OnBase Migration Checklist

Why OnBase Migrations Are Happening Now

Hyland OnBase has served enterprises well for decades, but organizations are increasingly migrating content away. Key drivers:

• End-of-Life Pressure

  OnBase versions reach EOL without patches, creating security risks.
• Licensing Costs

  Per-user pricing scales poorly for large deployments.
• Modernization

  Shift to cloud-native ECM like SharePoint Online or OpenText.

Whether targeting OnBase to SharePoint migration or full decommission, preparation is key.

Pre-Migration Assessment

Before touching data, understand your OnBase estate:

• Document inventory: Count types, volumes, storage locations
• Metadata audit: Field names, types, required/optional flags
• User interviews: Critical workflows, search patterns, retention needs

Field Mapping Strategy

OnBase metadata rarely matches targets 1:1. AetherFlow's MetaMap™ visual mapper handles transforms:

• Concatenation/splitting of fields
• Date reformatting
• Lookup tables for category normalization
• Conditional logic

See AetherFlow vs. alternatives.

15 Steps to Successful OnBase Migration

1. 1

   Assemble Migration Team

   IT, business users, compliance. Define RACI. Detailed execution ensures OnBase content migration success.

2. 2

   Inventory OnBase Content

   Use OnBase reports: doc types, counts, sizes, ages. Detailed execution ensures OnBase content migration success.

3. 3

   Select Target System

   SharePoint, OpenText, custom? Align with business needs. Detailed execution ensures OnBase content migration success.

4. 4

   Document Schemas

   Export OnBase keywords, doc types, fields. Detailed execution ensures OnBase content migration success.

5. 5

   User Requirements

   Interviews: search fields, workflows, permissions. Detailed execution ensures OnBase content migration success.

6. 6

   Risk & Compliance Audit

   Retention, PII, audit trails. Detailed execution ensures OnBase content migration success.

7. 7

   Create Field Mappings

   Visual mapper like MetaMap™ for transforms. Detailed execution ensures OnBase content migration success.

8. 8

   Pilot Migration (1K docs)

   Test mappings, validation. Detailed execution ensures OnBase content migration success.

9. 9

   Validate Pilot

   Counts, samples, checksums. Detailed execution ensures OnBase content migration success.

10. 10

    Performance Testing

    Scale pilot to 10% volume. Detailed execution ensures OnBase content migration success.

11. 11

    Full Migration Execution

    Phased or big-bang, monitor. Detailed execution ensures OnBase content migration success.

12. 12

    Post-Migration Validation

    100% reconciliation. Detailed execution ensures OnBase content migration success.

13. 13

    User Acceptance Testing

    Train, validate workflows. Detailed execution ensures OnBase content migration success.

14. 14

    Cutover & Go-Live

    DNS switch, final sync. Detailed execution ensures OnBase content migration success.

15. 15

    OnBase Decommission

    Archive, purge, celebrate. Detailed execution ensures OnBase content migration success.

Common Pitfalls & How to Avoid Them