Soarsoft Africa, exclusive South African distributor of global messaging platform migration specialist Binary Tree, has announced its adoption of Binary Tree's revolutionary SMART migration methodology. With this move, the company becomes one of the first global SMART migration partners, in line with its status as a Preferred Binary Tree distribution partner.
The SMART Partner Programme is offered to select partners that have a core focus on complementary lines of business to Binary Tree, and uphold the global organisation's strict service standards.
Preferred distributor designation is offered by invitation only, and was granted to Soarsoft in 2012 based on its continuous commitment to providing superior services and support to end-user customers as well as partners.
"As distributor of Binary Tree products for more than two years, we have executed many large and complex migrations across multiple platforms and in complicated environments, with vast amounts of legacy data housed in various third-party applications. Based on this experience, the move to adopt SMART methodology was a natural fit for our organisation," explains Chris Hathaway, Director at Soarsoft Africa.
"SMART is a highly refined methodology that Binary Tree has developed over many years as a specialist migration vendor, working with the company's tools to form a seamless framework for migrations. It is based on three pillars: best practice methodology, proven technology, and knowledgeable and practised advisors, which is where Soarsoft fits into the picture. These three pillars correspond with the well-known trifecta of 'people, process and technology', and form the cornerstones of successful messaging migrations," he adds.
To become a SMART partner, Soarsoft Africa has undergone extensive and continuous mandatory training on multiple competencies, as well as product-focused education. Binary Tree closely manages the training process, and a curriculum is developed for each partner based on its specific needs and requirements. Soarsoft has committed to not only participating in the training itself, but also acting as a gateway to training the partner network throughout South Africa.
"SMART Partners are an extension of Binary Tree. Our certification process is broken into multiple levels, including technical, sales and marketing enablement, and we continue to drive the follow-through on education to ensure that our distributors, including Soarsoft, are not only able to lead within their marketplace, but exemplify our commitment to services. Soarsoft has an extensive Microsoft and services portfolio - one that is unmatched in its region - which made it a logical choice as a preferred distributor," says Marcella Mazzucca, Worldwide Marketing & Channel Operations at Binary Tree.
"As a SMART Partner, Soarsoft is able to deliver the SMART Methodology by offering a seamless, automated migration process for customers going to new or enhanced versions of Microsoft Exchange or the Cloud. Soarsoft also understands and is able to deliver on the SMART Methodologies principals: superior, messaging, analyse, rationalise and transform. This enables the company to deliver best practice e-mail migration projects by recommending superior solutions throughout the life cycle of the Exchange deployment. From coexistence between platforms to content eDiscovery and archiving, Soarsoft has the ability to offer the project scope and ancillary technologies that will truly transform today and tomorrow's migration process," she adds.
By adopting the SMART methodology, Soarsoft is able to harness a refined end-to-end process for migrations, beginning with the correct analysis of the environment and continuing through to project signoff. This migration roadmap benefits organisations by ensuring zero downtime, simplifying complex migration processes through enhanced communication, and ensuring reduced project timelines and therefore reduced costs. By leveraging a proven framework, SMART enables better planning and enhanced quality of messaging migrations.
"Soarsoft sources best-of-breed technologies to meet the needs of our customers, and as such have found a comfortable fit with Binary Tree and the SMART methodology. Messaging platform migrations typically involve multiple complexities, including legacy data in third-party archiving solutions, change management, user adoption challenges and more. This goes beyond a single technology or software tool, as it is not only the messaging platform that is affected by the migration. SMART methodology takes all of these aspects into account, and enhances our existing migration route. As messaging, archiving, migration and collaboration specialists, we are continuously seeking to improve our methodology and processes, as this will only be of benefit to both our organisation and our customers," Hathaway concludes.
Binary Tree's SMART messaging migration methodology will be launched at Microsoft TechEd South Africa, held at the ICC in Durban from 16-19 April.
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