
LifeArc
Migration from Documentum to SharePoint Online, OneDrive and Teams
Client Profile
LifeArc is a life sciences charity focused on improving human health by adding value to early-stage scientific research. The year-long migration and Office 365 adoption moved away from the Documentum ECM and took advantage of the functionality, mobility and enhanced security offered by M365 services like SharePoint Online, OneDrive and Teams. This enabled LifeArc to protect their intellectual property in their research and collaborate with their scientific and charitable partners.
Moving to Office 365 was a key component of our on-going plan to centralise and improve accessibility and gain more meaningful insights from our business and scientific data. Working closely with Proventeq as our specialist technical partner, we were able to migrate from our legacy content management platform into Office 365 with confidence
- Adam Lythgoe, IT Manager, Business Services, LifeArc
Case Study Overview
Access to documents in the source system was cumbersome due to restrictions and prerequisites around browser plugins and software and employees lacked the motivation to engage with the interface that was available.
A significant restructuring of the file systems and processes was required to align with how records need to be stored and accessed in SharePoint Online.
Adherence to a strict migration timeline was mandatory to prevent additional costs due to renewal costs of Documentum license and support.
Migrating from Documentum was not an easy process due to issues around proprietary formats and labels from the original locations. This included LifeArc’s Intellectual Property Management Systems being tightly integrated with assets stored in Documentum, which required updating for migration. The business process relied on external systems that has a tight integration with documents stored within Documentum.
Adopting And Deploying A Holistic O365 Migration Strategy
As part of a holistic O365 adoption strategy, proper project management plans were created, agreed upon and executed from both sides.
A clear and effective communications and training plan and necessary governance was set up within Office 365 to ensure that it was successfully adopted and implemented across the business.
All enterprise content was migrated from cabinets in the Documentum system to specially provisioned department sites on SharePoint Online. All user content was migrated to OneDrive locations.
Content was made secure by translating security policies (in adherence with strict regulatory requirements for the Finance and HR depts) from Documentum to SharePoint.
A user-friendly interface was provided for all users to work with which included the ability to co-author documents and leverage integrated solutions to auto-tag content, especially for the Legal department.
A dedicated area for the Projects team to work on active and closed projects was created along with custom SPFx components to facilitate better working with projects. Deploying Microsoft Teams for these projects provided users the platform for better project collaboration.
To ensure data integrity, data corruption in the source was resolved using Proventeq Migration Accelerator and third-party systems integrating to Documentum (such as the Intellectual Property management platform) were updated.
The Results

Improved collaboration
Taking advantage of collaborative tools in SharePoint and Teams, as well as the Office 365 suite, Lifearc could create a virtual workplace where teams can meet, collaborate, complete tasks and work on documents centrally.

Significant cost savings
By transitioning to SharePoint Online, LifeArc has been able to make significant (up to 80%) cost savings by reducing licensing, infrastructure, and support costs.

Powerful Data Loss Prevention
Easier but more powerful administration and management coupled with provisions for Data Loss Prevention to protect LifeArc’s academic research.