Migrating to a New ILS/LMS Doesn’t Have to Hurt

Phil Wensley

Phil Wensley

October 16, 2018

No matter how much you loved your library system when you first got it, given that the role of librarians keeps widening in scope (as more and more people realise the value of their librarians), and given the speed of technology developments, there comes a point when changing your ILS/LMS can be worth the effort.

Moving to a brand new library system for your library can be exciting—you get access to updated functions that keep your library cutting edge, alongside new interfaces and design that you can use to support your library going forward. However, the cost and time involved in re-platforming can really impact the value of the new system.

When our clients start to think about upgrading their LMS, we work alongside them to assess whether their current LMS supports everything they need to deliver through their library. If a change is needed, our new platforms make it much easier and faster to upgrade than other re-platforming projects, and our clients love the end results.

Reasons to upgrade

Migration projects come about for different reasons. We’ve worked with our clients on migration projects when more flexibility has been needed—e.g., when libraries have grown or absorbed other departments and want to use their LMS to capture new records.

Sometimes software can just look and feel dated in comparison to search engines and other customised searches that users have come to expect on the internet these days.

A balancing act has to happen between the value of migrating and the effort involved in the upgrade. Sometimes the best move might be to tweak your current LMS and bring it up to scratch with a few small changes.

When it becomes evident that a new platform is the only thing that’s going to support your library in the future, we’re here to make sure that your re-platforming project quickly and effectively meets new business needs, minimising the effort involved by your library team and ensuring you get the most value from your new tools.

Planning your upgrade

Whether it’s supporting clean up, adding new collections or just making use of updated tools, here at Lucidea we really enjoy working with our clients to make sure their migration projects meet business objectives and get their libraries set for the future.

Our SydneyEnterprise and GeniePlus applications have capabilities and features that ensure we can coherently and rapidly launch your new LMS so you can hit the ground running on Day One.

Future-proofing as part of a migration project is one of the best ways to get value from the effort that goes into re-platforming. Upgrading to a platform where you’ve got the flexibility to craft your LMS yourself as future changes crop up ensures that the effort you put into the migration project pays off going forward.

Our projects

Here at Lucidea, we have the software and experienced project managers to make sure that our client’s projects run smoothly and efficiently, and that after ‘go live’ your LMS is future-proofed for both day-to-day running and downstream demands of your library.

As part of every re-platforming project, we work in a trial system, so clients can make sure they’re fully comfortable and trained up in their new LMS before ‘go live’. We ensure that all data is effectively and efficiently migrated, and we use our Design Suite tools to configure the LMS.

Our Design Suite tools aren’t just used during migration—all our clients have access to Design Suite tools in their LMS. The flexibility and configurability of our LMS is one of the things we consistently get the most positive feedback for—we ensure our clients have tools at their fingertips to easily configure their LMS to accommodate the changing demands of dynamic libraries.

Thinking of re-platforming?

Whether you’re thinking about re-platforming, or just wondering how to tackle a recent LMS challenge that’s come your way, please do get in touch to chat if you need us. Whether it’s small tweaks or re-platforming, we’re here to help you achieve the most from your LMS, and are always interested in the next library challenge!

Phil Wensley

Phil Wensley

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