How a Canadian Financial Institution Unified IT for 76,000 Users

A leading Canadian financial institution acquired competitors over decades but struggled to successfully integrate backend technologies used by its workforce. The complexity of unifying disparate systems made it difficult to even attempt large-scale migrations.

New Era Technology’s tools and expertise enabled this transformation by overcoming complex challenges related to data cleansing, platform alignment, and coordination, laying the groundwork for the comprehensive solution described below.

This large-scale digital transformation included consolidating Active Directory domains, migrating mailboxes to Exchange Online, upgrading workstations to Windows 10, and deploying cloud-based services such as Microsoft Teams, Intune, and Office 365 Information Protection for 76,000 users. 

After decades of growth through acquisitions, the financial institution found itself operating with a highly fragmented backend IT environment. Each acquired organization brought its own identity systems, email platforms, and workstation standards, creating layers of complexity that accumulated over time. While the business continued to grow, the technology supporting its workforce became increasingly difficult to manage, scale, or modernize.

The lack of a unified Active Directory structure made identity and access management inconsistent across the organization, while legacy Exchange environments limited the ability to adopt modern, cloud-based collaboration tools. At the endpoint level, multiple workstation configurations increased support overhead and made standardization nearly impossible. These challenges were not isolated technical issues—they directly impacted productivity, security, and the organization’s ability to move forward with confidence.

Attempting a large-scale migration under these conditions carried significant risk. Without a clear view into data readiness, system dependencies, and user impact, even planning the transformation was daunting. The institution needed a way to coordinate thousands of interconnected migration activities, cleanse and align data across platforms, and execute change for tens of thousands of users without disrupting day-to-day operations. Solving this challenge required not just technical expertise, but disciplined coordination and a structured approach to managing complexity at enterprise scale.

New Era implemented a comprehensive approach to streamline and coordinate the migration activities. Recognizing the challenges of data cleansing, platform alignment, and system unification, New Era designed and maintained a migration coordination database to manage the transition effectively.

Key efforts included creating tailored schedules and communications, tracking readiness to minimize disruption, and ensuring alignment between legacy systems and modernized platforms. Daily meetings, go-live events, and customized reporting enabled seamless collaboration among project teams and stakeholders.

This solution provided actionable insights into the migration’s status and ensured timely updates to prioritize program activities. 

This leading financial organization successfully migrated to a single Active Directory domain, transitioned from Exchange On-Premises to Exchange Online Multi-Tenant, and standardized its workstations on Windows 10.

The deployment of Teams, Intune, and Office 365 Information Protection empowered the institution with modern cloud-based services.

This transformation allowed the organization to consolidate its IT environment, enhance productivity, and establish a foundation for ongoing digital innovation.