Services for Schools
Ordering and reporting for schools buying services from the borough of Hounslow, simple at the front and serious behind it.
Read the case study: Services for Schools →
Legacy platform migration
Off Sitecore, SharePoint, Optimizely or a bespoke CMS, without losing what it quietly does. Older platforms rarely fail all at once. Licences get harder to justify, the people who built them move on, and every change takes longer than the last. We map what yours actually does, including the parts nobody wrote down, and move it to a platform your team can run.
Where you're starting from
- Sitecore
- Optimizely
- SharePoint
- Bespoke CMS
Where you go next is decided in the Blueprint. Sometimes the answer is to upgrade.
Which situation are you in?
Licence pressure
On a commercial DXP
Sitecore, Optimizely and similar platforms carry licence and specialist costs that are hard to defend once most of their features go unused. The question is which features you rely on, and what replaces each one.
We inventory what you use, then cost the move.
Intranet sprawl
Publishing on SharePoint
SharePoint is often doing two jobs: document management that belongs there, and public or member publishing that doesn't. We separate the two so each can be run properly.
We keep what belongs in SharePoint and move the rest.
Bespoke
A system built in-house
A custom CMS that only one person understands is a risk even when it works. We document how it behaves today, then rebuild that behaviour on a supported platform.
We reverse-engineer it before we replace it.
What usually goes wrong, and how we stop it
The risk in a legacy migration is rarely the content you can see. It is the workflow, permission or integration that lives in custom code, and only shows up when it stops working.
1
Hidden behaviour
Scheduled jobs, custom workflows and permission rules found and documented before build, not after launch.
2
Content model
Unstructured pages turned into structured content, with each content owner signing off the mapping.
3
URLs and SEO
Every old URL mapped to its nearest new page, tested before cutover and monitored afterwards.
4
Integrations
Every connection to CRM, finance, identity and analytics listed and decided on: keep, rebuild or retire.
5
Licence timing
Cutover planned around your renewal date, so you are not paying for two platforms for longer than necessary.
6
Support after launch
Parallel running, a rollback plan, then ongoing care through WebsiteSupport.io if you want it.
How a legacy migration runs
Typically six to nine months
- DiscoveryWorkshops, a feature and integration inventory, decision log.
- ArchitectureNew content model, data mapping, redirect plan, integrations.
- Build and migrateStaged releases and repeated test migrations of real data.
- CutoverFreeze, final migration, redirects, parallel running, rollback.
- HandoverTraining, documentation, support through WebsiteSupport.io.
Replacements we've delivered
Chevening
Replaced a scholarship application system handling thousands of applications a year, with design partner Webb & Webb.
Read the case study: Chevening →Questions
If yours isn't here, it's usually quicker to ask on the phone.
Which platform should we move to?
The one that fits your content, integrations and team. Discovery compares the options against what you actually use, and the recommendation comes with its reasoning.
Can we leave before our licence renews?
Often, if discovery starts early enough. We plan the cutover date around the renewal and tell you on the first call whether the timing is realistic.
Nobody knows everything the old system does. Is that a problem?
It is normal. Part of discovery is finding the behaviour that isn't documented, from the code, the logs and the people who use it every day.
Will we lose our search rankings?
Not if the redirects are planned. Every old URL is mapped during architecture, tested before cutover and monitored in Search Console afterwards.
How long does a legacy migration take?
Most run six to nine months including discovery. We will tell you which end of that range yours is likely to be after the first call.
Start with a Blueprint!
Three weeks, from £5,500 + VAT. Credited against the build, and yours to take to any supplier.