Sharepoint Library Migration

Moving from SharePoint on-premises to online is more than simply lifting and shifting your documents. For most companies, it represents an chance to improve practices for collaboration, sharing, and records management.

The key to an effective SharePoint migration is consistency. Throughout this process, your team needs to trust they can find the information they want. You can achieve this by implementing a SharePoint global navigation before your move. Even if you’re not thinking about moving to SharePoint Online, possessing a SharePoint navigation system helps your team find what they need fast. It could even increase adoption of SharePoint and other tools internally.

In this blog post, we’ll review 3 ways you can use Navo to simplify your SharePoint navigation for a smooth migration process.

Global Navigation in SharePoint

Global navigation in SharePoint identifies a menu that spans across your site collections. The options for global navigation in SharePoint Online are limited, and relatively non-existent in SharePoint on-premises. This gap is normally filled with custom code maintained by developers on staff or through expensive third-party systems.

Managed metadata term sets provide you with the ability to make navigation that becomes contextual to each user. However, it does not focus on group-connected SharePoint sites. It also requires manually applying the navigation to every site.

Hub sites give you a drop-down menu option that is managed from one place, but it’s not actually global navigation. A niche site needs to be from the hub to receive the menu, and each site can only just be associated to 1 hub. There is no global hub site.

Custom code is always a choice for SharePoint Online and on-premises. However, it requires a developer to make, support, and maintain code on a continuing basis and is bound in functionality (and often in user experience and design).

Global Navigation with Navo

That’s why we created Navo. Navo allows administrators to quickly build a company megamenu and display it on any SharePoint site in your tenancy. It’s managed in one easy place with a drag-and-drop editor and design functions to help match your internal branding. The best part? Navo can be put into your on-premises environment as well as your SharePoint Online classic and modern sites. Customers will experience consistent navigation while you migrate, change, and update sites behind the scenes.

A couple of three key uses for our on-premises version of Navo:

- Your organization is using SharePoint on-premises without plans to move online and is buying global navigation tool for your on-premises collections.
- Your organization is using SharePoint on-premises and it is not likely to migrate those sites online. However, any new sites will be created in SharePoint Online. You’d just like a global navigation system that can bridge your site collections together.
- Your organization Navigation is actively migrating to SharePoint Online and needs a global navigation to limit the necessity to communicate changes as workloads get shifted.

We’re Using SharePoint On-Premises And We’re Not Leaving

Hey, that’s OK! We’re not here to convince you to definitely leave your on-premises environment. However, we realize that your options for global navigation on-premises are slim-to-none. Navo for SharePoint on-premises allows you to build your global navigation online using our drag-and-drop editor. Once you’ve created your navigation, export our custom code to add to your SharePoint environment and viola! Seamless, global navigation for your whole team.

We’re Using SharePoint On-Premises And We’re Adding Online

We love that you’re thinking about adding new sites and content to SharePoint Online! And we love that Navo provides a bridge in the middle of your on-premises and online site collections. Your team will experience a regular navigation without worrying about whether they’re with an on-premises or online site collection. Create your menu using our drag-and-drop editor and quickly deploy to all or any of your classic and modern sites in SharePoint Online using our tenant wide mode.

For the on-premises menu, you’ll export a file (in JSON format) to upload into the SharePoint on-premises environment. Your team won't notice the difference when navigating between on-premises and online!

We’re Migrating to SharePoint Online

Yay! SharePoint Online has tonnes of great features (including security trimming) which make it worth the move. Migrations give a great opportunity to modernize your systems, update procedures, and ensure you’re complying with security and resource management guidelines. But migrations can be tricky for reasons beyond their technical nature. Your team may be left feeling lost, unsure of how to locate the tools and information they need. Determining which sites should be accessed on-premises or online can be confusing and frustrating. Adding global navigation to your migration plan can help ease a lot of your migration stress!

Use Navo to bridge your SharePoint on-premises and online site collections which means that your team has a regular experience when moving between your tools. You’ll build your menu system online and export our custom code into your on-premises SharePoint environment. As sites are moved to the cloud, you’ll update the links in Navo. Like that your team sees the same menu label and icon, but they are directed to the shiny new SharePoint Online site. Once all of your on-premises sites have been replaced, you can retire that tenancy without fretting about associates who might be trying to access old sites.

Setting Up Navo On-Premises

Setting up Navo on-premises is simple! You’ll use our drag-and-drop editor to set-up your navigation menu in just a couple of steps. When you’re finished, automatically apply your menu to all or any of your classic and modern sites online using our tenant-wide mode or choose the websites you want to deploy to.

Next, you’ll export our custom script into your on-premises tenancy to implement your new global navigation menu without coding required! Users can move between SharePoint on-premises and online without saving bookmarks, copying links, or opening multiple tabs.

The benefits associated with global navigation are endless, whether your planning for a migration or not! Your team will get a fast, reliable way to access the tools and information they need, saving time and frustrations. Give your team a steady navigation across all your SharePoint site collections with Navo!