Reflections on Migrating to WorldShare Management Services
We are six months into our library’s migration from SirsiDynix’s Symphony system to OCLC’s WorldShare Management Services (WMS) which seems like a good time to stop and reflect on our decision to make this change. Did we make the right decision? Any system migration involves a lot of work and such a decision should not be made without serious consideration. The costs are even higher when one has selected a system still under development. The costs for me have included getting a whole year behind in my other projects and repeating much of the electronic resources management implementation I had just completed in Serials Solutions the year before. And then there is the suffering caused by the bleeding-edge phase of product development.
Any way you look at it, WMS is a young product which is still under development. There are some definite negatives to this. We get to help OCLC troubleshoot bugs, which eats up more time than I would like. OCLC implementation staff were up front with us, telling us not to underestimate the amount of time it would take to learn a new system and rethink workflows. WMS is a completely new visioning of what an integrated library system should be, incorporating not only traditional modules like acquisition, circulation, course reserves, and cataloging, but also electronic resource management tools like a license manager and knowledge base into a single package. Workflows have been streamlined to create efficiency and build on the advantages of shared data in the cloud. But the trouble is, sometimes it feels like the workflow has been streamlined too much and pieces we would really like to have are still missing.
Fortunately, OCLC’s WMS team is a wonderful group of people to work with. They are friendly, responsive, and truly believe in their product. The development team works on a schedule to release upgrades and enhancements every three months. A “roadmap” is published so that we know what changes are coming in the next three to nine months. The implementation team and support team both encourage us to make enhancement requests and they try their best to help us with work arounds to keep our work running until enhancements can be released.
So do I still think we made the right decision to change? For now, yes. I’m still anxious for the further development and stabilization of WMS. But I definitely appreciate the efficiency created by having all aspects of our collection management, whether print or electronic, in one place. I also appreciate OCLC’s business model which packages all services together for a reasonable price which helps me provide my library patrons with better service than we could otherwise afford. And I really appreciate the positive attitude of OCLC’s WMS team which makes me feel empowered to both provide feedback and to utilize WMS to its fullest capability.