What were the key concerns and considerations for users? How did you alleviate the concerns and navigate the considerations?
Gene D’Aversa from Husch Blackwell – End users’ behavior is something you must look into early in the migration process. You should consider how the front end users are actually using the system. Our last migration was transferring different systems. However, they were also matter-centric; this meant we needed to keep the structure of the content. Not doing so would have destroyed the capability of a group of people to do what they need to. This consideration could impact productivity, billing, and revenue. We were able to alleviate it by examining the templates they had in play and how they were set up in the existing system, then we explored how to transfer the templates to their system. We used Velocity Content Migration to migrate the content as well as the templates and structure to preserve the capabilities. Specifically, we took their dynamic views and mapped it to the new system. We had a good training initiative, so that when cut over day happened, users weren’t surprised and they were prepared to use it. Optimize the workflow and the steps and clicks so that it makes it easier to use.
Peter Lieber from EIM International – Folks have an understanding of the need and understanding of what the business impact will be and they are uncertain about migrations. Some of it you find out as you go, and experience is key. Considering the business impact is the most important. You need to discover how it will impact the business. Discover the ways the migration will be performed: “light switch” or “gradual” will determine how to handle users. Addressing them with SeeUnity’s migration tools helps to address a lot of the issues. Make sure you are asking the right questions about your tools: how much capability and flexibility does the tool give you?
Kristen Harris from Zia Consulting – It’s critical to get users involved. A lot of times when approaching a migration or a change, users aren’t as in love with ECM, they just need to do their jobs. A migration I have seen involved an insurance claims company and their concerns were apathy, uncertainty, and uneasiness. How we mitigated this was to bring them in and show that you understand how they work, and how they will be using the new system. Don’t just focus on the system level things, make sure you engage and explore the business processes with users. Don’t set unrealistic expectations. Embrace and use an agile methodology of getting feedback from users early and often. Have a leader for the users who can help make the decisions.
Summary
In summary the Masters of Migration gave us some key insights on common concerns of a migration from the users perspective and how to alleviate them.
Key concerns
- Uncertainty and uneasiness
- Resistance to change
- Productivity and revenue impact
How to alleviate the concerns of users during the migration?
- Ask a lot of questions, make sure you are asking the right questions.
- Make sure you optimize the experience, so that ideally it’s better for users than it was before.
- Understand and demonstrate to users that you know and accommodate how they will be working.
- Set expectations, realistic expectations.
- Train and communicate with the users before you switch.
What are your key concerns for your migration? Any bright ideas on how to alleviate them?
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