Upgrading to ACM v7
Let's be real about upgrades: nobody typically looks forward to upgrading from one version of their Web CMS to the next. And moving from one vendor to another involves even more headaches.
Knowing that this is a major issue for many organizations that wish to move their web strategy forward, Alterian has put a lot of effort into making the process as painless as possible.
We distinguish between three types of upgrades for Alterian Content Manager (ACM):
Upgrade ACM Professional or Enterprise edition to v7
Any client running on an older version of ACM Professional or Enterprise can upgrade very easily. The upgrade is a straightforward and relatively trivial task that involves running upgrade scripts that deal with database changes, workflow updates etc. Due to the standard development API's that are being used by Alterian Content Manager, bespoke development work and add-ons should work as normal, also after the upgrade. No license cost is involved in upgrading to ACM v7 if an active Support & Maintenance agreement is in place.
Upgrade ACM Corporate edition (CMC) to v7
Upgrading from the Corporate edition (CMC) which has been retired from active sales in 2010 involves more effort as it actually means you're moving from one CMS technology to another. To ease the process Alterian has built an Upgrade Wizard that allows you to move all content, users, metadata and other information from your CMC environment directly into ACM v7. Many of the CMC plug-ins have their corresponding equivalents in ACM v7. Templates will need manual updating to reflect the different technology under the hood. Therefore a site redesign for instance would be a good moment to plan such an upgrade. All CMC customers will continue to receive support on CMC till April 2015 so that they can decide to upgrade one or more sites when convenient, and based on an active Support & Maintenance agreement there is no license cost involved in such an upgrade.
Upgrade from any other CMS to Alterian Content Manager v7
Alterian have carried out many upgrades from other vendors' Web CMS-es to Alterian Content Manager. Based on our extensive experience we have developed a set of best practices that involve an assessment of the most important assets in the client's current site(s) in terms of content, users, templates, workflow, site functionality, bespoke work and integrations. Based on this assessment and the client's web strategy a detailed plan can be drawn up that outlines how the switch is best carried out. The approach chosen depends on many factors, and can range from running old and new sites in parallel for a specific period of time to a big bang approach where one or more sites are switched over on a certain time and date.
For more information on any of these types of upgrades, please contact your Alterian representative or the sales department in one of our offices .