OnBase Migration - Merkh LLC

System Overview

OnBase by Hyland is a flexible enterprise information platform designed to manage content, processes, and business workflows. As one of the most widely deployed ECM systems in North America, OnBase serves organizations ranging from mid-size businesses to large enterprises across healthcare, higher education, financial services, and government.

OnBase organizes content around document types, each configured with keyword types that serve as the primary index fields for retrieval. Documents are stored in disk groups with configurable retention policies, and the platform supports a broad range of file formats. Hyland's Unity API provides programmatic access to content and configuration, enabling integrations with EHR systems, student information systems, and ERP platforms.

OnBase is particularly dominant in healthcare, where it integrates tightly with Epic, Cerner, and other clinical systems, and in higher education, where it connects to Ellucian Banner, PeopleSoft, and other campus platforms.

Specific Technical Challenges

OnBase's deeply configurable architecture and Hyland-proprietary storage formats make extraction far more complex than a simple database export.

Cascading Keyword Dependencies

Keyword types use auto-fill keyset groups that create cascading dependencies between fields. Extracting keywords without preserving these relationships loses critical context about how values were selected and validated.

Multi-Tier Disk Group Storage

Disk groups may span multiple physical storage locations including SAN, NAS, and cloud tiers. Documents can be spread across all of them, requiring the extraction process to resolve storage paths across heterogeneous infrastructure.

Unity Forms XML Rendering

Unity Forms are stored as XML with custom rendering logic that does not export as usable documents. The XML must be interpreted and rendered to produce a portable document format, or the form data is effectively lost.

Complex Document Type Configuration

Document type configurations include default keywords, autofill sets, and retention policies that must be mapped to the target system's schema. A single document type can reference dozens of keyword types with specific data type and validation rules.

Mid-Workflow Document Migration

OnBase Workflow lifecycle states and queue assignments are tied to specific document types. Migrating documents that are mid-workflow requires preserving their current state, queue position, and processing history to avoid breaking active business processes.

Proprietary DIP/DIF Packaging

Custom file format handlers use Hyland-proprietary DIP/DIF packaging that requires specialized decompression. Standard archive tools cannot open these packages, and the format is not publicly documented.

How Merkh Helps

Precision understands the OnBase data model at a deep level, from disk group architecture and keyword type definitions to document type configurations and Unity API endpoints. We extract documents and metadata directly, preserving keyword values, revision histories, notes, and folder structures with full fidelity. Our team has handled OnBase migrations involving millions of documents, including environments with complex auto-fill keyword sets, multi-value keywords, and currency or date-formatted fields that require precise type handling. Every extraction includes comprehensive reconciliation reporting to verify completeness.

OnBase Migration Experts