Migrating content to a single, updated repository allows organizations to replace legacy systems, simplify operations and reduce costs in maintenance and support. With ongoing IBM Image Services maintenance and support at 4x the cost of an updated IBM content repository, the price of staying on an outdated platform is substantially increasing year-over-year.
After all content is moved to a new repository, companies can best leverage the new functionality of an up-to-date platform. In the case of IBM FileNet P8 there are numerous improvements over Image Services, including access to case management, content analytics, enhanced collaboration, records management, improved system performance and increased security.
Steps to a Faster IBM Content Migration:
1) Document Identification
During the first phase of the project, analyze your current enterprise content management environments and hold a series of facilitated discussions with end users and stakeholders to gather the information necessary to perform the migration. When identifying documents, it’s important to evaluate the following topics: document class mappings, document property mappings, document security, annotations and annotation security, document formats and systems to be migrated.
2) Document & Metadata Access
Conventionally, migrating content from a legacy content repository, such as FileNet Image Services, requires utilization of legacy APIs to access existing documents and metadata for extraction. Alternatively, Perficient’s unique approach for content migration permits metadata extraction of each document while compiling the master input list for the migration. Performing this extraction in parallel with document identification reduces the overall runtime of the migration.
3) Pre-Processing
Leverage the master document list along with extracted metadata from the prior migration activities to pre-process data by converting documents or metadata to a supported format, if required. Segment the master list into logical partitions for individual migration. Ideally this step would run offline without direct system access, to limit the impact to the legacy content management system.
4) Content Extraction & Ingestion
Once pre-processing is complete, migrate each partition. To dramatically increase the speed of migration, while limiting the impact to the production environment, read content directly from the underlying file system or storage device, while retrieving all corresponding annotations and metadata. Commit this content to the IBM FileNet P8 content repository leveraging FileNet Content Engine APIs.
5) Reconciliation
Legacy applications may still be in use during the migration process, so there may be new content added to the legacy repository or modified metadata for existing content after the extraction was performed. Multiple reconciliation runs are required to identify the deltas between content repositories and merge the new content, metadata and annotations into the new content management system.
Need assistance with your content migration?
Perficient offers Content Migration solutions to help your organization navigate the migration of content from legacy FileNet Image Services repositories to an IBM FileNet P8 content repository.
Perficient’s established and tested tool-based approach eliminates the compliance and data integrity risks associated with custom migration efforts. Read more about our solutions at http://www.perficient.com/Products/Solution-Accelerators/IBM/Content-Migration-Tools.
