Wrestling Legacy Data to the Web & Beyond: Practical Solutions for Managers and Technicians.

• Author: Holland, Michael E.
• Position: Book Review

TITLE: Wrestling Legacy Data to the Web & Beyond: Practical Solutions for Managers and Technicians

AUTHORS: P.C. McGrew and W.D. McDaniel

PUBLISHER: M[C.sup.2] Books

ISBN: 1-893347-02-8

PUBLICATION DATE: 2001

LENGTH: 219 pages

PRICE: $29.95

SOURCES: McGrew + McDaniel Group at www.mcgrewmcdaniel.com or 800-283-9444

Advances in communications technology have not only made the world seem smaller -- they have made its inhabitants more impatient for immediate access to information and data, regardless of its vintage or origin. Among the most perplexing questions that any manager or information technology (IT) staff can face is, "Why can't we view all of our documents on the Web?" It is the redirection of older or legacy data from computer files designed for printing to Web browsers that is boldly and creatively addressed in Wrestling Legacy Data to the Web & Beyond. Authors P.C. McGrew and W.D. McDaniel have written a practical volume that addresses this complex undertaking that "is not a-challenge for the faint of heart." Specifically, the authors' goal is to prepare an organization's information manager and the IT staff to work with consultants and vendors in engineering the migration of organizational information from paper to electronic display formats.

The authors have directed their attention to organizations with voluminous legacy data that is formatted to print in specific report forms on specific classes of print devices. The work does not attempt to address other alternatives that immediately come to mind when discussing the migration of document formats, such as the transmigration within electronic formats.

The majority of this 218-page volume is dedicated to establishing the background and providing the methodology for creating an inventory of electronic document systems and their print attributes. While Wrestling Legacy Data is not a book that the average Web site developer will find immediately useful and applicable, the book is invaluable to information professionals and managers who face this daunting task of legacy data repurposing to a Web browser.

The first chapter provides the non-technical reader with an overview of the issues and aspects of print format migration. Chapter Two consists of a lexicon of printer language characteristics and the terminology that is likely to be used by any consultant or vendor who will engineer an enterprise-wide reformatting of legacy data to a new platform.

Chapters Three and Four, "Legacy...