Bradock Consulting was involved for more than a decade customizing and supporting an IBM Domino Document Manager based system for one of Australia’s largest listed companies. The system managed in excess of 350,000 documents and drawings contained in over 250 Lotus Notes Application Databases. These databases were heavily customized to provide for far more complex workflow, external system integration and reporting than could be provided by the standard “out of the box” IBM product.
IBM terminated support for the system in 2012, and technical issues were becoming more frequent as newer operating systems and browsers came on line. The customer began looking for alternatives from a variety of ECM suppliers, but stopped their search when cost estimates in the multi-million dollar range became the norm.
Bradock Consulting introduced the customer to DOCOVA, and although it met the customer’s requirements another Domino based offering did not align with the company’s longer term technology direction. DLI.tools Inc, the manufacturer of DOCOVA, was working on a SQL based version of their product called DOCOVA SE (DOCOVA SQL Edition). Despite being an early release, after conducting a proof of concept mini-project the customer elected to move forward and do a full migration to DOCOVA SE.
The initial migration of documents and customization took 6 months for Bradock Consulting and the DOCOVA team to complete to “Go Live”. Since going live, the customer and Bradock Consulting, together with the DOCOVA team have continued the refinement of a number of processes, as the changeover to the SQL based version has enabled far greater scope for enhancements than was originally available.
The scope of this project enabled the DOCOVA team to perform key core enhancements to the DOCOVA SE product and migration utility, throughout the duration of the project. These enhancements are now included in the current shipping version of the DOCOVA SE product.
Instead of experiencing frustration with the frequency of updates and fix packs, the customer understood the situation and appreciated the level of support they received from the DOCOVA team half a world away.
The project coordinator said “the key to the success of DOCOVA to me has been the fact that we have been able to leverage the local knowledge of Bradock Consulting and the technical expertise of the team from DOCOVA to successfully replace the existing system. It wasn’t so much the software that was our concern – we wanted (and got) people who could understand our systems and deliver what we needed – Bradock Consulting and DOCOVA did just that”.
Overall the project was a success, with the customer receiving the following benefits:
- cleaner, faster user interfaces
- better support
- faster searching
- better reporting
Braddock Consulting, located in Perth Australia, delivers management consulting services to a variety of companies and federal government agencies. Through collaboration, research, and analysis, our consultants provide strategic insights and practical solutions. Braddock Consulting helps government leaders achieve their goals by applying consulting expertise and knowledge to each unique situation.
DLI.tools Inc. is a privately owned software manufacturer located in Toronto, Canada. DOCOVA, a division of DLI.tools Inc., is passionate about creating the best document management solutions on the planet.
