This article first appeared in UC Advanced magazine issue #24.
Will Morey, Gamma’s managing director, gives frank and open advice to all resellers, and the Gamma team are willing to help all, and any, MSPs with a managed approach to any-sized migration project.
For years, migration has been treated as a technical exercise. Something to be worked through line by line, customer by customer, alongside the day job. That approach is now starting to break. What’s changed isn’t just the technology. It’s the scale, the pace, and the commercial impact of getting it wrong.
Most partners understand the PSTN switch-off at a technical level. What’s often underestimated is the operational weight that comes with it. Partner businesses are typically well tuned. Sales and marketing generate demand, while delivery and support are built to meet that demand. There isn’t a bench of unused resource waiting to absorb a large-scale migration project.
So, when migration hits, something has to give. You either slow down new business, stretch support and risk the customer experience, or try to do both and put pressure across the entire operation. That is where the real challenge sits. It is not about capability. It is about capacity. Trying to force migration into a business that was not designed for it becomes a distraction at exactly the wrong time.
The idea of handling migration as a series of individual tasks sounds manageable. In reality, it quickly becomes complex. Most estates are not clean. They are multi-vendor, often include services the partner does not fully control, and sit across different technologies, contracts, and compliance requirements. The reality is messy.
The partners who navigate this well do not start with execution. They start with understanding. That means analysing the full customer base, segmenting it properly, identifying different migration paths, and calling out exceptions early. It is not glamorous work, but it is the most important part of the process. Get that right and everything that follows becomes easier. Get it wrong and issues compound quickly.
One of the biggest risks in migration is often overlooked. The existing base. For many partners, legacy services are stable, profitable, and low touch. They generate margin without creating significant operational overhead. Handled badly, migration can erode that. Handled well, it protects and strengthens it.
The goal is not just to move customers. It is to maintain commercial value, keep customers supported and compliant, and move them onto technology that keeps them relevant long term. At the end of the process, the outcome should be a customer who feels progressed, not disrupted.
PSTN timelines are an obvious trigger, and price increases are accelerating urgency. But the bigger shift is happening in how partners think about technology choices. Increasingly, the question is not what a platform does today, but where it will take customers over time.
In a subscription world, partners and end users only move as fast as the vendor they align to. That puts focus on things like R&D investment, security capability, AI development, and long-term viability. At the same time, partners are reassessing their installed base. They are asking whether their current technology is keeping up, whether it is introducing risk, and whether they want to keep building on it. More often, the answer is no.
That is what is driving broader, more strategic migration decisions, not just compliance-led ones.
There is also a natural concern from partners about losing control of the customer relationship during migration. That does not need to happen. Done properly, the partner remains the face of the relationship, while the migration capability sits behind them, adding capacity rather than replacing ownership.
That balance is critical. Because this is not just about completing a project. It is about maintaining trust, protecting the customer experience, and enabling the partner to keep growing.
If there is one piece of advice, it is simple. Spend more time at the start. Analyse and understand the customer base in detail, be clear on the end state, and define how different segments will move. The work done upfront pays back many times over.
And do not assume you have to do it alone. Even bringing in external perspective at the planning stage can change the outcome significantly.
Migration is often framed as a problem to solve. It is a decision about how a partner wants to grow. Handled reactively, it creates pressure across the business. Handled strategically, it protects the base, strengthens customer relationships, and creates space to keep winning new business.
That is the difference.
If you are working through what migration looks like across your base, it is worth starting with a simple conversation. Compare approaches, sense check your plan and understand where the pressure points are likely to sit. Even that upfront clarity can make a meaningful difference to the outcome.
To talk to Gamma Communications visit: Gammagroup.co/migrate
