CMS Platform Migration
Every tech solution you have in place has a lifespan, that means you'll inevitably have to augment, upgrade or migrate. Transitioning from one CMS platform to another is no small thing, and it’s important to be aware of both the opportunities and challenges that come with this process. It is about more than just replacing your current platform; it’s about setting up your business for future growth and operational efficiency. But what does the process actually look like, and what should you be prepared for?
1. Planning and Preparation
As a Project Manager, I'm obviously biased, but please have someone at the helm who is able to dedicate adequate or all of their time to co-ordinate the examination of your 'as is' state, understand your business requirements and can plan out the required steps and dependencies to deliver your solution cleanly. Expect this phase to be resource-heavy in both time and people. A successful transition starts with meticulous planning. You’ll need to:
Evaluate your current CMS and its limitations.
Understand your goals for the new platform—whether it’s scalability, improved user experience, functional requirements or integration with other business tools.
Identify internal stakeholders and teams who will be involved. Content creators, marketers, developers, and IT should all have input.
This is also when you start working closely with your CMS platform partner or agency (or both). Their expertise can streamline this phase by helping you define a clear roadmap that minimises disruptions and ensures smooth integration.
2. Data Migration and Clean-up
One of the biggest tasks is migrating content, data, and assets from your existing platform to the new one. This is where many organisations encounter pitfalls, especially around:
Data Quality: You’ll likely discover inconsistencies, outdated information, and other data quality issues. It’s important to use this opportunity to clean and optimise your data. Remind yourself you are moving for a reason, just like when you move house you don't need to take everything with you, decide what you need (what you will actually use) and work out how your data got in a mess in the first place, and put new processes in place to capitalise on your new system.
Content Structure: Legacy platforms often don’t map cleanly to newer systems, which means your content architecture will need to be rethought. Possibly the limitations of or other impacts of the established content structure is part of the reason for your move. Be prepared for potential delays and careful content auditing to ensure everything migrates successfully.
SEO Considerations: Migrating content without losing organic search ranking is tricky. You’ll need a plan for redirecting URLs, managing metadata, and avoiding duplicate content issues.
I will absolutely be doing an article on Content Migration on it's own, as it's a huge topic. In short, plan early, plan for it to be painful and know that there are no magic wands to move everything for you.
HSBC’s CMS Consolidation
HSBC consolidated its numerous regional CMS platforms into a single instance of Sitecore. This was done to improve consistency, reduce operational overhead, and simplify digital governance. However, the transition wasn’t without its challenges:
Data Integrity: Ensuring that customer data, account information, and historical content were migrated accurately was a critical challenge, given the sensitive nature of banking data.
Compliance and Security: HSBC had to ensure that the new CMS adhered to strict regulatory and security standards across various countries. They worked closely with cybersecurity experts to ensure there were no vulnerabilities during or after the migration.
Internal Buy-in: Moving to a new platform meant extensive stakeholder management, ensuring that regional branches understood and adopted the new system without disrupting service.
Large-scale platform migrations in heavily regulated industries require careful attention to data integrity, security, and compliance throughout the process.
3. Training and Change Management
Your teams will need time to learn the ins and outs of the new platform. Whether it’s marketers adapting to new content workflows and processes or developers learning new tools and technologies, the learning curve can impact productivity.
Change management is crucial. Implement training programs, don't scrimp on documentation, and allow for a period of adjustment as everyone adapts to new processes. Make sure wider stakeholders have a realistic view of the likely impact to delivery timeframes - not just for the platform itself but for content, campaigns, reporting etc once the new platform is live. Lean on your CMS platform partner here—they’ll often provide hands-on training and ongoing support.
L'Oréal’s Global CMS Transition
L'Oréal underwent a significant CMS migration as they transitioned from various regional CMS platforms to a unified enterprise-level system—Adobe Experience Manager (AEM). This migration aimed to streamline their global digital presence across hundreds of brand websites. They faced the expected challenges, including:
Content Mapping and Standardisation: Migrating data from multiple, possibly disjointed platforms into a unified system would require mapping out content structures, standardising formats to make sure there was consistency.
Localisation: L'Oréal’s global reach required them to manage localised content across different languages and regions while maintaining branding consistency.
Team Training: As they shifted to AEM, L'Oréal had to upskill teams across different regions on how to use the new system effectively. Time zones, language barriers and dispersed teams can pose a real challenge and require careful planning.
4. Integration and Customisation
Expect some level of custom development to integrate your new CMS with other business systems, such as CRM tools, analytics platforms, and eCommerce solutions. While most enterprise-level platforms like Optimizely and Sitecore offer out-of-the-box integrations or compatible platforms in their wider DXP offerings, it’s common to need bespoke development to fit your specific use cases.
This is where your development team—or your agency partner—comes in. Ensure you have access to experienced developers who understand both the CMS and your business requirements. A well-executed integration strategy will make your entire tech stack more cohesive and efficient. This should also be part of your platform selection criteria, is the CMS compatible with other crucial business systems if they aren't being changed.
5. Post-Launch Monitoring and Optimisation
The work doesn’t end after launch. Post Go Live, you’ll need to monitor the system for performance, SEO impacts, user adoption, and any technical issues that arise. Gather feedback from users, track KPIs, and make incremental improvements based on what you’ve learned during the transition.
For example, when retailer LUSH Cosmetics migrated their North American websites to a global domain they wanted to minimise traffic and revenue loss, which could be the result of a dip in SEO rankings due to incomplete redirects and metadata issues. However, after investing in ongoing SEO efforts and working closely with their agency, they were able to recover rankings and improve site performance in good time.
Be mindful that companies large and small experience the above issues in different measures. Often the larger the organisation, the more complex the challenges. None of that should put you off though, this is a fairly established practice, finding a partner with a good amount of experience will help you navigate this. They will understand that you don't do this everyday. Of course your organisation will have it's own unique foibles and challenges, but hopefully the broad strokes above are a helpful guide.
I'd love to hear from anyone who has happy or horror stories from the CMS or DXP implementation, or any other agency provider who has any other recommendations to look out for.
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