Migrating From IBM WebSphere to an Open-Source WordPress CMS

Background

NPD reached out because they were tired of paying licensing and upkeep for their expensive IBM WebSphere implementation. Beyond hard costs for servers, licensing, and maintenance, the software was complex and had many barriers for the content team. The marketing team had even resorted to uploading HTML sites as an alternative to using the platform. The stakes were high with clients like Adidas, McDonalds, Toshiba, and Walmart. They needed help changing CMS platforms and a company to help shepherd them through the process.

Problems

While the site’s design aligned with the brand aesthetic, some areas could have been more consistent to increase usability and visitor trust. As we assessed the underlying technology, we found that we needed to address numerous issues as part of our work:

• Pages lacked representation in the site navigation
• Logically related content wasn’t being cross-linked and had no relationship in the CMS
• Some areas of the site weren’t content managed at all
• Other areas were entirely driven by inline styles, reducing brand consistency
• Multiple technologies used resulted in more complex and laborious maintenance

Solutions

While our primary charge was to create a usable CMS experience, we started by examining key pages and defining normalized design patterns for the new implementation. We created a governed design system built into the CMS to avoid brand inconsistencies.

We linked key content types to allow for automated display of content relationships on the front end. These relationships permitted visitors to form a deeper understanding of the information presented. It also reduced the effort needed for content managers to provide a more connected user experience.

We migrated the content in automated and manual batches to ensure site continuity. We launched the site on Pantheon.io infrastructure built to accommodate growth and scale.