Microsoft Access is an excellent platform for creating useful databases. However, with the increasing need for collaborative platforms, you may feel the need to use your databases, created using Access, through website browser. People with SharePoint can easily do it. All they need is to migrate their database to SharePoint Online.

How Does It Work?

If you have a published database on Microsoft Access, it will create a SharePoint site for you which contains all your said database. All the data you have on Access offers you with a ‘Move to SharePoint lists’ options. There are three types of permissions, the visitors it may offer which include the following;

• Admins can request Full Control to make changes to the designs. 
• Collaborators can request to Contribute; however, they are not permitted cannot change the plan.
• Visitors may request to Read to view data without changing anything. 

What Challenges You May Encounter While Migrating to SharePoint?

Migrating to SharePoint Online has its downsides too, which mainly include security issues, loss of metadata, challenges of storage, and difficulty in data organization while migrating. Some of the common problems that you need to think about throughout migration include the following;

• Migrating from Microsoft Access to SharePoint is a complicated task and requires the expertise of professional SharePoint developers which bring additional cost to the company along with the hassles of hiring professionals and in such situation sharepoint consulting services can help to get this done with reliability.
• Make sure that you increase your bandwidth before migrating to SharePoint Online as it uses relatively more bandwidth than an on-premise platform. It is crucial, because the slowness of using the new SharePoint Online may cause frustration among users.
• With SharePoint Online, organizations lose total control over back-end. Although it is considered as one of the most significant benefits of moving to the cloud; for some business, it becomes a disadvantage, as the continuity of their business processes may get disrupted.
• Consistent release of updates by Microsoft may affect the customization setting of some users. However, this can be managed by keeping a sharp eye on updates and adjusting the customization settings concerning their potential impact.
• Data security has always been questioned for cloud platforms. Users are still skeptical about migrating their data to the cloud environment. SharePoint has also added to some security concerns as user organizations are still unsure about the protection level available at it.
• Migrating all your data from Access to SharePoint Online often results in thousands of broken links which lead to torn data integrity and also impact its quality.

Microsoft Access’ Migration to SharePoint Online

The challenges mentioned above are somber but completely manageable with adequate planning and conscious migration. To ensure complete integrity of your Access databases, we recommend you to divide your migration process into three parts; 

• Planning, Governance & Process Flow.
• Content & Data Migration.
• The Interface.

• Planning, Governance & Process Flow

Planning is crucial for everything to do it the right way and in the most productive manner. So, when you are going to migrate your Access database, plan and list down what is required to migrate. You can also create a migration map or simple note things on a document. But, make sure you don’t skip any details. Before migrating to SharePoint Online, one thing that you must never forget to list down What? Who? Why? And How?

Easy understanding of this is who will be accessing what? Which users will use the data? How will they apply it? This will give you a clear picture of process flow along with a defined character for your application. If your database is enormous, you might need to form user stories too. Once you review all these factors, you will be able to compare your existing architecture at Microsoft Access with the desired one at SharePoint Online. The ‘How’ factor will help you understating the use of various lists.

• Content & Data Migration

Once everything is sorted, and you have a clear picture in front of you, you can proceed with the migration process. You can now continue with;

• Creating data repositories comprised of lists that you can use to export the data one Access to Excel with the help of tables. 
• Unlike Access, SharePoint is not relational. This means that your migrated data will not be normalized and the hierarchy will also not work in the same way, until you apply a custom solution. 
• The quick edit mode on the pre-defined tables is the easiest way to migrate your data. But yes, this means that you need to rebuild your Access solution.

• The Interface

This is the final stage where you will prepare the solution by answering questions like what data will stay in SharePoint lists? Will the third-party solution be needed? Which user interface will be best suited? etc.

We would recommend you to utilize Power Apps to achieve the desired feel and look of the forms and relish the advantages of process flow you defined in the first stage. Power Apps are flexible enough to connect to various data sources, which will create an artifice of a relational database. You are recommended to take the assistance of an expert service provider like Viftech Solutions, which offers full-spectrum of SharePoint migration services.

What are the Advantages that will Come Along the SharePoint Migration?

• Access users who will migrate to SharePoint Online will enjoy its new updates, secure handling, and advanced features.  
• The new and better features of SharePoint Online will push its users to enjoy the upgrades much earlier than its commercial release.
• With SharePoint Online subscription, you will get access to a wide variety of tools, including Office 365, without any additional cost.
• Users of SharePoint Online can also build websites collaboratively that can be used to assign tasks, create workflows, start blogs, share documents, etc.  
• SharePoint Online also comes with 99.99% SLA (Service Level Agreement) reliability, which makes it truly amazing. In combination with an exceptional support team, migrating to SharePoint Online worth all the headaches.
• In a bigger picture, SharePoint is relatively cheaper for the majority of the companies, especially when it is compared to the accumulated cost required to purchase the new upgrades for the on-premise platforms.
• Your enterprise relishes amazingly improved the storage capacity of 1TB + 10GB/user license. This helps in boosting its already powerful performance.
• Unlike on-premise SharePoint, SharePoint Online does not require in-house technical and maintenance teams, as the Microsoft Support Team manages all the technical support.

Author

This blog post is sponsored by Viftech Solutions, a leading IT services provider and SharePoint Online consulting firm. Viftech Solutions is well-reputed in the industry for providing high-quality and affordable services to its clients all over the world.