One company, one voice: Madhive unifies operations through Google Workspace migration

Growing through portfolio expansion

As a trusted partner for local media professionals, Madhive offers a fully customizable operating system designed to expand reach for local advertisers through efficient, high-impact connected TV campaigns. As a leading operating system for local media, Madhive wanted to integrate their platforms and meet the rising demand for integrated, data-driven solutions. 

Business challenge

Last year, Madhive embarked on a significant strategic endeavor: the acquisition of Frequence, an omnichannel workflow platform. While the business rationale was compelling, the technical integration presented a complex challenge, particularly concerning the consolidation of their respective Google Workspace environments. The overarching objective was to achieve a singular, cohesive operational identity, “one company, one voice,” across the merged entity.

The integration process was characterized by an aggressive timeline, necessitating rapid action immediately following the acquisition’s closure. A primary concern was the migration of disparate data between the two organizations without compromising ongoing business operations and efficiencies.

“When we closed the Frequence acquisition, we moved very quickly into the IP integration phase,” says Leyla Navi, Director of Technology Operations at Madhive. “We expected to hit some speed bumps, just because of the nature of moving so fast.”

Foreseeing collaborative challenges

Key operational and collaborative challenges were foreseen. Frequence’s IT infrastructure and practices differed from Madhive’s. As a more mature company, Madhive, in partnership with their managed services provider, Advisory Solutions, had meticulously developed their IT governance and security policies, including using Okta for identity and access management. Frequence, in contrast, didn’t use Okta, relying heavily on individual and group accounts, and had a practice of using external sharing links. Reconciling these divergent approaches against Madhive’s established baseline was going to be complicated.

The migration was a multifaceted, high scale operation.. There was some uncertainty associated with a domain transfer. “Whenever you think of a domain transfer, there’s a fear of potentially losing data, losing information,” says Navi. 

Recognizing the need for external project management 

The enormity of the Frequence domain migration was the critical factor that prompted Madhive to seek assistance. “We recognized an acute need for external project management, Google Cloud expertise, and additional resources to navigate the tight timeline,” says Navi.

The transition also presented a crucial communication challenge: how to ensure continuity of client outreach when Frequence customers would suddenly be contacted from a Madhive email address. This required careful planning for end-user communication and the flexibility to maintain older email addresses during the interim period. 

Solution

In response to these complex challenges, Madhive engaged in a dual-pronged partnership with SADA, An Insight company, and winner of the 2025 Google Cloud Global Partner of the Year Award for Google Workspace, and Advisory Solutions, recognizing that successful execution would require both high-level strategic guidance and hands-on implementation support. SADA brought deep expertise in Google Workspace and cloud infrastructure, while Advisory Solutions, Madhive’s MSP, played a critical role in ensuring the acquisition’s success through technical integration, operational support, and policy harmonization across both environments.

“We’ve been a Google shop for more than six years,” says Navi. “We knew that this project would be a huge undertaking, and we needed to move fast. We also needed the resources to do this appropriately, and there’s no one better to collaborate on that than with SADA.”

SADA began by carefully planning the migration, which would occur over 16 weeks in four stages. SADA’s comprehensive solution centered on facilitating a seamless Google Workspace domain migration, primarily utilizing the Google Workspace Domain Transfer Tool (DTT). This tool was specifically recommended by SADA’s migration team as the most efficient method, crucial for preserving sharing links, a key concern for Frequence workflows. 

Providing expert project management and planning

During the Frequence domain migration to Madhive’s Google Workspace instance, SADA delivered strong project management. Their highly organized and well-planned approach was evident throughout the process. “SADA offered their expertise and advice every step of the way, often preempting questions even before they were asked,” says Navi. 

To ensure alignment and momentum, SADA led structured weekly syncs, bringing together key stakeholders from both Madhive and Advisory Solutions to review progress, surface blockers, and confirm next steps. SADA provided expert project management and communication planning, and Advisory Solutions played an instrumental role in collaborating with Madhive stakeholders, delivering timely feedback, and guiding implementation decisions. This close, cross-functional coordination allowed the teams to stay agile and deliberate, ensuring a smooth integration throughout the acquisition process.

Tailoring communication strategies

To support Madhive’s migration strategy, SADA tailored advanced communications, including comprehensive comms drafts, with dates, target audiences, and pre-written paragraphs. This significantly lightened the burden on Madhive’s internal teams, who were juggling numerous other migration-related tasks. These resources ensured effective change management, keeping Frequence users and Madhive stakeholders well-informed throughout the process.

Ensuring data integrity 

A paramount concern was the potential for data loss or missing information during the transfer of intra-tenant user email and Drive content. SADA’s team provided continuous data assurance through multiple passes and status updates, verifying data migration percentages at 5% intervals up to 100% (e.g., 90%, 95%, 100%). The inherent capabilities of the DTT tool itself significantly mitigated these worries. 

“The domain transfer tool involves a comprehensive process that minimizes concerns around data loss or verification,” says Navi. “We saw no indications of any data loss throughout the migration.”

Unifying email routing systems

To achieve the one company, one voice objective while maintaining client continuity, SADA built a secondary Frequence domain within Madhive’s Google Workspace instance. This secondary domain enabled Frequence users to send emails from their Frequence addresses seamlessly, while benefiting from the enhanced security of Madhive’s top-level domain. 

“In enabling a secondary domain, you introduce flexibility that is inherently needed in any merger,” says Navi. “It’s not always easy to get to one company, one voice. Sometimes, you need to take a few steps to get there, but the end result is built in.”

Dealing with the unexpected

SADA’s approach to unexpected developments was characterized by proactive weekly syncs for broader discussions and rapid response chat channels for urgent matters. The SADA team quickly took ownership of reported concerns, remediating them efficiently and providing detailed explanations for anything that arose. This highly responsive support was critical in minimizing disruptions during the transition.

“What really shone through was SADA’s capacity and expertise in project planning, their ability to access Google Cloud for assistance in the data migration, and the minimization of any potential risks,” says Navi. “We really leaned on SADA’s capabilities and expertise, and those came through beyond a doubt as we went through the domain transfer.” 

Impact

As a result of working with SADA, Madhive completed a highly successful Google Workspace domain migration, culminating in immediate and tangible outcomes that significantly advanced Madhive’s post-acquisition integration goals:

• Rapid migration, minimal downtime: The entire migration project took about 11 weeks from kickoff to final Frequence account merge—five weeks less than the planned timeline called for. The DTT process itself took only 19 minutes to complete during a workday. This astonishing speed meant there was no downtime.
• 100% data integrity: Crucially, the migration achieved complete data integrity. This outcome directly addressed one of Madhive’s primary objectives regarding data loss during domain transfer.
• Significant user transition: Hundreds of Frequence accounts were merged into corresponding Madhive accounts, and hundreds of Frequence users transitioned to Madhive.com. This large-scale migration was executed without any end-user disruption.
• Seamless collaboration and unified identity: The successful merger of the Frequence domain into Madhive’s Google Workspace instance fostered a one company, one voice environment. This streamlined operations, eliminated the need to operate two Google Workspace domains, and removed blockers to data sharing. Company collaboration, particularly Drive access and sharing, has significantly improved.
• Enhanced security posture: Frequence users were added to the much more structured Madhive environment, dramatically improving their security posture. Those users were integrated into Madhive’s robust ecosystem of tooling, with Google Workspace at its core but supported by more powerful identity provider and mobile device management solutions. This ensured that all Madhive data and user access adhered to enterprise-grade SOC 1, SOC 2, and SOC 3 compliance standards.

This successful integration has positioned Madhive for continued strategic growth, with the knowledge that their core IT infrastructure can rapidly and seamlessly absorb future acquisitions, fostering a truly unified and efficient operational landscape.