Executive Summary
Nintex’s Upgrade Tool promises a guided path from Nintex for Office 365 to Nintex Workflow. In practice, it delivers a solid baseline for discovery and draft conversion, but success hinges on preparation, handling unsupported actions/connectors, and rigorous post-migration validation.
Context & Why Now
Microsoft’s retirement of legacy SharePoint 2013 workflows in Microsoft 365 is pushing teams toward Nintex Workflow. Nintex’s Upgrade Program and tooling help navigate this shift with a managed path and remediation guidance.
What the Upgrade Tool Actually Does
The tool provides discovery, draft conversion, and guided remediation. It requires activation via Customer Central and SharePoint integration setup. It is not a one-click migration; manual work is needed for connectors, authentication, and complex logic.
Real-World Challenges with Examples
Workflow Compatibility Issues:
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Unsupported actions like Office 365 Create Item require manual replacement with Nintex Workflow equivalents.
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Example: Replace 'O365 Create Item' with 'SharePoint Online – Create Item' in Nintex Workflow and rebind fields.
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Conditional logic often needs reconfiguration. Example: Complex 'Run If' conditions migrated incorrectly and required manual fixes.
Authentication & Permissions:
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Auth tokens and service connections must be re-established in Nintex Workflow.
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Example: Salesforce and DocuSign connectors needed manual re-authentication.
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SharePoint permissions caused workflow failures when service accounts lacked proper scopes.
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Performance Bottlenecks:
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Large inventories caused timeouts; batch migrations of 20 workflows at a time worked best.
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Workflows with large attachments froze during migration and needed manual intervention.
User Experience Gaps:
- Error messages were vague (e.g., 'Migration Failed' without details). Example: Required downloading logs and inspecting XML to find failing actions.
- Status tracking was limited; teams had to maintain external dashboards for visibility.
Recommendations & Best Practices
Pre-Migration:
- Define roles (PM, Tech Lead, Workflow Designers).
- Activate tooling via Customer Central and configure SharePoint Integration.
- Triage workflows by complexity and business impact.
- Prepare Nintex Workflow connectors and standardize naming.
Execution:
- Batch migrations in sets of 10–25 workflows.
- Document remediation patterns (e.g., replacing O365 actions with Nintex Workflow equivalents).
- Test workflows side-by-side in O365 and Nintex Workflow.
- Enforce governance and least privilege on Nintex Workflow connections.
Close-Out:
- Conduct UAT with business owners.
- Define cutover plan and rollback strategy.
- Monitor post-go-live performance and error rates.
Gap Analysis
Discovery works well but misses nuanced cases; conversion creates drafts but requires remediation; guidance is helpful but limited for complex scenarios; scale requires batching and dashboard tracking.
Risks & Mitigations
Business disruption if workflows fail post-cutover; mitigate with rollback plans and dual-run periods.
Security misconfiguration; mitigate with governance reviews.
Hidden technical debt; mitigate with pre-migration refactoring.
Operating Model
Use migration tracking tools (ADO, Excel), maintain a remediation pattern library, hold weekly standups, and measure success via migration metrics.
Recommendations for Nintex
Improve error telemetry, add bulk remediation helpers, and provide a migration health dashboard.
Conclusion
The Upgrade Tool accelerates migration but requires disciplined planning, remediation, and validation. Treat migration as a structured project for best results.
Appendix: Quick Links
- Migrating to Nintex Workflow: https://community.nintex.com/upgrade-to-nintex-workflow-72/migrating-to-nintex-automation-cloud-setting-up-for-success-72766
- Activating Upgrade Tooling: https://community.nintex.com/upgrade-to-nintex-workflow-72/activating-nintex-automation-cloud-upgrade-tooling-72783
- How to Upgrade O365 Workflows: https://community.nintex.com/upgrade-to-nintex-workflow-72/how-to-upgrade-o365-workflows-to-nintex-workflow-73062
- Upgrade Landing Page: https://community.nintex.com/p/upgrade_to_Nintex Workflow