What to ask about digital collections migration support

You might be moving from a digital asset management solution that no longer serves your collections and patrons in the best way. Or perhaps you’re facing an enforced migration or end of hosting support for your current solution.

Whatever your drivers for change, the migration of your digital collections requires planning, resources, strategic buy-in and, not least, the support services of your chosen vendor.

Given how important these migration support services can be, it’s crucial to ask some fundamental questions before making your vendor selection.

Prior experience: migrating collections from different platforms

One of the first questions we're often asked is which platforms we have experience migrating from? Our users range from small independent repositories to large academic institutions, and this spectrum has introduced us to a wide range of platforms.

Each of these systems has its own facets and presents a different migration workflow for managing asset and metadata ingest. The breadth and depth of migrations that your prospective vendor has under their belt is a true testament to the flexibility of their platform and how well their customer experience team can support you.

Migration timeline: plan ahead to meet your deadlines

How able is your prospective vendor to work alongside your team to achieve your goals within your timeframe?

Your digital footprint will have one of the biggest impacts on your timeline, whether you're migrating a few collections or many, or whether you have 50GB of data or 5TB. If your data footprint is significant, make sure your chosen system can handle background processing so that you can perform large ingests while working on other tasks.

If you're carrying over legacy metadata, are you open to migrating all your metadata first and then using bulk processing to perform data clean-up? Ask how your vendor can support you through these processes.

And consider the complexity of your published site. If you're looking to build out multiple collection-level landing pages or data visualisations, such as digital exhibits, do they all need to be in place at launch or can they be introduced at a later date?

We also recommend factoring in additional time for the licensing process to be completed, as it’s one of the areas with the greatest potential to slow down your migration journey.

Training and onboarding: built around your needs

Even if your team intends to be self-sufficient and receive minimal vendor support, it’s still vital to know how crucial milestones will be managed.

Meet your vendor’s support team and ask for an onboarding plan. Clearly setting out roles, goals and expectations, and what will constitute success, paves the way for a positive and productive working relationship.

You also need to know how to manage your digital archive post-launch; your training plan should be tailored and delivered according to your needs.

Will you have access to a knowledge base where you can easily find answers to both general and specialist questions? And can you network with like-minded users with shared experience of migrating to the same system? During times of learning and growth, a collaborative support network is invaluable.

Post-launch: developing and enhancing your digital collections site

The launch of your front end site doesn’t mean your migration journey is over. Perhaps you launched with a limited number of your core collections, and further collections still need to be ingested. Your launch is just the beginning and you’re just as likely to need the continued support of your vendor.

Discover how you'll hear about future developments to your DAMS or gain advice on how you can best implement them. And how you'll know you’re getting the most value from the tools available to you, enabling you to present your special collections in the best possible way for discovery and engagement.

Your migration journey, your way

The right vendor will be able to reassure you on all these points and more, and help you to plan and implement your migration in the right way for your particular needs.

There are of course many more considerations to bear in mind but armed with these key questions you are well on your way to thoroughly evaluating the migration support available to you.