NON-MICROSOFT TO SHAREPOINT MIGRATIONUnderstanding the key differences between legacy ECM systems and SharePoint

Move On Up

Rakesh Chenchery

From its initial creation in 2001, SharePoint has come a long way. From its early days as a simple document management tool, helping manage content on-premise for many businesses who wished to find a simple solution to managing user-generated content, data and records stored on local servers, to the cloud-based, on-premises or even hybrid environment content services platform it has become today.

As the platform has grown in both scope and capability alongside Microsoft’s Office 365 suite of productivity tools, SharePoint has emerged as a serious contender in the Content Services space; even being named as a leader in the 2018 Gartner Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms. SharePoint’s rise has certainly made waves within the Information Management community; where its ease of adoption, extensibility, scalability and cost savings have caused organisations across the globe to adopt the platform as their central document management and collaboration application. Looking ahead, the future of SharePoint is undoubtedly bright, with incredible new innovations on their way for the next generation of use.

However, a move to SharePoint from an existing, and often deeply embedded, ECM system can present a series of complexities which can catch out the unaware, possibly leading to difficulties during the migration process. However, by raising awareness and arming yourself with the knowledge that these challenges exist, it is simple to shift the perception from a challenge to an opportunity to optimise content management while reducing the detrimental effects a migration to SharePoint may present.

With this in mind, I have put together this ebook to give you an understanding of the differences between the processes of many ECM systems and SharePoint in the hope that this knowledge will ensure a smooth transition to SharePoint for your organisation.

INTRODUCTION: THE RISE OF SHAREPOINT

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CONTENT STRUCTURE

HIERARCHY AND CONTENT FILING

Most ECM systems organise content in a large repository or content library, with multiple repositories generally used to scale up as and when needed. These repositories usually contain a hierarchy of folders or file plan which is used to manage different types of content.

SharePoint logically and physically separates content into repositories called Site Collections which can have several Sub-Sites underneath them; each of which could contain several libraries with folder heirarchy containing the actual content.

In most cases the top-level folders within repositories are migrated into SharePoint as a Site Collection, while the folder hierarchy and its files can be recreated into a single library or restructured into multiple libraries in 1 or more sites.

It is possible to add content to most Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems by assigning a specific location, i.e. filing a content item (like placing a book on a marked shelf in a library) or left in the ECM without any location, i.e. unfiled content. Unfiled content is categorised using metadata/taxonomy and can be retrieved using Search.

SharePoint supports storing files hierarchically in folders within a library. To avoid any ambiguity of a file’s actual location, SharePoint allows files to be referenced from other folders as links. In addition to documents, other type of content like tasks, events, non-document-based information, etc are stored in Lists.

Content stored within most ECM is referenced using a Document ID that has no correlation to the hierarchy that the content itself lives in. SharePoint content can be accessed using a URL based on the storage hierarchy or ID-based links generated using features such as document sharing, Document ID Service or Durable Links that use a unique identifier to access the document.

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CONTENT PROPERTIESThe primary content type stored in most ECM is a document, which is an individual item in the repository composed of content files (in native format) and document attributes (metadata). These documents can be a document with one or more primary content file, or a Virtual document/multi content document which is a container for simple documents, or other virtual documents, structured with multiple levels of ordered hierarchy supporting multiple file formats. There could also be metadata-only documents with no content files.

SharePoint supports several types of content necessary to interact in a collaborative environment. It has documents (with content file), list items (without any content file), announcements and more based on the type of site. Unlike most ECM, a SharePoint document can only have a single primary content file.

Versioning is an automated process that creates a historical record of a document in a version tree which refers to an original document and all its subsequent versions.

SharePoint, like most ECM, supports both major and minor versioning. While SharePoint uses a numeric version label with a single level of precision (e.g. 1.15), some ECM supports system-generated numeric versions up to 3 levels of precision (e.g. 1.15.0.2), alphanumeric version labels like 1B, or user-defined symbolic version labels (e.g. APPROVED). Some systems also support complex branching of versions which can cause some confusion while trying to understand the documents chronology.

VERSIONING

Many ECM manage content classification or categorisation by hierarchical classification and taxonomy. This allows each classification to have a predefined set of properties, which can include both system properties and custom organisation or department-specific properties. The inheritance of classification with its properties allows for better reuse and management of

classification and metadata.

SharePoint’s versatile system of classification uses hierarchical ‘Content Types’ to classify the content and custom columns/metadata to manage and store custom properties. It also supports organization-wide hierarchical taxonomy

and free-form tagging of content using Enterprise keywords.

CLASSIFICATION & METADATA

In addition to storing the actual content, most ECM can store variations of an existing content item. Renditions are representations of a document that differs from the original document only in its format or some aspect of the format. Some systems also support language translations and annotations attached by a user to a document. Related documents or compound documents can also create relationships between several documents.

SharePoint supports multilingual content for websites. Other relationships can be managed within SharePoint using either a Document Set, some customisation or third-party products.

CONTENT RENDITIONS & RELATIONSHIP

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Security is like Leopards’ spots, unique to animal, with colour and spots being the only common link. Most ECM have some form of Read, Write and Manage permissions, but the variations in access levels can range from a handful is some systems to very elaborate security.

Some ECM use security inheritance and overrides, while other ECM use a security model based on Access Control Lists (ACLs) to protect objects; where every content object has an associated ACL which allows file owners, other users or groups to perform certain operations on that object. This includes setting Deny rights for users or groups.

SharePoint supports securing individual content but considers the performance and management impact of item-level permissions and gives users the ability to structure content into various Sites and control security at a library, Site or Site Collection level. The Permission levels available in SharePoint presents the user with a versatile way to configure a complex set of permissions on items if needed, but certain permissions might not have a direct translation into SharePoint. When it comes to securing a document, SharePoint secures the entire document (including all its versions) at the same level of security, but some ECM offer the option to secure individual version at a different level of security.

RECORDS MANAGEMENT

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SECURITY

The majority of ECM provide Records Management to reduce the risk of unmanaged content. Most do this by offering access control, disposition and retention provisions to prevent potential liability and loss. In some cases, approval processes and legal holds are used to stop content being

inadvertently destroyed or accessed without authorisation.

SharePoint’s Records Management features include; Record Center which allows routing table configuration to direct incoming files to specific locations, Time-Based In-Place Hold policies to preserve content in SharePoint sites for a fixed period, Compliance Policy Center to create and assign policies to protect information, and the Data-Loss Prevention Policy Center which gives regulatory and legal departments the ability to protect

sensitive content.

CONTENT FEDERATION

Integrations to third-party systems like ERP systems and HR platforms are very common across Enterprise information management. Years’ of investment into building a fully-functioning integration can be one of the major hinderances to any organisation’s desire to move to a new platform, as rebuilding such integration after a move is perceived as expensive, difficult and risky.

THIRD-PARTY INTEGRATION

Documents can co-exist with one another within the same system or across different systems. Saving a link or a shortcut to a document is the quickest way to bookmark any document. Such links can exist inside a document or in external systems, for example Oracle ERP or SAP. When a document is moved to the new platform, all links to this document from within other documents, as well as external systems, need to be updated using some form of automation. If a compliance policy prevents updates to documents, alternative solutions like a redirection service will be required to keep the

links active.

In some cases, a level of compromise might be needed, as SharePoint links will get you to a document, but some ECM support links to specific version

of the document.

LINKING

PRODUCTIVITY FEATURESThe majority of ECM provide some form of Personal Workspaces where users can store folders and documents that are created by and most commonly accessed by the user. SharePoint provides OneDrive for every user which provides similar features for storing, managing and sharing personal content.

Many ECM also allows the users to save their most used search criteria as a view on the repository, like a as Saved Search. SharePoint has rich Search features augmented by Microsoft graph, but saving a custom search requires some customisation.

In addition to document management, SharePoint provides a wide range of services in Office 365 to complement the document management and collaboration provided by SharePoint.

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ABOUT THE AUTHORRakesh Chenchery is the Chief Technical Officer at Proventeq, a leading supplier of Non-Microsoft to SharePoint content migration and content productivity solutions.

With over two decades of experience working with a wide array of content management systems, including Microsoft, OpenText, IBM, iManage and Documentum; Rakesh is perfectly placed to help understand and overcome the complexities of migration to SharePoint from Non-Microsoft platforms.

For a chance to hear Rakesh speak in greater detail on this topic, join us at SharePoint Conference 2019 in Las Vegas, Nevada from 21-23 May.

CONCLUSIONThe differences between ECM systems and SharePoint can sometimes be perceived as complex challenges to a migration project. By understanding the differences, complexities can be turned into tangible commercial opportunities to take total control of your content management processes.

Thanks to SharePoint’s combination of content management flexibility and simple to implement governance, security and adoption models; a migration to SharePoint offers a means to modernise the information management stack and improve user productivity.

It’s only natural that there will always be niche situations where a particular ECM platform purpose built for a use case outshines SharePoint straight out-the-box. However, as users demand more connectivity, easier collaboration and the delivery of the content they need wherever they need it in an instant, the days of legacy stand-alone ECM platforms with their troublesome integration pathways and disconnected nature are numbered

At Proventeq, our work in the content migration space has shown us a sea-change towards SharePoint adoption as a means to take control of an organisation’s information management efforts. We have worked closely with many of our clients to overcome the migration complexities, optimise how they manage content and make their SharePoint instances fit their needs, rather than the other way round.

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