The Challenge

UNICEF India’s SharePoint environment required significant infrastructure work, migration support, and ongoing maintenance to support the organization’s evolving collaboration needs. The key challenges included:

• High Availability Setup: UNICEF needed a robust SharePoint 2016 High Availability (HA) environment to ensure zero downtime for its mission-critical collaboration platform serving hundreds of staff across India
• Nintex Workflow Migration: Complex business process workflows built on Nintex (a third-party SharePoint workflow engine) needed to be migrated and validated, with Nintex forms and workflows being critical to several organizational processes
• Contact Database Application: The existing contact database — used for managing relationships with government officials, donor representatives, and partner organizations — needed migration and enhancement on the new SharePoint environment
• Media Library Management: UNICEF India’s extensive media library (photographs, videos, publications, campaign materials) required a purpose-built SharePoint solution with metadata management, search capabilities, and access controls
• Dedicated Resource Requirement: UNICEF needed an on-site dedicated SharePoint specialist providing continuous support, troubleshooting, and development for new SharePoint-based solutions
• Migration Complexity: Moving from existing infrastructure to a new HA environment without data loss or extended downtime, while maintaining all customizations, workflows, and permissions

Velocity’s Solution

Scope of Work

Velocity Software Solutions delivered comprehensive SharePoint services encompassing:

• SharePoint 2016 High Availability environment setup and configuration
• Nintex workflow and forms migration and validation
• Contact Database application migration and enhancement
• Media Library SharePoint solution development
• Dedicated on-site SharePoint resource for ongoing support and development
• Annual maintenance and technical support

Key Features & Deliverables

SharePoint 2016 High Availability Setup:
– HA Farm Architecture: Designed and deployed a multi-server SharePoint 2016 farm with redundancy at every tier — web front-end, application, and database servers

• SQL Server AlwaysOn: Configured SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups for database-level high availability and automatic failover
• Load Balancing: Implemented network load balancing across web front-end servers for optimal traffic distribution and failover
• Search Service Architecture: Configured a distributed search topology across multiple servers for resilient and performant search
• Backup & Recovery: Implemented comprehensive backup strategy including farm-level, site collection-level, and content database-level backups with documented recovery procedures and RTO/RPO targets
• Monitoring & Alerting: Set up health monitoring dashboards and automated alerts for server health, service status, and capacity thresholds

Nintex Workflow Migration:
– Workflow Inventory & Assessment: Comprehensive audit of all existing Nintex workflows and forms across site collections, documenting complexity, dependencies, and business criticality
– Migration Planning: Detailed migration plan for each workflow with testing criteria, rollback procedures, and stakeholder sign-off gates
– Workflow Migration Execution: Systematic migration of Nintex workflows and forms to the new HA environment, including connection string updates, permission mapping, and action validation
– Post-migration Validation: End-to-end testing of every migrated workflow with business process owners, verifying trigger conditions, approval flows, email notifications, and data storage
– Documentation: Updated technical documentation for all migrated workflows including process flow diagrams, configuration details, and troubleshooting guides

Contact Database Application:
– Data Migration: Migration of the complete contact database with all records, relationships, metadata, and access permissions from the existing environment
– Enhanced Search: Improved search functionality allowing lookup by name, organization, designation, programme area, geographic location, and custom tags
– Data Entry & Management: Streamlined forms for adding, editing, and managing contact records with validation rules and duplicate detection
– Access Controls: Role-based permissions ensuring sensitive contact information is accessible only to authorized staff
– Reporting: Contact lists and reports exportable in multiple formats for event management, communication campaigns, and stakeholder engagement

Media Library Solution:
– Structured Media Repository: Purpose-built SharePoint library for organizing UNICEF India’s media assets including photographs, videos, publications, infographics, and campaign materials
– Metadata Taxonomy: Comprehensive metadata schema for tagging media assets by programme area, geographic location, date, event, rights/permissions, and content type
– Advanced Search: Metadata-driven search and filtering enabling rapid discovery of specific media assets
– Preview & Download: In-browser preview for images and documents with controlled download options respecting usage rights
– Version Management: Version history for documents and publications with check-in/check-out for collaborative editing

• Access Permissions: Granular access controls based on media sensitivity, usage rights, and organizational role

Dedicated SharePoint Resource:
– On-site Specialist: A Velocity SharePoint specialist embedded at UNICEF India’s Country Office providing:
– Day-to-day SharePoint administration and troubleshooting
– New site collection and subsite provisioning
– Custom list and library development
– Workflow development and modification
– User training and support
– Performance monitoring and optimization
– Knowledge Transfer: Continuous documentation of configurations, customizations, and standard operating procedures
– Escalation Support: Access to Velocity’s SharePoint architect team for complex issues requiring additional expertise

Technology Stack

• Platform: Microsoft SharePoint 2016 (On-premise, HA Farm)
• Database: Microsoft SQL Server with AlwaysOn Availability Groups
• Workflows: Nintex Workflow and Forms for SharePoint
• Server OS: Windows Server
• Networking: Network Load Balancer, SSL certificates
• Monitoring: SharePoint Health Analyzer, custom monitoring dashboards
• Backup: SharePoint native backup, SQL Server backup, third-party backup tools

Implementation Approach

1. Assessment & Planning (Month 1): Comprehensive audit of the existing SharePoint environment including site collections, content databases, customizations, workflows, and third-party components. Designed the target HA architecture with capacity planning for expected growth. Created detailed migration plan with timelines, dependencies, and risk mitigation strategies.

2. HA Environment Setup (Month 1-2): Provisioned and configured the multi-server SharePoint 2016 HA farm. Set up SQL Server AlwaysOn Availability Groups. Configured search topology, service applications, and web applications. Implemented SSL, security hardening, and network load balancing.

3. Content Migration (Month 2-3): Executed phased migration of site collections and content databases to the new HA environment. Migrated Nintex workflows and forms with systematic validation. Migrated the Contact Database with data integrity verification. Set up the Media Library solution with metadata taxonomy.

4. Validation & Testing (Month 3-4): Comprehensive testing of all migrated content, workflows, and applications. Failover testing to validate HA configuration and automatic recovery. Performance testing under production load conditions. User acceptance testing with key stakeholders.

5. Go-live & Transition (Month 4): Cutover to the new HA environment during planned maintenance window. DNS updates and user redirection. Intensive post-migration monitoring and support. User communication and training on any interface changes.

6. Ongoing Support (Months 4-12): Dedicated on-site SharePoint resource providing daily support. Monthly health checks and performance reporting. Quarterly review meetings with UNICEF IT leadership. Feature development for new collaboration requirements.

Key Outcomes & Impact

• Zero Downtime Architecture: The HA farm configuration with SQL AlwaysOn and load balancing delivered enterprise-grade availability, eliminating collaboration disruptions for UNICEF India’s workforce
• Successful Nintex Migration: All Nintex workflows and forms were successfully migrated with zero business process disruption, preserving critical organizational automation
• Enhanced Contact Management: The migrated and enhanced Contact Database improved UNICEF India’s stakeholder relationship management with better search, data quality, and access controls
• Organized Media Assets: The Media Library solution brought structure to UNICEF India’s extensive media collection, dramatically reducing the time spent searching for and retrieving media assets
• Continuous Expert Support: The embedded SharePoint specialist ensured rapid issue resolution, proactive maintenance, and continuous platform evolution aligned with organizational needs
• Improved Collaboration: The stable, high-performance SharePoint environment enhanced cross-office collaboration and document management across UNICEF India’s distributed workforce
• Disaster Recovery Readiness: Comprehensive backup strategy and documented recovery procedures gave UNICEF India confidence in their business continuity posture

Why Velocity?

Velocity Software Solutions was selected as UNICEF India’s SharePoint services partner based on our:

• Deep Microsoft SharePoint expertise spanning architecture, administration, development, and migration across multiple SharePoint versions
• Proven HA environment experience with SQL Server AlwaysOn, load balancing, and enterprise-grade availability configurations
• Nintex specialization including workflow development, migration, and optimization
• Ability to provide dedicated, on-site resources with SharePoint expertise for embedded support models
• Strong track record with UNICEF India across multiple technology domains
• Enterprise IT service management capabilities including structured escalation, SLA management, and proactive health monitoring

Velocity Software Solutions provides end-to-end Microsoft SharePoint services, from architecture and migration to ongoing management, ensuring organizations like UNICEF have a reliable, high-performance collaboration platform that empowers their mission.