Moving Beyond InfoPath with a Modern, Scalable Alternative

Case Study

Moving Beyond InfoPath with a
Modern, Scalable Alternative

The Customer

And Their Challenge

The Wisconsin National Guard (WIARNG), established in 1848, serves both state and federal missions, providing trained units to support national defense and assist civil authorities during emergencies. Comprising the Wisconsin Army National Guard and the Wisconsin Air National Guard, it operates under the Wisconsin Department of Military Affairs, ensuring readiness to deploy anywhere, at any time, to support community, state, and federal missions.

WIARNG relies extensively on its SharePoint environment to manage documents, workflows, forms, and facilitate collaboration across teams. However, their existing SharePoint 2013 instance had become outdated, creating significant operational and compliance challenges that required immediate attention.

One of the primary concerns was inspection readiness, as WIARNG needed to upgrade its SharePoint environment to meet compliance standards for an upcoming inspection. Additionally, with Microsoft phasing out InfoPath, many of their forms and workflows were at risk of becoming unsupported, threatening the continuity of critical operations. Furthermore, the aging SharePoint 2013 platform struggled to meet the organization’s growing demands, lacking the scalability and performance necessary to support their expanding needs.

To address these challenges, WIARNG sought i3solutions’ expertise to manage a large-scale migration to a more advanced platform. This upgrade would not only modernize their systems but also ensure compliance, operational efficiency, and minimal disruption to ongoing activities.

The Solution

Seamless Migration to a Modern, Scalable Platform

i3solutions partnered closely with WIARNG to execute a seamless migration from SharePoint 2013 to SharePoint 2019, addressing both technical and operational challenges. With the critical nature of WIARNG’s mission in mind, the solution was meticulously planned to ensure minimal disruption to ongoing operations while delivering a modernized and compliant SharePoint environment. As part of this transformation, i3solutions also transitioned outdated InfoPath forms to Power Apps, replacing legacy workflows with modern, scalable solutions. This shift not only enhanced form functionality and user experience but also ensured long-term sustainability by leveraging Power Apps’ dynamic capabilities and Power Automate’s streamlined automation.

As part of the solution, i3solutions developed a proprietary migration tool tailored to WIARNG’s specific needs.

This automated tool facilitated the efficient transfer of sites, lists, documents, workflows, and pages from SharePoint 2013 to 2019, ensuring data integrity and reducing the risk of errors. The automated approach not only expedited the migration but also maintained the structure and relationships of key content, eliminating the inefficiencies associated with manual migration.

The migration included substantial amounts of critical data. Thirty-four workflows essential for automating key processes were migrated seamlessly, along with over 336,000 custom list items. Additionally, content-rich pages and documents were migrated, preserving accessibility and usability across the new platform. Rigorous testing ensured that all data was accurately mapped and fully functional in the SharePoint 2019 environment.

The installation and configuration of SharePoint 2019 included setting up the platform on WIARNG’s infrastructure, configuring permissions, libraries, and workflows to match operational requirements, and optimizing performance to accommodate the organization’s growing data needs.

i3solutions replaced 32 outdated InfoPath forms with modern, user-friendly alternatives built in Power Apps, ensuring a seamless and dynamic experience. With InfoPath’s end of support approaching, i3solutions guided WIARNG through a strategic transition to Power Apps and Power Automate, providing a future-ready solution for form creation and workflow automation. Power Apps delivered an intuitive and flexible interface for dynamic form-building, while Power Automate streamlined processes, reducing manual effort and enhancing operational efficiency. The new forms offer improved responsiveness, deeper integration with existing systems, and greater customization to adapt to evolving business needs. This modernization not only enhanced user experience but also positioned WIARNG for long-term scalability, automation, and continued digital transformation.

Throughout the project, i3solutions engaged closely with WIARNG’s leadership and IT teams, providing regular updates, addressing concerns, and ensuring alignment with their goals. Training sessions familiarized users with the new SharePoint 2019 platform and the features of Power Apps and Power Automate, ensuring a smooth transition and adoption of the new tools.

The new platform delivers significant improvements for WIARNG. It features a modern interface that enhances user experience and adoption, greater scalability to support growing data needs, improved collaboration tools for teams working across state and federal levels, and compliance-ready capabilities to pass inspections. By leveraging SharePoint 2019’s advanced features and integrating Power Platform tools, i3solutions delivered a transformational improvement that positions WIARNG for long-term success.

Technologies

Used in the Solution

SharePoint 2019 was selected for its improved performance, modern user interface, and expanded functionality and provides WIARNG with a scalable and robust platform for managing growing data and collaboration needs. Its compliance-ready infrastructure ensures the organization can meet current and future operational standards with confidence.

Power Automate was selected for its capability to create and automate workflows that integrate seamlessly with SharePoint, simplifying complex processes and enhancing operational efficiency. By streamlining and automating repetitive tasks, Power Automate enables WIARNG teams to dedicate more time to high-value initiatives, ultimately improving productivity and driving overall organizational success.

Power Apps replaced outdated InfoPath forms with modern, user-friendly solutions, empowering users to design dynamic and intuitive forms that significantly enhance productivity. These customizable forms offer flexibility and adaptability, allowing WIARNG to quickly respond to evolving business needs while reducing dependency on extensive IT support.

A Custom Migration Tool was developed by i3solutions specifically for WIARNG to automate and optimize the content migration process, ensuring accuracy and minimizing errors. Its tailored approach significantly accelerated the migration timeline while preserving the integrity of critical data and workflows.

Measurable Benefits
and Business Impact

The SharePoint and InfoPath migration has delivered numerous benefits to WIARNG, enabling them to operate more efficiently and stay compliant with critical standards: