I have been away for a few days but the Salford City Council migration project has charged relentlessly towards a successful conclusion. The five smaller sites have all gone live and the main site is with the Council for UAT. There is still a bit of work to do at their end getting all of their forms, workflow processes etc in place but it looks like we have had a very successful project migrating the content of 6 sites from Obtree (Livelink WCM PS) to RedDot.

We are putting together all of the metrics from the project (number of pages, time to migrate, tolerance levels etc) into a case study which will be available once the project is signed off. In the meantime if anyone is interested in finding out more about our Obtree migration tool or would like to see a demo migration from Obtree to RedDot, EPiServer or Immediacy, please get in touch.

I don't think there has been a UK holiday I've taken since 1976 where the sun has shone so much. Just back from a week in Center Parcs in Cumbria (except for Tuesday when I got  train to London for a presentation) and the weather was great. We had a really relaxed time (except for Tuesday when I got  train to London for a presentation) and my kids did so many activities they can't remember any of them. I now understand what my dad means every time he says 'that holiday was wasted on you'. In the nicest possible way.

Anyway back to work today and a boiling hot office. This week sees an EPiServer demo for Bargain Booze, the kick off of a migration project (Livelink WCM to RedDot) for Salford City Council, a migration demo for HS, more work on the Livelink to Immediacy migration project for VisitScotland and a meeting with a design agency with a view to forming a new partnership. Holiday? What holiday?

I've just heard today that Visitscotland.org, a long time Obtree/Livelink WCM user, have decided to move off the platform. VS are moving to Immediacy and have engaged one of the Scottish Executive roster agencies to carry out the work. 

We have been asked about using our mim:switch tool to migrate the content from Livelink WCM to Immediacy and fingures crossed we get the chance to do that. Either way we do wish VS every success in their new implementation and hope to have the opportunity to continue to provide support.

If anyone is interested in a demo of our Livelink WCM to Immediacy migration tool please just get in touch and I'm happy to set up a WebEx. If you're quick you might even squeeze into the March draw for the free site audit (there's another in May if you miss the cut) and all entrants receive a 25% discount voucher redeemable against any Livelink WCM PS (Obtree) website migration service from Mimtech.

More details available on our website.

1. Existing users of Livelink WCM Presentation Server (Obtree) may be entitled to upgrade to RedDot for no additional licensing cost where a functional 'like-for-like' migration is required.

2. Mimtech have developed MIM:SWITCH, our migration toolset that can automate your content move to another solution by connecting directly into the repository via Obtree/Livelink’s API.

3. MIM:SWITCH has been endorsed by Open Text and is their migration solution of choice for users migrating to RedDot.

4. Mimtech is vendor agnostic and can supply web content management software from all the leading vendors including; EPiSERVER, Sitecore, Immediacy and RedDot.

5. Mimtech can supply web content management software on a Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) rental business model.

We've always played on the fact the we are vendor agnostic and independent from the WCM companies we partner with. Sometimes it's not an easy space to occupy with some vendors being less than comfortable with the arrangement due to numerous perceived 'conflicts of interest' - mostly brought about by their paranoia and blind faith in their 'best of breed' product.

For us, becoming agnostic simply made good sound commercial sense. Afterall, when we started trading almost three years ago we were a 100% Obtree C4 house and what with its end of life in sight (there, someone finally said what everyone knows!) if we hadn't adapted, our own end of life would be fast approaching too.

Now we're actively supporting clients with WCM solutions and developments in Immediacy, Sitecore, EpiServer, Pepperio as well as RedDot and good old soon to be departed (oops, said it again) Livelink WCMPS/Obtree C4. 

Simon has blogged many times about our WCM to WCM Migration offering, MIM:Switch. It's very exciting for us that the MIM:Switch toolset is now being used in anger for the first time at a major UK organisation to assist in their move away from Livelink WCMPS/Obtree C4. Which solution are they moving to? They/we don't know yet but that's not important... we're vendor agnostic! 

I was at the Immediacy Partner Day on Wednesday in London and met the new owners (Alterian) for the first time. The mood amongst the Immediacy, sorry Alterian as they now are, staff was very buoyant. Alterian has come in and appears to have taken the time to understand the businesses - Immediacy and Mediasurface - and rationalised the operations to act as one company. The upshot of this is one support team, one product management team, one sales team etc. which broadens the offering the partners can provide.

It was a very interesting day not least as the team demo'ed the new version 6.1 and then presented their vision for the integration of the Alterian Digital marketing software into the WCM offerings.  If Alterian achieves what they are planning we will see some very innovative and exciting functionality in the WCM platforms some time next year.

Today Mediasurface announced that their board has agreed to sell the entire stock to Alterian plc. A notification on the Mediasurface web site reads...

'Recommended Offer by Alterian plc for Mediasurface plc

The boards of Alterian and Mediasurface are today pleased to announce that they have reached agreement on the terms of a recommended offer by Alterian to acquire the entire issued and to be issued share capital of Mediasurface.'

The notification goes on to assure Mediasurface customers (which includes users of Morello, Immediacy and Pepperio) that their service will be unchanged.

Mimtech look forward to working with the new enterprise. 

Apparently it is fashionable for commentators to make predictions for the next year. So I thought I might try and predict what is in store for Mimtech.

1. In January we have new staff joining us (not a prediction, I have already hired them) so I expect there to be more going on in the office and having to make tea less often
2. We have some training lined up in different WCM platforms for most of the techie guys so I predict a lot more geek speak and jargon being bandied around
3. We will launch a new offering in January but I won't spoil the surprise just yet, we will be getting a lot of attention and new and exciting business in the New Year
4. I will be more tired (my wife is having our second child next week)
5. Obtree users will start to consider their investment a bit more carefully
6. Mimtech will land our first big implementation in New Zealand early next year, this is already at a fairly advanced stage in the sales process
7. Lots of new processes, as we grow this is inevitable if a bit dull
8. Less chatter about Web 2.0 and more real value add development work being done in general
9. More community activity in the WCM space we operate in
10. Software as a service replacing Web  2.0 as the buzz phrase of the moment
11. Uses have more control over the presentation layer
    
12. Celtic and Rangers striking a deal to become one club - Glasgow United. Or maybe an end to world poverty and conflict. Or Microsoft bringing out some bug free software. Or Apple releasing a product that doesn't start with i. Obese being the new size zero. I appear to have run out of sensible ideas.
    

I'm over the ditch in Sydney for a few days and just about to have a working breakfast with Chris Tew, SVP Asia Pacific for Mediasurface.

Full on schedule packing in three days Immediacy training, a couple client visits and catching up with an old drinking buddie from Lochcarron before flying back to Auckland from the West Island on Thursday night. Who says you can't burn the candle at both ends?