Case / 005 — Fish Tales
Four offices. Two domains. One working environment.
Fish Tales wanted consistent Wi‑Fi across its offices and a single platform for email, files and collaboration. microdot coordinated a dedicated network within a shared building, then migrated forty users, two domains and more than ten terabytes of data to Microsoft 365 across three carefully planned weekends.Visit Fish Tales ↗
1 dedicated VLAN
4 managed access points
40 users
12 shared mailboxes
Approximately 10 TB from Dropbox
Approximately 500,000 files
The beginning
First connect the offices. Then bring the work together.
One Wi‑Fi environment
microdot was introduced to Fish Tales in 2023. Its teams occupied separate offices within a shared building, each reached through the building’s centrally managed LAN. microdot coordinated a dedicated VLAN with the building administrator, had it delivered to the offices and installed managed UniFi access points to provide one consistent Wi‑Fi environment across them.
One collaboration platform
Fish Tales also wanted to replace Google Workspace and Dropbox with Microsoft 365, bringing email, files and collaboration into the same environment and allowing teams to work in the native Microsoft Office applications. The migration covered both fish-tales.com in Europe and sea-tales.com in the United States.
Three migration weekends
Prepared in stages. Completed without disruption.
Each Microsoft 365 environment was prepared in advance. Users received clear instructions before the change, mail routing moved after close of business on Friday, and historical mail was transferred in time for work to resume on Monday.
Fish Tales Europe
The European domain and its complete mail environment moved first, establishing the working method for the wider migration.
- 30 users
- 10 shared mailboxes
- Approximately 400 GB
Sea Tales US
After an unexpected legacy Microsoft 365 registration was resolved, the US domain moved using the same controlled process, timed around the difference between European and American working hours.
- 10 users
- 2 shared mailboxes
- Approximately 30 GB
Dropbox to SharePoint
Once users and email were established, the shared data environment moved into preconfigured SharePoint sites.
- Approximately 10 TB
- Approximately 500,000 files
- SharePoint sites prepared in advance
The exception
A hidden dependency could not become Monday’s problem.
The planned Sea Tales migration revealed that its domain was still attached to a dormant Microsoft 365 environment created by a previous owner. The move was paused rather than forced through.
microdot coordinated the domain’s release between the former owner, its provider and Microsoft. Once the block was cleared, the migration was rescheduled and completed through the same prepared weekend process.
Work with the building, not around it.
The dedicated VLAN was agreed with the building’s network administrator and delivered through the existing managed LAN.
Move the complexity before the users.
Accounts, routing, SharePoint sites and user instructions were prepared before each migration window began.
Keep routine administration close to the team.
Fish Tales handles normal user changes internally, with microdot available when deeper Microsoft 365 expertise is required.
Result
One connected workplace across offices, domains and continents.
Client perspective
“Josh came in, understood what we needed and solved it pragmatically. He brings the IT expertise we don’t have in-house, and we know we can rely on him.”Ocke Sevinga - Head of Finance, Fish Tales / Sea Tales