On Fri, Apr 28, 2017 at 8:56 AM, Josh Welker <[log in to unmask]> wrote:

> .... We are
> looking at Alma and WMS specifically because they are entirely cloud-based
> and redesigned from the ground up for modern workflows involving
> e-resources, knowledgebases, discovery, etc....


Alma and WMS are very different products that will be best for different
libraries, so I'd be careful about limiting to those two.

When you get right down to it, all cloud based really means is "stuff that
someone else maintains" and there are enough options that can be done with
almost any system these days. As far as migrating data goes, it's always
about what you have, how you're using it, and how the target system is set
up. It just so happens I've helped move data into both Alma and WMS but the
issues are the same regardless of what you're moving to/from -- namely
extracting the data as completely as possible and getting both the content
and structure into a form that meets your needs in the new system.

Since the whole point of migrating is to get to a system that works
differently, this means configuration is different. The types of records
and fields are different. Even when records and fields appear similar, they
use data differently. As such, understanding what people are doing now and
what they need to happen is way harder than the parsing and manipulation
necessary to transfer data to the new system.

kyle