CASE 04 — MULTI-TENANT MICROSOFT 365

A Microsoft 365 environment owned by several sites — that still works as one system.

FRANCHISE ORGANISATION · SEVERAL SITES · OVER 100 USERS

A German franchise operator with several sites — each legally independent, each with its own Microsoft 365 licence agreements, each with its own user accounts. Working across site boundaries was a constant source of friction.

STARTING POINT

Several tenants, no shared identity.

Over the years each site had built its own Microsoft 365 environment — its own domain, its own licensing, its own directory. Employees who worked across sites had two or three accounts. Shared SharePoint areas did not exist. Even putting an entry in the calendar for a cross-site meeting was a problem.

Head office had no continuous view of the landscape. Security policies were inconsistent. Compliance audits were laborious and expensive.

  • Several separate Microsoft 365 tenants, one per site
  • Multiple accounts for employees working across sites
  • No central view and no consistent security policies
APPROACH

Strategy, consolidation, identity layer.

01 — STRATEGY

A workshop with head office and the site managers: which tenants get consolidated, which stay legally separate? Which security and compliance requirements have to be consistent? A GDAP partnership with digiFORMER for central administration.

02 — CONSOLIDATION

Tenant consolidation using CodeTwo Office 365 Migration — mailboxes, SharePoint content, Teams structures, with no loss of mail and no loss of data. In phases, site by site.

03 — IDENTITY LAYER

Building a consistent identity layer for employees working across sites. SSO for further applications, unified security policies, a central view of compliance.

TOOLS

What we actually used.

Microsoft 365Azure App RegistrationMicrosoft Graph APIGDAP-PartnerschaftCodeTwo Office 365 MigrationSSOzentrale Compliance-Steuerung
RESULT

One landscape, one identity.

The tenants are consolidated; employees working across sites have one account, one identity, one SharePoint access. Head office has a continuous view of the whole landscape. Security policies are managed consistently.

The GDAP partnership lets us support day-to-day operations without every site having to take us on as an external employee. That saves effort on both sides.

  • A consolidated Microsoft 365 landscape with one identity
  • A central view of compliance and security
  • GDAP-based support without separate accounts
IN THEIR WORDS
(Client quote to follow.)
Head of IT at head office, a client in the franchise sector

Other clients, other sectors, other stories.

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Does this sound like your platform?

If you recognise a situation like this — a platform that grew as it went, data kept in step by hand, the pains of growth — we are glad to talk with you about whether a similar route would suit you.