How Smollan Migrated 9,000+ Users to Google Workspace with Zero Downtime
Moving more than 9,000 people across 25 companies from Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace is complex. Doing it across 19+ countries, eight languages and 24 time zones, without interrupting a business operating around the clock, raises that complexity considerably.
In June 2026, Smollan completed a global Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace migration led by Argility, powered by Smollan Technologies, its Google Workspace Premier Partner practice.
Over an 18-month programme, 9,064 users were migrated alongside 7.01 petabytes of data, 2.4 billion emails and approximately 290 billion documents. The migration achieved a 99.77% verified success rate, zero data loss and zero operational downtime.
Building a more connected global workplace
Smollan operates across 60+ markets, supporting major brands through connected retail solutions around the world. With teams working across regions and time zones, the business needed a productivity environment designed for faster, more seamless global collaboration.
The move to Google Workspace created an opportunity to establish a unified cloud-based platform while bringing tools including Gmail, Google Docs, Sheets and Meet together across the organisation.
It also provided the foundation for Gemini AI within Google Workspace, helping Smollan build towards more AI-enabled ways of working.
But moving an organisation of this scale required more than transferring technology.
Managing an enterprise Google Workspace migration at global scale
Argility approached the programme through three interconnected pillars: technical deployment, change management and project management.
Rather than running these workstreams sequentially, they operated in parallel throughout the migration.
Before users were moved, the team completed a full environment assessment and designed the Google Workspace tenant architecture, covering organisational structures, identity migration, domain configuration, SSO, multi-factor authentication and security.
Microsoft 365 and Google Workspace then operated side by side during the transition. This coexistence model enabled teams to migrate in carefully planned cohorts based on business unit, geography and risk profile, while maintaining continuity across the wider organisation.
Every cohort included pre- and post-migration data integrity verification, real-time migration monitoring and an active rollback protocol.
Putting people at the centre of technology change
For a transformation involving more than 9,000 users, successful adoption was as important as technical deployment.
Change management therefore began from day one.
A global Google Champion Network helped provide peer-to-peer support, backed by multilingual virtual, in-person and self-service training. More than 8,500 support queries were resolved across 24 time zones during the programme, alongside structured Gemini AI enablement and a minimum 30-day hypercare period following each cohort’s go-live.
This combination of technology, training and local support helped teams navigate new tools and new ways of working while the business continued operating.
The results: 9,064 users, zero downtime
Across 547 days, the programme delivered:
- 9,064 users migrated
- 25 companies transitioned
- 19+ countries and 24 time zones covered
- 7.01PB of data migrated
- 2.4 billion emails transferred
- Approximately 290 billion documents migrated
- 99.77% verified migration success rate
- Zero data loss
- Zero operational downtime
The result is a more connected digital workplace with Google Workspace and Gemini AI supporting collaboration across Smollan’s global organisation.
For Argility and Smollan Technologies, the programme also provides something particularly valuable: a migration methodology proven within Smollan’s own complex global environment.
Having delivered enterprise-scale Microsoft 365 to Google Workspace migration across multiple companies, regions and languages, the team can take those learnings, tools and experience directly to organisations navigating their own cloud transformation.
“A change of this magnitude is not something to be underestimated. However, after a very well-organised process, I’m pleased that we’ve managed to cross over and our entire technology estate is now truly cloud-native. This is an enormous competitive advantage for us as a distributed organisation and we’re excited about the possibilities of working on the Google platform further.” – David Smollan, Smollan Chief Executive Officer
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