Out With the Old, in With the Open-source: Brainshark's Complete CMS Migration

-  Arthur Gehring - VP of Demand Generation, Brainshark, Inc. -  John Money - Senior Solutions Architect, Acquia

Arthur Gehring VP Demand Generation

About Brainshark

Project Goals

•  Evolved during project

•  Initially to migrate to new CMS

•  Launch new brand and positioning (re-skin) with a time constraint

•  More redesign then planned

CMS Evaluation Process Key Criteria

Former  CMS  Issues  

•  No  support  and  maintenance    -  Security  risk  -  Limited  .NET  support  internally/externally      -  No  enhancements  -  Ini<al  customiza<ons  made  upgrades  very  

difficult  

•  Poor  template  implementa<on  resulted  in  design  constraints  that  require  frequent  coding  

•  Not  user  friendly    -  Not  intui<ve  -  No  workflow  -  50-­‐100  clicks  (~10  clicks/asset)  to  publish  

single  page    -  No  batch/bulk  item  publishing      -  Easy  to  accidentally  republish  the  en&re  site  

•  Licensing  model      -  Maximum  5  users  can  be  logged  in  at  a  <me    

•  Re-­‐directs  were  challenging  

•  Objective: Migrate to another CMS -  Resolution by January 29, 2016

§  Minimize business traffic impact in slow period

§  3 month development timeline (October-December)

•  Research  &  Discovery  milestones: -  Guidance from analysts @Sirius, Forrester, Gartner -  Establish CMS requirements -  Assess recommended vendors -  References -  Estimate timeline and cost -  Build test site -  Test traffic management

Resolu/on  Plan  

•  Establish priorities, requirements, and assess/choose vendors -  August - September

•  Design/Development phase (~2.5 months) -  Kick off: October 20 or sooner -  Alpha test: December 8 -  Beta test: January 2

•  QA test -  January 3 - January 14 (~1.5 weeks)

•  Buffer -  January 15 - January 28 (~2 weeks)

•  Launch -  January 29, 2016

Timeline   No  new  branding  planned  for  this  implementa<on  

•  Minimize IT support needed

•  Strong external support model

•  Reusable & flexible page templates

•  Robust blogging capabilities

•  User-based permissions & content review process

•  Easy-to-maintain URL redirect manager

•  Supports traffic management needs

•  Path to data integrations for social media, SFDC, Eloqua

New  CMS Solu/on  Requirements  

Gartner's  2015  Magic  Quadrant  for  WCM

Vendor   Acquia  (Drupal  7)   Sitecore  8   EPiServer  8   AutomaOc  (WordPress  4)  

Minimize  IT  support  needed   ●●●●○   ●○○○○   ●○○○○   ●●●●○  Strong  external  support  model   ●●●●○   ●●●○○   ●●○○○   ●●●○○  User-­‐friendly  reusable  &  flexible  page  templates  

●●●●●   ●●●○○   ●●●○○   ●●●●●  

Robust  blogging  capabili<es   ●●●●●   ●●●○○   ●●●○○   ●●●●●  User-­‐based  permissions  &  content  review  process  

●●●●●   ●●●●○   ●●●●○   ●●●●●  

Easy-­‐to-­‐maintain  URL  redirect  manager  

●●●●○   ●●●○○   ●●●○○   ●●●○○  

Possibility  of  integra<ons  for  social  media,  SFDC,  Eloqua  

●●●●○   ●●●●○   ●●●○○   ●●○○○  

Supports  traffic  management  needs   ●●●●○   ●●●○○   ●●●○○   ○○○○○  

Requirement  Comparisons  

Acquia    

Sitecore    

EPiServer   AutomaOc  

Framework   Drupal    

.NET    

.NET   WordPress  

Pros   Fast-­‐growing  op<on  with  expanding  global  presence;  enterprise-­‐level  support;  easy  upgrades      

Partnership  with  Microso[;  wide  range  of  capabili<es  (engagement  analy<cs,  AB  tes<ng)    

Granular  "atomized"  content  and  high  interoperability;  merger  with  Ektron  Jan  2015  

Most  popular  framework;  abrac<ve  and  scalable  pricing;  simple  and  extensible  placorm  

Cons   More  expensive  than  other  open-­‐source  op<ons;  might  be  too  complex  for  some  midmarket  organiza<ons    

License  model;  increasing  pricing  strategy  has  raised  concerns;  nega<ve  change  in  customer  communica<on  &  experience    

License  model;  reported  lapses  in  updates  and  customer  service,  and  increase  in  pricing  

Interface  not  as  rich  as  compe<tors;  advanced  capabili<es  require  extensive  customiza<ons  

Gartner's  Vendor  Comparisons  

Acquia   Sitecore   EPiServer   AutomaOc  

Framework   Drupal   .NET   .NET   WordPress  

Model   open  source  hosted  by  leading/local  partner.    Cloud-­‐based  subscrip<on  

Re-­‐deploy  current  version  of  Sitecore.    On  premise  vs.  hosted?  

Can  be  hosted  internal  or  external  

Hosted  by  leading  partner  

Costs  

Pros   Will  have  both  internal  and  external  support.    Grow  into  our  needs  

None   Less  expensive  than  Sitecore   Popular,  easy  to  use  

Cons   More  expensive  than  other  open-­‐source  op<ons  

Would  s<ll  need  .NET  support  from  Engineering;  addi<onal  cost  to  license  current  version  and  return  to  maintenance  agreement  

Would  s<ll  need  .NET  support  from  Engineering,  limited  external  support,  not  widely  used  

Configura<on  restric<ons  don't  work  with  our  traffic  management  customiza<ons  

Solu/on  Comparison  

•  Modular framework supports any type of content

•  Large development community

•  Actively updated documentation

•  Easy to upgrade

•  More user-friendly

What  we  liked  about  Drupal  

Acquia:  Drupal  Managed  Hos/ng  

Trellon:  Cer/fied  Partner  

•  Enterprise-level website and infrastructure support -  Manages patches and security updates -  24/7 live support team for critical issues -  Provides support and strategy

•  Drag and drop development workflow

•  Site monitoring & troubleshooting tools

•  High availability, scalability, security

•  Open-source -  Large development community

What  we  liked  about  Acquia  

•  Drive  conversion  through  real-­‐<me  personaliza<on  

•  Shorten  sales  cycle  by  using  real-­‐<me  segmenta<on  and  targeted  campaigns  

•  Integrated  repor<ng  of  personaliza<on  campaigns  and  site  ac<vity    

•  Consolidate  external  data  to  provide  a  unified  customer  profile  

•  Can  target  known  contacts  and  anonymous  prospects  

Acquia  LiX  Features  

Positioning Drupal and Acquia •  Demonstrate out-of-the-box content editing tools

▪  Lightning distro provides all the required workflow, in-place editing, and WYSIWYG templating

•  Highlight flexible content model ▪  Sophisticated developer team quickly understood value of

structured data and benefits of content reuse for a dynamic web property

•  Enable B2B personalization with Lift that integrates with existing marketing stack

▪  Best practices for supporting user journey and converting unknown visitors to known customers

•  Meet custom traffic routing requirements ▪  Remove risk by demonstrating custom forwarding with

Acquia Cloud Free environment

Migration Strategy, Execution and Lessons Learned Strategy, Execution and Lessons Learned

•  Build out functionality, user roles

•  Templatize as much as possible

•  Agile process, Redmine, rapid prototyping

•  Do the re-skinned pages first, redesign pages last

•  Rapid testing and feedback

Migration Strategy

Trellon's Process

1.  Discovery -  Define goals and understand what kinds of content, tools, message

-  Deliverables: Content Type Analysis, User Role Analysis, and Creative Scope document

2.  Design -  Visualize design with mock ups

-  Deliverables: Site Maps, Wireframes, and Mock Ups

3.  Core configuration -  Install, configure, and customize Drupal to meet requirements in Discovery/Design phases

-  Module selection, content type configuration, user role configuration, plan custom modules, page layouts, configure SEO and search settings

4.  Development -  Weekly meetings to demonstrate progress, collect feedback, and set priorities for the next sprint (weekly)

5.  Implementation -  Prepare for launch, perform regression and unit testing

-  Import data and content, cross-browser/cross-device testing

6.  Deployment -  DNS switchover, final server configurations, test code on server before migration

7.  Post Delivery

•  Rapid feedback and fix, move through multiple QA environments before production.

•  Maintain best practices and takeaways from previous website – a/b testing.

•  Launch date was a very exciting day: Updated our web site, our App, all our content, social sites, ad sites, etc…

•  Hit our target despite a few curveballs….Fastly CDN, app integration

•  Maintaining any 3rd party integrations from previous site (QA, analytics/insight, loss of data)

Execution

•  Have a good partner

•  Frequent communication

•  Document points of integration

•  Scheduling

Lessons Learned

Results

WCMS Move •  Requirements addressed

•  Faster turnaround for site updates, new initiatives

•  Page load time has improved using the Acquia platform and Fastly CDN

Re-brand

•  Very positive feedback on the brand and the site

•  Traffic, conversions

•  Successfully launched into a new space

Still on the journey

Results

Q&A