What does moving to ProCirrus actually involve?
Moving a firm’s IT environment is a significant project, but it should not require the business to stop operating while the technology is rebuilt around it.
A typical ProCirrus onboarding takes approximately 60 days and is designed around preparation rather than a prolonged transition. Applications, users, data, vendors, integrations, security requirements, and infrastructure are identified and prepared in advance, with the final production cutover generally occurring over a weekend.
The work starts well before migration weekend
The most important part of a successful migration happens before anything is moved into production.
ProCirrus begins by documenting the firm’s existing environment, including:
users and access requirements
applications and application versions
Microsoft 365
document management systems
servers and databases
data and storage
printers and scanners
vendors and licensing
security requirements
integrations and workflow dependencies
The objective is to understand how people actually work, not simply produce an inventory of computers and applications.
Applications and vendors are coordinated in advance
Professional firms often depend on applications from many different vendors, and those applications frequently interact with Microsoft Office, Outlook, document management, databases, scanners, printers, and other systems.
ProCirrus works with the firm and its software vendors during onboarding to confirm requirements, prepare infrastructure, coordinate application installation or migration, and identify potential compatibility issues before cutover.
Where appropriate, applications are tested with designated users so problems can be addressed while the existing environment is still operating normally.
Data is moved before the final cutover
A firm should not have to wait for years of data to transfer during migration weekend.
ProCirrus moves the bulk of the firm’s data in advance while users continue working in the existing environment. The final cutover then focuses primarily on the information that changed after the initial migration.
This staged approach reduces the amount of work required during the production transition and allows the new environment to be prepared and validated before users are moved.
Users are prepared before they arrive Monday morning
Onboarding includes communication and training so employees know what will change and how to access the new environment.
Training can be provided in multiple sessions to accommodate different schedules, and selected power users may receive access before the final migration to help validate applications and workflows.
The goal is for Monday morning to feel like a change in how users access their technology—not the beginning of a technology project.
The final transition generally happens over a weekend
Once the environment has passed readiness review, the production cutover is typically scheduled around a weekend.
Final migration work may begin Thursday or Friday evening, with data synchronized, applications transitioned, access validated, and the environment prepared for normal operations by Monday.
Before proceeding, ProCirrus and the firm review readiness and make a formal go/no-go decision. The objective is to enter cutover with the major questions already answered rather than discovering them during the transition.
Support changes immediately after go-live
Once the firm is live, users no longer need to route routine technology issues through an internal coordinator.
Employees can contact ProCirrus directly for support with applications, access, Microsoft 365, printing, devices, and other managed technology issues.
ProCirrus personnel may also be onsite during the initial go-live period when appropriate, while the onboarding team remains focused on migration-related items that need additional attention.
What does the firm need to provide?
The migration is collaborative, but ProCirrus is designed to carry much of the technical workload.
The firm typically provides a primary administrative contact, helps identify key users and business requirements, provides access to existing vendors and systems, and participates in decisions where firm-specific policy or workflow knowledge is required.
ProCirrus coordinates the technical migration, infrastructure preparation, application vendors, data movement, testing, training, and cutover planning.
What about the firm's existing IT provider?
An existing IT provider or internal technology team can be an important source of information during transition.
ProCirrus works to obtain documentation, credentials, licensing information, vendor contacts, application details, and other information necessary to understand the current environment.
The objective is not to recreate the old environment exactly. It is to preserve what the firm needs while moving users into a more standardized, secure, and supportable operating model.
The ProCirrus approach
ProCirrus treats onboarding as a defined project with a dedicated onboarding team, structured discovery, application and vendor coordination, staged data migration, testing, training, and a planned production cutover.
Onboarding is generally provided at a fixed project cost so the firm can understand the migration expense before work begins.
The goal is straightforward: do as much work as possible before cutover so the firm experiences a transition—not an extended disruption.