure could discover that access did not carry into much of the tree.
New hires and employees changing roles required folder-by-folder permission work. During discovery, some folders first had to be reviewed for ownership before their contents could be prepared for migration. The IT director also wanted to retire the active on-premises file environment and continue toward a cloud-only Microsoft environment.
The decision behind the work
Instead of recreating one large file share in SharePoint, the proposed design used a separate Teams-connected SharePoint site for each department. Owners, members, and visitors could then be managed at the site level without rebuilding the same complex folder exceptions.
The project lead and IT director designed the target structure and reviewed access file by file before migration began. The planning phase established who needed each site and document area before any department was cut over.
How the project moved
Inventory the existing file environment
Reviewed the source folders, ownership, permission exceptions, department boundaries, and approximately 4 TB of data that had accumulated on the local storage platform.
Build a simpler department model
Created more than ten Teams-connected SharePoint sites and assigned clear owner, member, and visitor roles rather than carrying the legacy permission hierarchy forward.
Migrate one department at a time
Used Microsoft’s SharePoint Migration Tool over an eight-week schedule, generally moving one department per week and combining smaller departments when the scope allowed.
Control each cutover
At approximately 5 p.m., changed the source department folders to read-only, completed the final transfer, and directed employees to the new SharePoint location the following workday. This prevented new versions from being created in both places.
Help people adopt the new location
Sent site invitations, helped employees synchronize libraries to their MacBooks, provided documentation, and trained users to reach the same files through Teams, email, SharePoint, and the desktop sync experience.
How the work was checked
- Reviewed each department’s access with the IT director before cutover.
- Confirmed that users could open the new sites and reach the department files assigned to them.
- Kept completed source folders read-only as the rollout progressed, then retained the legacy storage as a restricted archive under the IT director’s control.
- Documented migration exceptions. Approximately 30–40 empty files or items with incompatible paths or naming were excluded after review with the IT director.
What changed
The nonprofit’s active file environment moved from a difficult-to-manage local share to department-based SharePoint sites. Staff could reach their work remotely, while ordinary access changes could be handled through clear site membership instead of folder-by-folder repairs.
Employees generally needed a day or two to adjust to the new workflow. Training, documentation, invitations, and hands-on synchronization support helped the organization complete that transition without keeping the NAS as its active place of work.