Answers on EMC CenterStage and eRoom-to-CenterStage Conversion

EMC’s CenterStage is the next chapter in the evolution of EMC’s collaboration products. CenterStage has origins dating back to the 1980s. At that time, VAX Notes was a commercial product that provided threaded discussion for Digital Equipment Corporation’s peak 130,000 employees, including me, and their customers’ employees. VAX Notes had been influenced by earlier work at University of Illinois’ Computer-based Education Research Laboratory (CERL). VAX Notes provided the inspiration for the blockbuster Lotus Notes product, released in 1989, which enabled solutions for many of my clients. Later, key Lotus Notes employees left to start Instinctive Technologies which shipped the eRoom product in 1997. Based on the success of the product, they changed the name of the company to eRoom. eRoom is the collaboration product offered by EMC today via EMC’s acquisition of Documentum in 2003 and Documentum’s prior acquisition of eRoom in 2002. With EMC’s new CenterStage, now there is a product that combines the best of eRoom, Web 2.0 functionality, and the enterprise content management capabilities of EMC’s Content Server

We at Crown have been anticipating CenterStage since our first conversations with EMC regarding the next stage in collaboration in August 2006. As a result of these conversations, Crown has been selected by EMC to be the sole provider of eRoom to CenterStage conversion software. Crown has incorporated its proven Buldoser technology into the RedCarpet and Buldoser Center products, which convert eRooms directly to CenterStage.

Since EMC’s CenterStage product has become available in beta version in September 2008, Crown has presented at many webinars and user groups about CenterStage. Some of the questions and answers from those sessions follow in this post.

Crown’s Buldoser technology, which has been continuously accredited since 2004, and extensive Extract Transform and Load experience make Crown the ideal party to help eRoom customers convert to CenterStage. If you have a question not answered below, please contact Crown at info@crownpartners.com.

Q1: Does CenterStage have the same concepts of access control, both by membership (groups/roles) and by item or folder-level access control (restricted access, hidden items)?
A1: Yes, all the eRoom features in this area come through
Q2: Can you use the Document Storage product component of CenterStage without the other new Web 2.0 components?
A2: The CenterStage Essentials version is a "limited" release of CenterStage. It does include storing documents in folder and attachment boxes like in eRoom, plus a few other features. There is no charge for this version.
Q3: I saw the term "data tables" in CenterStage features. Is that the same as the database function in eRoom?
A3: Yes. The feature is renamed in CS as "Data Tables" (much to the delight of database purists J ).

Q4: Is there a move from EMC to focus more heavily on new technologies (such as web 2.0) and move away from the more recognized features that eRoom has now?
A4: No. CenterStage has been built to leverage all the great features that eRoomers love in it today. Virtually all eRoom items (like Polls, Databases, etc.) will be made available in CenterStage within the current product roadmap. It also strives to "marry" the current eRoom features with newer Web 2.0 technologies that are now flourishing (Blogs, RSS, Wikis, etc.).

Q5: Can eRoom be converted (upgraded) to CenterStage Essentials (CSE)?
A5: Yes, if you are using eRoom today and want to replace it with CSE, you can convert your data accordingly. But not all eRoom features are available in CSE, so you would lose them. If you are using eRoom primarily for document storage, then you may be fine.

Q6: Is it possible to use eRoom and CenterStage Essentials (CSE) at the same time?
A6: Yes. An organization could have both applications running in their environment, but there would be no direct connection between them (like eRoom enterprise with Content Server).

Q7: Will the updates to the RedCarpet utility for migration go hand in hand with CenterStage changes?
A7: Yes. RedCarpet and Buldoser Center are "in synch" with CenterStage. Just note that with each new release of CenterStage, there could be delay of several weeks of the RedCarpet and Buldoser Center releases to ensure that it has been fully tested with the very latest release of CS.

Q8: In an eroom to content server migration using Buldoser Center, how are eRoom databases dealt with (things like field names, drop-down lists etc)?
A8: It is the intention with every feature in eRoom to have it move into CenterStage with the same data. So an eRoom database will convert to a "data table" in CenterStage, including all fields, records, access control, discussion areas, change logs, attachments, etc. If there is anything that cannot be converted it will be clearly documented.

Q9: How will it be addressed if certain objects throw an error when converting? Will there be developer support available to support such incidents?
A9: A report is generated after every data conversion pass from eRoom to CenterStage. It shows what has been copied successfully and what has not. There is then an opportunity to address the specific objects which failed the conversion. Then, with RedCarpet, you re-run the entire data conversion batch. With Buldoser Center, you only need to select the "exceptions" or "failed objects" and re-run those. Yes, blocks of Developer Support hours may be purchased and used to troubleshoot errors.

Q10: How will eRoom indexes be migrated? Do we have to re-index all content post migration?
A10: You will need to re-run those indexes in CenterStage.

Q11: Does RedCarpet or Buldoser Center also work with Documentum Content Server (not just CenterStage)?
A11: Yes, Buldoser Center was built in large part for migrations to Documentum Content Server.

Q12: In the case of eRoom approval databases, will RedCarpet be able to handle the different stages of approval--in other words, will it bring over all approval steps, even those that are "in progress"?
A12: Yes, RedCarpet is planned to process the different types of eRoom databases, including Issues(approval process) data bases. As long as CenterStage has a corresponding, consistent location or feature where the data can be moved, even details such as approval steps will convert as needed.

Q13: Do you support the migration of a Community Member List? Does CenterStage have an equivalent "community"?
A13: Yes, there is the concept of "local members" in CenterStage (in addition to the LDAP directory), and members from eRoom will be imported accordingly. Group and community member lists will be transferred. “External” eRoom users will be transferred into Documentum as “inline” Documentum users.