The Challenge
Following an earlier engagement where Evocate built Penske’s SharePoint based intranet across 19 branches and 700+ staff, Penske returned with a larger challenge: migrating approximately 12 terabytes of data from legacy environments to SharePoint Online across their Australia, New Zealand, and Automotive divisions, while implementing proper information governance from the start. The data volume was significant, but the real complexity lay in governing the migrated content correctly across multiple regulatory jurisdictions with sensitive operational and contractual data.
What Evocate Delivered
Evocate delivered the migration over 15 weeks:
- Multi entity discovery mapping data across Penske Australia, New Zealand, and Automotive to understand volume, sensitivity, ownership, and retention requirements
- Information architecture redesign for SharePoint Online rather than lift and shift of legacy folder structures
- 12TB phased migration in controlled waves with validation checkpoints at each stage
- Microsoft Purview governance: sensitivity labels, retention policies, and data loss prevention controls implemented as part of the migration, not as a follow on project
- Azure infrastructure supporting migration tooling and hybrid connectivity
- Validation and handover confirming data integrity, permissions accuracy, and governance controls across all three divisions
Outcomes
Penske’s three divisions now operate on a unified SharePoint Online environment with 12TB of data migrated, restructured, and governed. Microsoft Purview controls were active from the moment migration completed. The new environment was audit ready on day one, not six months later. The information architecture redesign means staff find content faster than in the legacy folder structures. Penske’s decision to return to Evocate for a second major engagement, after the successful intranet rollout across 19 branches, reflects the trust built through consistent delivery.
Why This Matters
Most migration partners treat compliance as a follow on project. Evocate builds it in from day one. For organisations handling sensitive operational data across multiple jurisdictions, this governance first migration approach eliminates the gap between “migrated” and “compliant” that creates risk in traditional projects.
