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Upgrading your Webtop 5.3 Application NOW to simplify your 6.5 upgrade later

You are here: Home / Documentum / D6.5 / Upgrading your Webtop 5.3 Application NOW to simplify your 6.5 upgrade later

July 16, 2009

As evidenced during EMC World and at our clients, the decision to upgrade to Documentum 6.5 has proven itself more difficult than previous upgrade decisions. While the back-end migration can be fairly straightforward, most users are struggling with the cost, effort and risk of upgrading the front-end Webtop application. As one client put it:

“I feel like I am paying 100K in development and testing to give the users essentially the same system”

Other factors that tie into a difficult Webtop decision include:

• Fresh scars from the difficulty and cost of upgrading Webtop applications from 5.1 to 5.2.5 to 5.3
• Customized WDK code for attribute, search and workflow that either:
–   Isn’t supported in the new environment
–   Has to be redeveloped
– Was developed by resources or consultants no longer with the company
• Retraining and new testing/validation expense
• Risk in regards to performance and stability
• Risk in regards to having to having redo again for Webtop 7.x
• Risk in long-term Documentum decision regarding WDK given recent announcements in regards to Flex and DFS.

While IT would like to upgrade to the latest addition in regards to support requirements, more and more users are asking for the existing systems to remain intact and pay additional support to insure stability and a better ROI.

A recent trend this year is to develop enhancements to existing 5.2.5 and 5.3 environments to make them more easily upgradable. Our client experience has included:

• A pharmaceutical that added a third party access application as a Web Services configured solution based on “off the shelf” open source outside of webtop but capable of supporting both 5.3 and 6.5.

• A client replacing standard Webtop Search and Retrieval with open source to make the search interface compatible with Webtop 5.3, Webtop 6.5 as well as a cached business continuity repository.

• A utility client developing a configurable workflow application based on open source initially on 5.2.5 and then migrating to 6.0 and skipping the cost, risk and effort to move to the 5.3 platform.

In all of the above examples, business users received benefits (improved functionality, better interfaces, performance, business continuity) while IT gradually updated the application to be in a better position to move to Webtop 6.x and beyond.

Please see our post on upgrading WDK applications and Webtop customizations for additional information.

Filed Under: D6.5, Documentum, ECM Landscape, OpenContent Forms, OpenContent Management Suite, Product Suite, Tech Tip, Upgrades

Reader Interactions

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  1. Documentum – What’s Next Updated for 2010 « TSG Blog says:
    February 23, 2010 at 3:27 pm

    […] Look throughout blog.tsgrp.com for many posts including upgrade alternatives, extends versus modifies in 6.5, understanding the impact of WDK development, migration, clone or in-place upgrade, high volume server, common upgrade questions, and upgrading your application now to make upgrading Documentum easier later […]

    Reply
  2. Day 2 – EMC World 2010 « TSG Blog says:
    June 11, 2010 at 2:51 pm

    […] future releases, whether that turns out to be CenterStage, xCP or other applications.  One helpful post relates to our current clients still on 5.3 and trying to upgrade to […]

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  3. Documentum Webtop Customizations – What should you do next? « TSG Blog says:
    January 6, 2011 at 2:53 pm

    […] published a post back in July in regards how some clients are reducing bad customizations to make their Documentum […]

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  4. Documentum Alternatives and Disruptors – Alfresco or SharePoint? « TSG Blog says:
    August 12, 2011 at 10:03 am

    […] that will make either an upgrade or a migration easier including an SOA approach.  See related post for additional detail.  In this manner, the business users are getting something while IT is […]

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  5. Migrating from Documentum to Alfresco – Cost Differences « TSG Blog says:
    November 1, 2012 at 3:34 pm

    […] to upgrade a system that’s currently working.  We have written multiple articles about how upgrade your 5.3 Webtop to ease the migration effort but many 5.3 clients are rightly employing an “if it ain’t broke – don’t fix it” […]

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  6. Documentum Upgrade to 6.7 – a simple approach « TSG Blog says:
    November 29, 2012 at 12:53 pm

    […] something clients have been experiencing with Documentum upgrades.  As we highlighted in a previous post, a Documentum backend upgrade is not that difficult.  It is the front-end – whether Webtop or […]

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  7. Documentum, SharePoint, Alfresco – Document Control for Life Sciences | TSG Blog says:
    April 22, 2013 at 8:54 am

    […] small first step that is typically well received by frustrated Webtop users.  With the approach, the system developed for consumer access can be populated by the legacy […]

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