The advent of computer systems has changed many aspects of how people accomplish daily tasks, both in their personal lives and in the business world. In personal life, people, for example, communicate via e-mail, store address information in electronic address books, perform banking operations, and draft documents. In the business world, people often resort to computer systems for daily operations such as, for example, communicating via e-mail, drafting documents, storing address information, creating drawings, and maintaining business information such as invoices, bills, bank records, etc.
Despite the many advantages of using computer systems, however, disadvantages exist. For example, many people no longer store hard copies (i.e., paper copies) of the information that they have in the computer system. While this alone is not necessarily a problem, problems may arise, for example, if users do not properly back up the data associated with the electronic information, failing to realize or consider that a hardware failure could cause all data to be lost. In some situations where record retention is critical, such failures can be catastrophic.
Furthermore, if electronic information is not stored with sufficient organization, it can be very difficult to locate needed documents. For example, if a user stores all files in one folder without any type of sorting and perhaps without a structured naming standard, the user may have increased difficulties in locating information.
To overcome these disadvantages, among others, enterprise content management (“ECM”) platforms have been developed that help store an unlimited range of content types within a shared repository, often on a corporate network. As an example, one known ECM platform is the “DOCUMENTUM” platform, currently owned by EMC Corporation. ECM platforms allow data to be stored, often on a corporate network accessible by multiple users. Such storage allows a network administrator to back up all corporate data so that the responsibility of maintaining secure and adequate backups is not left in the hands of end users. Among other advantages, ECM platforms allow data to be stored such that users can more easily locate desired files. Furthermore, management features of ECM platforms allow control over files to help ensure that multiple users are not simultaneously changing data stored in files, which could cause data to be lost.
Despite the many advantages associated with ECM platforms, problems exist when transitioning to an ECM platform or from one ECM platform to another. The process of moving files or data from one medium, such as another ECM platform, a database, filesystems, or a proprietary content repository, can be time consuming and cumbersome. Thus, a need exists for an improved content migration method and device.