Thales and Hitachi Rail announced in early 2022 their exclusive negotiations for the sale of Thales’ Global Business Unit Ground Transportation Systems (GTS) for a total enterprise value of 1.66 billion euros. Ground Transportation Systems, with approximately 9,000 employees, is a global leader in signaling and train control systems, telecommunications and surveillance systems, as well as fare collection solutions—key technologies for sustainable mobility. Approximately 8 billion passengers benefit from GTS’s rail technologies every year.
The acquisition agreement set a tight schedule for the separation. A project was initiated to prepare the division for IT independence, followed by the logical separation of applications. One major challenge for the IT team was migrating all systems. People Online, the intranet for over 64,000 employees originally developed for the Thales Group, was migrated to SharePoint Online, as Microsoft 365 played a significant role at Hitachi as well.
Initial Situation
Speed Is Crucial “Due to the tight deadline, it was clear that we needed to bring in an external service provider with strong expertise in Microsoft 365 and extensive experience in international carve-out projects,” says Philip Gröting, Business Partner Lead Applications at Thales Germany. “During discussions with various providers, bitwork impressed us with their structured approach, successful projects, and the personal level of engagement.”
After a brief evaluation and conceptualization phase, a detailed migration plan was developed. In the existing intranet, around 200,000 articles and documents critical to Ground Transportation Systems were identified in a vast data repository. These content elements were automatically extracted from People Online, converted into the appropriate formats, and transferred to SharePoint in the form of news, pages, or documents.
Simultaneously, an extensive training program began. Rockademy experts conducted various SharePoint Online training sessions—in both German and English, for users and editors alike. Training materials were provided in the form of videos and other resources.
Result
A Successful Project The design and implementation, in collaboration with bitwork, left no room for dissatisfaction. The entire project proceeded with a clear focus and was extraordinarily successful. There was close and regular virtual communication, with all relevant questions being competently and promptly addressed by the bitwork team. This collaborative approach allowed the entire project to be launched within a short timeframe.