I received a tender notice this week from one of the County Councils that have been using Livelink WCM for the past few years. They are inviting bids for a replacement WCM and the migration of their content from Livelink WCM to the new system. This is the third big Livelink user we've seen in the last 6 months looking for a new WCM and planning to move off the platform early next year. We've also noticed an increase in traffic to our site with keywords suggesting there is increasing interest in the alternatives to Livelink and the migration tools we have on offer to facilitate a smoother transition. We will be bidding one of our partner's WCM alternatives but will be highlighting our WCM migration tool as part of the bid. It's a shame that we can't offer the tool to the competition as well as we know that we can make the migration easier regardless of the target environment.

If you are interested in the options for replacing your Livelink WCM system or in how the mim:switch WCM migration tool can help you move to a new WCM then please feel free to get in touch.

Read about Obtree migrations or Livelink migrations at http://www.mimtech.com/wcm_obtreemigration.html.

I have just read a blog by Gerry McGovern on the CMS Wire site with the title Web Content Migration: Disastrous Strategy in which he talks of the common migration strategy of migrate everything that you can regardless of quality. I agree absolutely with Gerry's point of view and have been involved in some projects that sound just like his example. 

I have recently been talking to lots of our clients about migration given the current attitude towards Obtree/Livelink and one of my key 'Utopian' ideas is that you define your new content requirements and architecture with no reference to what you have. You decide what you need (ceteris paribus) and work back from there to design your migration logic and processes. In practise this is rarely possible for all sorts of reasons. Many years ago I worked as an Economist and much of the theory in that discipline falls down without the ceteris paribus constraint. Nevertheless, it is a good position to start from for migration projects.

I like Gerry McGovern, I was very impressed with him as a public speaker and he has real insight into the failings of web sites. I would like to cite him here...

'Why do we have such bad content?

1. We allow the organization to publish puff, fluff and vanity, instead of focusing on the needs of our customers/staff.
2. We don’t hire web content professionals. Instead we find the most junior person in the department and give them the job of managing the website.
3. We don’t see the Web as a unique medium-we just take print content and print thinking and shovel it onto the Web.
4. We don’t review and quality control. We have practically no processes to take old content off our website.'

Mim:switch has been endorsed by Open Text as their migration solution of choice for Obtree and Livelink WCM PS customers wishing to move to RedDot.

Read more about mim:switch and Livelink (Obtree) Migrations.

I have just received a PQQ for a public sector consortium. I get a lot of these and I'm sure many many organisations do too. One of the most frustrating things about procurement is that it often costs the bidders a combined amount that exceeds the value of the contract but you just have to live with that. This one, however, asks for six paper copies and a CD version of the PQQ response. I am at a loss trying to understand why a PQQ needs to go to six people at all never mind the CD version. Surely these days public sector procurement departments could look at ways of limiting the impact on the environment of their activities not to mention the cost to small businesses.

While I'm having a mini rant on the subject I did have a wry smile last week when I received another PQQ by email and the text included a request; if I did not intend to proceed with the PQQ could I return the Word document that was attached to the email. Luckily we have gone forward with that one and I don't need to send my hard drive to ensure I am complying with procurement regulations.

Congratulations to our client Historic Scotland on the Official Edinburgh Castle website winning the 2008 ASVA (Association of Scottish Visitor Attractions) Award for best website last night at the Dunblane Hydro.

The Official Edinburgh Castle website is built in Livelink WCM PS and is hosted, developed and managed by Mimtech.