General information on selecting wikis can be found here.

Why convert?

There are many convincing reasons for converting from Foswiki to Confluence. Please refer to the links provided below to find out more. We believe that even though open source software, such as Foswiki, is free to use initially, it is ultimately cheaper to pay the $10 license fees for Confluence than to spend money customizing a “free” Foswiki. 

It took us a long time to take such an unequivocal stand. But we are now convinced that economics should trump ideological dogma when it comes to simple tools.

Sources: Support and assistance for making a decision

We have listed numerous resources to help you choose the right wiki:

Furthermore, we have created hundreds of specialized articles about wikis as well as video tutorials on company wikis for you to read and watch.

What are the steps of a migration project to Confluence 

  1. We sign a confidentiality agreement. 
  2. You supply us with the data you want imported. A copy is sufficient for this purpose. Please do not perform any manual preliminary work (sorting, cleaning up, optimization). This does not make economical sense to perform in the beginning.
  3. We import the data into a test wiki using our optimized UWC converter.
  4. You receive access to the text wiki.
  5. The first migration is never ideal. We will discuss the errors and fix them automatically using scripts for all pages. Afterward, the import is rerun.
  6. The process of troubleshooting and automatic fixing using scripts is conducted in coordination with you until a good result is achieved.
  7. A "raw Confluence instance" with data has been created. Using the Confluence sorting functions, this data is now sorted and prepared for future use. The outstanding new Confluence search function should neither be underestimated nor overestimated. You can sort by field, hierarchies, keywords but also via numerous plugins, such as the AdHoc Canvas plugin.
  8. Once the data has been sorted, many of our customers opt for their own design of the wiki interface as well as for PDF and Word exports in their company’s corporate design in order to increase employee identification, to be “in style” (especially for PDF and Word exports) and to save time. 
  9. Afterward, the new wiki is rolled out to the employees. 

When you conduct a migration, you can always continue working on existing data in the existing wiki. This is because after the first successful iteration, the process can be easily repeated with few problems.

What does it cost?

We have customized the official Confluence converter so that it is well aligned with Foswiki and achieves good results. Imports happen in iterations. An evaluation involving only a small number of pages can be done for roughly USD 600.00. A test migration using the converter costs roughly USD 1,600.00. Many of our customers conduct between 2 and 6 iterations. This simply depends on their budget.

Billing is done based on actual effort. You should budget USD 4,500 to to 7,500. That should be sufficient. USD 15,000, however, puts you on the safe side for any migration project.

We are happy to help you with a more precise evaluation to estimate the actual costs.

Why does it cost so much?

We are often asked why migration is so complicated. The reason is the available tools are quite unreliable and labor intensive. This is also the case because migrations are generally a one-time process.

When a migration is carried out, the iteration process takes a very long time. Unfortunately, the process must be monitored regularly all the way through due to breakdowns and optimization requirements. That’s why developers constantly need to intervene. The flow time for a single wiki page usually takes somewhere between 3 and 75 seconds. If you have 10,000 pages at a rate of 26 seconds per page, the converter alone needs 3 days. If just 4-5 interventions are made in this process, the calculated hours are soon used up.

Anyone who think this is impossibledoesn’t believe us should attempt a test migration themselveson their own. (smile) 

Why choose //SEIBERT/MEDIA for migration?

  • We have completed countless migration projects with many different wikis (many TWiki and Foswiki).
  • Your own employees do not have enough experience with the requirements for migrating a wiki to Confluence. Migrating in-house will result in extremely high costs.
  • The standard version of the universal wiki converter has too many weaknesses to be safely used by "novices" (handling breakdowns, run durations, memory overflow, migration errors, import requirements...).
  • We use extremely powerful import servers with 12 GB and a lot of RAM to accelerate the import process. The machines are so powerful that providing them in many other company infrastructures would offset  our budget costs.
  • We offer you reliability and professionalism. Of course, this is not a guarantee that imports will have no problems. However, we can help you terminate the migration if further optimization no longer makes economic sense. 
  • In some cases, our customers and we discover during the initial evaluation that alternatives to a technical migration exist for the customer. The correct decision against migrating can often help save your money.

What now?

If you are interested in a migration, we ask you to fill out the form on the right or contact us by phone.


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This content was last updated on 01/29/2018.

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