Case Study: Business Split and Office IT Setup for IFA Division

Overview

Project Objectives

• Set up a completely separate and secure IT environment for the IFA division.
• Migrate all relevant business data, email accounts, and user settings to the new environment.
• Configure new cloud and on-premises infrastructure, including server setup and domain configuration.
• Ensure a secure and seamless transition with minimal downtime or impact on users.
• Enable future scalability and compliance for the newly separated business unit.

Challenges

The IFA division needed to be separated cleanly from the parent organisation’s IT systems, including shared servers, file structures, and email services. Careful planning and execution were required to avoid data loss and maintain full data integrity. The solution also had to ensure secure user authentication, remote access capabilities, and integration with Microsoft 365 services under a new tenant.

Our Solution

We delivered a complete IT transition and infrastructure setup for the IFA division, including:

1. Dedicated Server Installation
   We installed a brand-new, on-site server tailored to the specific performance and capacity needs of the IFA team. The server was prepared to support centralised data storage, access control, and future application hosting.
    
2. Data Migration
   All relevant business data was carefully extracted from the previous environment and transferred to the new server. This included folder structures, financial documentation, client files, and internal resources—maintaining permissions and access history throughout the process.
    
3. Active Directory Domain Configuration
   A new Active Directory (AD) domain was created and deployed on the new server. This provided secure user authentication, group policy management, and a controlled access environment for all staff.
    
4. Office 365 Tenant Setup and Integration
   We set up a new Microsoft 365 tenant exclusively for the IFA business, ensuring they had independent email, calendaring, and collaboration capabilities. The AD domain was then linked to this tenant for seamless authentication and single sign-on across services.
    
5. Testing and Transition Support
   Once all systems were configured, we performed thorough testing and user onboarding to ensure the transition was smooth. Support was provided throughout the go-live period to resolve any minor issues and ensure users were confident in the new setup.