Efficient mail server migration secures processes at GO! Express & Logistics

GO! Express & Logistics – Efficient mail server migration secures processes at GO! Express & Logistics

GO! is Europe’s largest independent provider of courier and express delivery services. With a network of 100+ GO! Stations in Europe and 350+ routes, GO! handles more than 10 million deliveries every year. From bicycle couriers and overnight shipments to global deliveries, GO! is your go-to partner for your logistics needs. To ensure this never changes, Bechtle updated the company’s Microsoft Exchange Server and 800 mailboxes, quickly and efficiently migrating them in a way that kept downtimes to a minimum and guaranteed seamless operations.

Project details.

Services

Security
Modern Workplace
Cloud

Industry

Transport / Logistics

Manufacturer

HPE, Arctic Wolf®

Company size

> 1,500 employees

Challenge.

From regional courier services to global express shipping, GO! Express & Logistics promises “anything but the ordinary”. Since its founding in 1984, the company has become a pioneer in express and courier logistics. What began as the fusion of eight regional courier services has now grown into one of the leading providers of time-critical logistics solutions. The company strives to deliver its customers’ shipments on time and securely 365 days of the year with 3,100 staff—including 1,700 couriers—working hard to ensure the more than 10 million packages handled every year get to where they need to be. For GO! to communicate with its customers and in-house departments, a stable and high-performance IT infrastructure is critical. E-mails are the backbone of the company’s communication strategy and reliable IT means that orders can be quickly processes and important information shared in a snap. To ready itself for the future, Go! was looking to revamp the hybrid IT infrastructure it had in place, a core component of which was a locally run Microsoft Exchange Server 2013 that no longer fulfilled modern technical requirements. To support future growth and ensure seamless communications, GO! took the decision to migrate the company’s 800 mailboxes to Exchange Server 2019. The aim was not only to boost performance and security and optimise integration into the cloud services already used, but also to support seamless and stable communications within the company. To help them achieve this goal, the company needed a partner with the right technical expertise and experience. A partner that understood the existing structures, would be able to smoothly implement the new technology and optimally support ongoing operations.

We are very happy to have met Microsoft’s deadline and make the switch to Exchange 2019, not least thanks to Bechtle. During the project, we remained able to communicate via e-mail without being impacted by slow speeds or other interruptions. Bechtle was on hand immediately whenever we had questions, no matter the time of day, which was something that really impressed us.

Darius Kullik, IT Operations, GO! Express & Logistics Deutschland GmbH

Solution.

Bechtle offers precisely the expertise GO! was looking for. The IT service provider not only brought extensive knowledge in the field of Exchange Server migration, but was also able to respond quickly to GO!’s specific requirements. In the transportation sector, even the smallest disruption can have a huge impact on day-to-day business, so Bechtle needed to ensure the move to Microsoft Exchange 2019 was carefully planned and coordinated, but also carried out quickly. The whole migration needed to be completed within three weeks otherwise it would impact the flow of mail, but the Exchange 2013 environment had to remain operational. With this in mind, Bechtle decided on a step-by-step approach, configuring the new Exchange 2019 environment in parallel and configuring it to ensure compatibility with the existing IT. This meant both systems could be operated in tandem to maintain communications during the entire migration process. The 800 migrations were then conducted in several phases, usually overnight to avoid downtime meaning employees could log in in the morning and carry on where they had left off the evening before. Bechtle also extensively tested the new server before the final phase of the migration and integrated the Microsoft Exchange 2019 environment into GO!’s existing cloud services to ensure the seamless interplay between on-premise and cloud IT. Once the migration had been completed, the old Exchange 2013 server was switched off and uninstalled to make space for a new and more powerful environment.

Business benefits.

By migrating to Exchange 2019, GO! Express & Logistics now benefit from a more modern, secure and powerful IT infrastructure. Thanks to Bechtle’s fast work, all employees were able to communicate with their customers, external partners and with each other at the speed they had come to expect. The new environment supports fast and reliable mail traffic running on-prem while Exchange 2019 has boosted security across the board. Sensitive data are now better protected and security updates are regularly installed, relieving the IT department. Bechtle integrated the new environment into the company’s existing cloud services to make the IT infrastructure more flexible and scalable ensuring GO! Is fully prepared for whatever the future holds.