By Michael Branson, Founder/COO, i3solutions

Quick answer. If your source is Documentum or OpenText, Microsoft’s Migrate to Microsoft 365 guide, as of September 2026, lists Box, file shares, Google Workspace, Dropbox and SharePoint Server as sources, not those two. Import the schedule as a file plan, migrate under its labels, verify records and holds, decommission last.

When the renewal or a consolidation mandate has made the call, the repository goes and SharePoint Online takes the content. The plan in front of you describes a copy job. The old system enforces a retention schedule, declared records and legal holds, and your records manager will ask on day one whether a record declared years ago is still a record after the move. Whether to leave a dedicated repository at all is a separate question, covered in SharePoint Online vs a Dedicated DMS: How to Decide. This guide starts where that answer is yes, and sets out the order in which the obligations cross.

The Decision Is Made; the Plan Still Says Copy

If the plan’s first line is to copy the content, read what Microsoft says a migration is. Its Migrate to Microsoft 365 guide states: “When you migrate your content to Microsoft 365, you are copying the files. Your source files are not deleted.” The copy is one step. The retention schedule, the declared records and the holds are the obligations, and each needs its own step on the SharePoint side before the old repository can be switched off.

What Microsoft’s Migration Guide Lists as a Source

If your project sponsor expects Microsoft’s own tooling to pull from the old repository, check the list first. As read on 26 September 2026, Microsoft’s Migrate to Microsoft 365 guide answers “Where are you migrating from?” with Box, file shares, Google Workspace, Dropbox and SharePoint Server, and states: “The ability to migrate from Google Drive, Box, Dropbox, and Egnyte is fully integrated into Migration Manager.” Neither Documentum nor OpenText appears on that page. Egnyte is on that list, but the Egnyte to SharePoint Online migration checklist notes that Microsoft lists its Egnyte scenario as unsupported in GCC, GCC High and DoD, and that Egnyte group permissions are not migrated.

Read that for what it is: the sources Microsoft’s own guide covers, not a verdict on any tool. For a Documentum or OpenText source, the migration plan names the export route and the tool that carries it, and records why that route was chosen. Re-read Microsoft’s list at planning time, because the list is Microsoft’s to change.

What the Old Repository Enforces Today

Before anything moves, write down what the old system does for you, in its vendor’s own terms. OpenText’s Documentum Content Management page describes the product as “cloud-ready document management software that helps organizations rethink content and deliver personalized experiences”, and under records management and governance lists “records lifecycle control, retention policies, and unit-level policy management”. OpenText’s OpenText Content Management (Extended ECM) page lists, under “Information governance and records management”, “legal holds, audit trails”.

Take the inventory from the repository itself, not from memory:

  • The retention schedule: every record series, its retention period and the event that starts the clock.
  • Declared records: which items are declared, under which series, and who declared them.
  • Holds: every hold in force, the matter it serves and the counsel who owns it.
  • Metadata: the properties the schedule and the holds depend on, mapped field by field.
  • Permissions: who can read, change and dispose of each series today.

Bring the Retention Schedule In as a File Plan First

If content lands before the schedule does, it lands without the labels that carry its retention periods. Microsoft’s records management overview states: “By using a file plan, you can bring in an existing retention plan to Microsoft 365, or build a new one for enhanced management capabilities.” Its file plan page adds: “You can bulk-create retention labels by importing the relevant information from a spreadsheet.” The same page lists descriptors including “Business function/department” and “Provision/citation”, and a “Reference Id file plan descriptor, which you can use as a unique value to your organization”, which is where each old series identifier can be carried.

Check the license before the import. Microsoft’s Purview service description states: “To use the file plan to maintain retention labels, including import and export, the following licenses provide user rights”, and lists Microsoft 365 E5/A5/G5 among them. The structural crosswalk from a file plan built to a defense records standard onto Purview’s descriptors is the subject of a separate i3solutions guide.

Declared Records and Holds: Verify Them on the SharePoint Side

When your records manager asks whether a declared record is still a record, answer from what Purview shows, not from what the old system showed. Microsoft’s declare records page states: “To declare documents and emails as records, you use retention labels that mark the content as a record or a regulatory record.” It adds: “If you need to use regulatory records, you must first run a PowerShell command”. Its records management overview says that when an item is declared a record by using a retention label, “Restrictions are placed on the item in terms of what actions are allowed or blocked.” The difference between a record and a regulatory record is set out in the decision guide linked in the opening section.

The Microsoft pages read for this guide do not describe how a declaration made in another repository carries into Purview, so this guide states no mechanism. Verify instead: after each migration wave, sample the declared items in every series against the inventory and record the result. For holds, confirm with counsel that each hold in the inventory is in force on the SharePoint side before its source content is touched.

What Not to Move

If a series has already passed the end of its retention period under the old schedule, it is a disposition decision, not a migration item. Take it to your records manager for sign-off before the move rather than carrying it into Microsoft 365. How to sort content into migrate, archive and retire, and who signs off, is covered in Which SharePoint Content to Migrate, Archive, or Retire.

The Target: SharePoint Built for Records Before Content Lands

If the target sites are built after content arrives, labels and permissions get applied after the fact, site by site. Microsoft’s records management overview states: “Using these capabilities, you can incorporate your organization’s retention schedules and requirements into a records management solution that manages retention, records declaration, and disposition, to support the full lifecycle of your content.” Design the information architecture, the permission model and the label policies first; how to configure SharePoint for regulated document management is covered in SharePoint Document Management Consulting for Regulated Enterprises.

Switching Off the Old Repository, in Order

If the decommission date is fixed before verification is done, verification gets cut to fit the date. Microsoft’s migration guide states that “Your source files are not deleted”, so the old repository stays in place until you retire it, and the order is yours to set:

  1. Import the file plan and publish the retention labels.
  2. Move content in waves, each wave landing under labels that already carry its retention period.
  3. Verify declared records and holds for each wave against the inventory.
  4. Set the old repository to read-only for a parallel period your records manager defines.
  5. Decommission only after the records manager and counsel sign off.

When Moving Is the Wrong Call

If the repository is doing a job SharePoint Online is not set up to do, keeping it can be the right answer. OpenText’s OpenText Content Management (Extended ECM) page lists “Control content sprawl and automate Microsoft 365 workflows” among its integrations, so keeping the repository and integrating it with Microsoft 365 is a real path. Keep it when:

  • The obligation needs what a dedicated system provides. The decision guide linked in the opening section lists where a dedicated DMS genuinely earns its place.
  • The tenant holds none of the file plan licenses. If none of the licenses that Microsoft’s Purview service description lists for file plan import and export is in place, the sequence above has no first step until one is.
  • The repository feeds systems that are staying. Connect SharePoint to it instead; integrating SharePoint with a repository that stays is covered in SharePoint to IBM Integration: Modernize Your Infrastructure.

How i3solutions Answers

When the question reaches i3solutions, the work starts from the inventory: what the old repository enforces, which series and holds are live, and which licenses the tenant holds. i3solutions implements the Microsoft technology a customer needs, SharePoint Online and Microsoft Purview included, so the file plan, the target sites and the migration waves are work i3solutions carries as one scoped migration project. Its SharePoint Migration Services for Enterprise Microsoft Environments page states: “i3solutions evaluates site architecture, permissions, content structure, workflows, integrations, governance requirements, and migration constraints before defining the right path forward.” These are the statements we can document, quoted at the size we can document them:

  • Regulated-industry SharePoint modernization carries roughly 25 to 35 percent cost overhead versus commercial work for equivalent scope, driven by control mappings, audit-trail discipline, and zero-downtime cutover patterns.
  • An i3solutions engagement does not produce managed-service ownership, a replacement for the internal team, open-ended scope expansion, or vendor lock-in.
  • Delivery is senior and US-based.
  • i3solutions is a Microsoft Solutions Partner.

The Purview side of the work is covered in Microsoft Purview Technology Readiness Services, and where this work sits in the wider practice in Enterprise SharePoint Development & Integration Services Built for Scale and Governance.

Key Takeaways

  • If your source is Documentum or OpenText, Microsoft’s Migrate to Microsoft 365 guide, read 26 September 2026, does not list it; its sources are Box, file shares, Google Workspace, Dropbox and SharePoint Server.
  • Microsoft’s file plan page states that retention labels can be bulk-created by importing a spreadsheet, so the schedule goes in before the content.
  • In Purview, a record is declared by a retention label, per Microsoft’s declare records page; verify declarations and holds after each wave.
  • A migration copies files and leaves the source in place, so the old repository is retired last, after sign-off.
  • Where the repository does a job SharePoint Online is not set up to do, keeping it and integrating it with Microsoft 365 is a real path.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can Microsoft’s migration tools move Documentum content directly?

If you plan from Microsoft’s own guide, it does not list Documentum: as read in September 2026, Microsoft’s Migrate to Microsoft 365 page lists Box, file shares, Google Workspace, Dropbox and SharePoint Server as sources, and neither Documentum nor OpenText appears on it. Name the export route and the tool in the migration plan, and re-read Microsoft’s list at planning time.

Can we import our existing retention schedule into Microsoft Purview?

If the schedule exists in a spreadsheet or can be exported to one, yes: Microsoft’s records management overview states “By using a file plan, you can bring in an existing retention plan to Microsoft 365, or build a new one for enhanced management capabilities.”, and its file plan page states “You can bulk-create retention labels by importing the relevant information from a spreadsheet.” Import it before any content moves.

What happens to records declared in Documentum or an OpenText repository?

When the records move, verify each declared series on the SharePoint side. In Purview, Microsoft’s declare records page states: “To declare documents and emails as records, you use retention labels that mark the content as a record or a regulatory record.” Microsoft’s pages, as read in September 2026, do not describe how a declaration made in another repository carries into Purview, so sample declared items against the inventory after each wave.

Do we need Microsoft 365 E5 to use the Purview file plan?

If your tenant holds none of the listed licenses, it lacks the user rights Microsoft ties to file plan import and export. Microsoft’s Purview service description states: “To use the file plan to maintain retention labels, including import and export, the following licenses provide user rights”, and lists Microsoft 365 E5/A5/G5 among them. Check your tenant against Microsoft’s full list before the schedule goes in.

When can we switch off the old repository?

When declared records and holds are verified on the SharePoint side and your records manager and counsel have signed off. Microsoft’s Migrate to Microsoft 365 guide states: “When you migrate your content to Microsoft 365, you are copying the files. Your source files are not deleted.” The old repository stays in place until you retire it, so run a read-only parallel period first.

Put the Retention Schedule, the Records and the Holds on One Plan Before the Renewal Date

If the renewal date is closer than the migration plan is finished, bring the retention schedule, the list of holds in force and the licenses your tenant holds. The conversation turns them into a sequenced plan your records manager can sign, and keeping the repository and integrating it remains one of the answers it can reach. Talk to a senior architect

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