Trick or Treat: Document Management Migrations

While document management can be scary on its own, you also need to be cautious of the tricks associated with document management migrations too. In this blog, we are going to point out the different tricks and treats associated with some migration solutions.

Tricks:

Push-button migration

While this type of overnight migration might sound like a treat, it is in fact a trick. Some migration vendors will position themselves as push-button or overnight solutions and claim that migrations are as easy as hitting the go button. We know for a fact that most migrations are much more complex and require more than a go button.

Too-good-to-be-true timelines

Consultants may try to trick you into thinking that a migration isn’t going to take time or be disruptive. Beware of timelines that seem too good to be true. Migrations are a long process, especially if you want to do it right. Depending on the scope of the migration, and how much content needs to be cleaned up before you hit the “go” button, your timeline might go from a few weeks to a few months.

Writing solutions from scratch

Many organizations may think their IT teams are fully capable of creating in-house solutions to assist with their migration. While we don’t doubt the skillsets of these teams, you must remember that they are already there supporting various different technologies. The last thing you want to do is hand them a huge migration project, and leave their other responsibilities to be ignored. Leave it to the software companies that specialize in developing and supporting migration solutions.

Treats:

Custom Scripting

While most migrations have the same end goal, not all migrations can be done in the same manner. In some cases, you might have to consider custom scripting to migrate your data the way you want it done. In our very own migration solution, Velocity Content Migration, we also have a feature that can help speed up what you’re scripting through scripting templates. This allows you to avoid rewriting code each time you want to do the same thing based on your unique circumstances.

Real-time monitoring

There is nothing sweeter to an IT manager than being able to monitor a large-scale migration than real-time monitoring. Our Velocity Content Migration solution allows users to monitor the progress of their migration in real time. It also notifies users via email when there are errors or when something has created a bottleneck in the system. This is helpful when users want to optimize the migration to be faster and provides additional visibility into the progress of the migration.

Drag-and-drop metadata mapping

Metadata mapping is the heart and soul of a migration. Without metadata and without the ability to map your content from one repository to another, migrations would be nearly impossible. This is why we made metadata mapping easier within our Velocity Content Migration solution. The newest version of our software has a drag and drop UI so you can easily map where you want your content to go during the migration. This UI also allows for multiple sets on one map, so you can get more attributes done at once.

Enduring a document management migration can be a little scary on its own, but we are here to make it easy. Be sure to not fall for tricks like push-button migrations, too-good-to-be-true timelines, and writing solutions from scratch, and really enjoy the sweet treat that is SeeUnity’s Velocity Content Migration, a leading solution in the enterprise content management market. For more information about Velocity, email us at info@seeunity.com.