Document migration is not simply a matter of moving information from one system to another. Migration must also ensure that documents, metadata, and relationships retain their integrity throughout the entire process. 

If a migration is not planned and executed systematically, it may result in a loss of documents, loss of metadata, or loss of document integrity, and therefore evidential value. In regulated environments, this may have compliance implications. In other organisations, it may result in the loss of business-critical information or reduced confidence in the reliability of the migrated data. 

For these reasons, Strator follows a documented migration methodology designed to ensure quality and control throughout the migration process, thereby preserving the integrity and value of your organisation's information.

Our methodology is based on the principles of ISO 13028 and has been further developed through experience gained from a large number of migration projects. In addition, it has been extended to support GxP-regulated environments, where specific requirements apply to documentation, traceability, and documented control. 

For organisations operating under GxP regulations, the migration methodology can be applied in two ways — under our QMS or under yours. 

The migration can be performed under Strator's Quality Management System. In this case, the methodology's process model, templates and documentation are used as the governing framework for the project, adapted to the risk profile of the specific migration. Strator is responsible for the complete migration documentation and reporting. 

Alternatively, the migration may be carried out under the customer's instructions and Quality Management System. In this case, the relevant elements of the methodology, templates and best practices are used to support the customer's existing procedures and documentation requirements, thereby enabling the project to benefit from both proven artefacts and experience gained through previous migration projects – all within the framework of the customer's own QMS. 

Many organisations do not require the level of documentation typically associated with GxP-regulated environments.

In these cases, Strator applies the same process and the same fundamental principles of quality and control from the methodology, while adapting the scope of documentation, testing and controls to the specific risks and business requirements of the project. 

This allows the organisation to benefit from working methods and quality principles developed for regulated environments without having to perform activities or produce documentation that do not add value in the specific context. 

The result is a migration process focused on what matters most: ensuring that documents and associated metadata are transferred correctly, and that the quality of the outcome can be demonstrated to a degree that matches the organisation's requirements and risk profile. 

Being an early adaptor of SMART Migration by Migrate DMS since version 1.0 in 2020 means Strator has a serious head start compared to others in the industry. By actively contributing to the evolution of the platform over the years, we have gained years of hands-on experience and insights with an engine specifically built for things other tools struggle with. That is to say, we truly know the platform inside and out.

 

Using this expertise, we assist our clients in different ways. We move vast amounts of data both into and out of SharePoint, and are able to offload and archive very specific data sets inside SharePoint tenants well past 100TB. Because the tool is designed to process data in transit, not just copy it, we can transform formats, remap version history, and route content to calculated destinations while keeping every piece of metadata intact. This way we ensure that our clients can rely on their new digital work environment to be precise, compliant and fully traceable, even at a scale where ordinary tooling would break down.

 

Below we would like to share with you some cases to demonstrate the kind of work we do.

1. 4TB from a legacy ECM into SharePoint, with version history intact

A client needed to migrate 4TB of documents out of an aging ECM platform and into SharePoint sites. The hard part: the source had versioned its documents in a non-SharePoint-standard model, so a straight copy would have lost the version lineage entirely. This would completely destroy any traceability for the client’s documents.

Using SMART Migration's in-transit transformation together with its version-history transfer, we converted the documents to PDF to ensure long term support and safe archiving. We also remapped the source's non-standard version model into native SharePoint versions on the way in. This way, the full archive landed in SharePoint as PDF with complete version history and metadata preserved, while nothing was left behind in the retired ECM.

 

2. Surgical offload across a 100TB SharePoint tenant, cutting storage cost

A client needed to bring down the cost of a SharePoint tenant exceeding 100TB without losing access to any data. The challenge was pinpointing exactly which files should leave SharePoint at that scale. Working with the client, our experts established a clear set of use cases defining precisely which files should be archived or offloaded.

 

Using SMART Migration's offload capability, we moved those files to a long-term archive on a 3rd-party platform like Amazon S3, Azure Blob Storage, Nextcloud, and local file share while keeping every file fully restorable on demand. The storage consumed inside SharePoint dropped sharply, reducing the client's SharePoint storage cost drastically, with no data loss and no change to how users access their content. This saved our client both money and hastle.

 

 

3. Deep fileshare into calculated locations with folder-specific logic

A client's deeply nested legacy fileshare had to be moved into SharePoint while the client was still actively using the system. Because the destination for each item depended on its folder context rather than a simple one-to-one path mapping, this would be an impossible task for most people. We were also asked to clean up the digital workspace and reorganize the filing system during the transfer, so a simple lift-and-shift was out of the question.

 

Our solution was to use SMART Migration’s expression-based routing to compute each file’s destination from folder specific rules, landing content in a clean, logically organized structure instead of a flat copy of the old tree. We did this by first defining how we wanted the end product to look, creating a logic within the migration which allowed files to be automatically sorted in the new SharePoint. This is how we managed to pull off this complicated migration according to the exact wishes of our clients, while cleaning up the new workspace and keeping traceability to old file locations intact.

 

To put it simply, we have extensive experience with SMART Migration. Transformation with retention of traceability and metadata, archiving, reducing costs and storage, and even doing thorough clean-ups and reorganization - these are a few of the ways in which we can help our clients.

 

If you believe your systems are due a clean-up, or need to decrease your data costs, feel free to reach out to us. We would love to hop on a call, and explore how we can help you improve your digital workspace through SMART Migration.