Swissport is the world’s largest ground handler, operating across nearly every major aviation market and supporting airlines with check-in, gates, ramp services, cargo, lounges, transport and critical airport operations.
With 65,000 staff worldwide, powering global aviation and serving 247 million airline passengers annually to ensure seamless travel, Swissport also handles 5 million tons of air freight to deliver efficient cargo connections and welcomes 6.2 million lounge customers to enhance premium travel. Operating at approximately 300 airports in 45 countries, the company demonstrates its scale and global coverage.
Across most of the world, Swissport operates on Microsoft 365. But in Australia and New Zealand, a legacy acquisition meant more than 4,000 employees were still using Google Workspace. For APAC teams, this created friction: sharing documents, managing calendars, and collaborating with global offices required workarounds, duplications and extra steps that slowed day-to-day operations and maintained a subtle separation between APAC and the wider Swissport organisation.
With peak aviation holiday season approaching, Swissport partnered with Seisma to deliver a complete, region-wide Google-to-Microsoft migration on a tight deadline, designed to go live before the busiest period of the year.
Multiple challenges
- Two platforms creating unnecessary complexity: ANZ teams used Google; the rest of Swissport operated on Microsoft globally.
- A demanding and inflexible timeline: APAC’s December peak holiday season meant the migration had to be completed before October, in time to onboard new staff ahead of increased flight volumes and seasonal hiring.
- Global coordination across four time zones: Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US.
- Operational and shift-based roles: Preparing thousands of frontline employees required careful, multi-channel communication.
Richard Thorp, Swissport’s Global CTO, explained the impact, “Swissport acquired the Australian operations about seven years ago, and what that left us with was the whole of Swissport on Microsoft while Australia and New Zealand were on Google. It wasn’t an ‘us versus them’, but it created a demarcation. There were always workarounds – sending files different ways, managing two environments, and trying to collaborate effectively. None of it was ideal. The most important part for me was to bring everyone together so that the region could truly integrate with the rest of the business.”
Swissport needed to consolidate platforms before the busiest aviation period of the year - and chose Seisma to guide the transition.
Matthew Pang-Way, Swissport’s APAC IT & Business Optimisation Lead described the pressure, “we absolutely had to finish before the December peak season. In Australia and New Zealand, the busiest flying period adds roughly another 8% of flights in those two months. We onboard a huge number of new staff in November to have them trained for the 1st of December. We couldn’t afford any disruption during that time. That deadline of October was immovable.”
The migration touched frontline workers, airport terminals, cargo facilities, lounges, transport fleets and support offices - many of whom do not regularly sit at a desk.
Why Seisma
Swissport APAC had been purchasing Google licences through Seisma for more than a decade, building long-term trust. Local expertise and dual-platform knowledge made Seisma the right partner.
Matthew shared, “We’ve purchased around 4,000 Google licences through Seisma for the last ten years, and that relationship has always been strong. We knew Seisma understood the Google suite deeply, and with our internal knowledge of Microsoft, it was a strong combination. After working together for more than a decade and now completing this complex migration across 4,000 users in two countries, I’d absolutely recommend Seisma.”
Richard added, “We needed an organisation with genuine expertise in both the Microsoft and Google ecosystems. Seisma already had a strong relationship with the local team, and when we went through a strong procurement process and compared three partners, they came through the evaluation on top. The relationship and the domain knowledge were big factors. Having Seisma in our time zone also made things significantly easier for us. That local presence was a huge advantage.”
A structured, disciplined delivery
The project’s success relied on a structured approach. Seisma led an in-depth discovery process to identify dependencies, privacy constraints, licensing details, identity structures and operational requirements. This uncovered complexities that could have derailed the migration if left unseen.
Matthew highlighted this impact: “The thing that really impressed me was the discovery phase - it uncovered a lot, and the detail that Seisma went into was the key to the whole project’s success. And then the flexibility: our industry changes constantly, with staff leaving and joining all the time. Nothing was ever too difficult. It was always collaborative, always responsive.”
When operational issues required the migration phases to be reordered mid-project, Seisma adapted without disrupting timelines. Every decision, risk and action was tracked meticulously. Communications were delivered at scale - more than 25 touchpoints, including training sessions, intranet updates, manager packs, FAQs and cutover guidance.
Managing delivery across Australia, New Zealand, the UK and the US added further complexity.
Jared Mayer, Seisma’s Google Technical Lead, reflected: “This was a tight timeline – 1,200 users requiring full data migration and another 3,000 frontline user accounts being offboarded, all impacting around 4,000 people, completed in roughly three months. And that included reshuffling the migration phases when legal and privacy concerns arose. We all worked across four time zones, and everyone took turns doing early mornings or late nights. That shared commitment across both teams is what made it possible to stay on track. Even with the complexities, we kept momentum and delivered within a couple of weeks of the original target. It ended up being a fantastic project because everyone leaned in.”
Richard agreed: “There was a very tight timeline, and we had to deliver by October. It took real discipline because we weren’t working from a position of ‘how long should this take?’ but rather ‘how do we make this happen by the deadline?’ Seisma had a strong process. Issues were documented clearly, ownership was assigned, and everything was followed through. That’s how you keep projects like this moving.”
The Results
4,000 APAC employees unified into one Microsoft 365 environment, including:
- 1,200 active users migrated
- 3,000 accounts offboarded
- Full data migration from Google Workspace to Microsoft 365
- Identity, access and shared drive alignment
- Change management and end user training
Key outcomes:
- One platform for collaboration, file sharing and identity
- Improved alignment with global operations
- A smoother peak season
- A repeatable approach for future transformations
Australian and New Zealand teams no longer juggle two toolsets. Collaboration with global colleagues is now seamless. The migration landed just before December - perfectly aligned with the busiest aviation window. Learnings from the programme are now shaping Swissport’s upcoming HRIS transformation.
Swissport’s migration brought its Australia and New Zealand workforce into full alignment with global operations - simplifying collaboration, reducing complexity and strengthening organisational cohesion.
Delivered under a strict deadline, across multiple time zones and under evolving operational conditions, the project succeeded due to partnership, disciplined delivery, deep cross-platform expertise and a shared willingness to solve problems together.
Richard Thorp, Global CTO, summarised the impact: “What we wanted more than anything was to bring everyone together. The technical migration mattered, but it was secondary to the fact that Australia and New Zealand had been sitting on Google for years while the rest of Swissport was on Microsoft. We wanted to remove that completely and make collaboration seamless across the whole company. What stood out with Seisma was their attitude and their capability. From the very start, the team showed great flexibility and a real can-do approach, even when we had 12 people on calls across Brisbane, London and the US East Coast. They stayed unflappable through the bumps, followed a strong process, documented everything clearly and kept the programme moving. When you bring clever people with the right attitude together, you get good outcomes, and that’s exactly what happened here.”
Beyond the technical success, the migration delivered operational clarity, stronger alignment with global teams and a foundation for future transformation. Frontline staff now operate with consistent tools, enabling faster decision-making and more seamless collaboration across APAC and beyond.
Matthew said, “I really appreciate the work from Seisma. They delivered with care, quality and commitment. They adapted to every change we needed, kept everything on track, and genuinely worked as part of our team. This was a complex migration touching 4,000 people, and they handled it incredibly well. I’m grateful for the partnership and the outcome. After more than a decade working together and now completing such a large and complex migration across two countries, I can absolutely recommend Seisma.”