Information technology (IT) is a fast-evolving sector. What’s useful last year may be replaced by new technologies that would require your business to migrate files and content to a newer and better platform.
Although some businesses may dismiss it as an unnecessary expense, upgrading to a new system is meant to improve user experience, leading to increased traffic, engagement, and, eventually, revenue.
If your company website is full of outdated documents and pages, it may no longer serve its purpose. Before benefitting from the new platform, though, your business has to have a clear understanding of the whys and hows of content migration.
The Basics Of Content Migration
As an integral part of website development, content migration involves the process of transferring content from one system or platform to another. It may sound easy, but it’s a complex undertaking. Unlike merely copying and pasting information, the process involves painstaking acts of data selection, preparation, extraction, cleansing, and validation.
In most cases, it exposes weaknesses in the site’s structure and design. Because of content migration, owners may be prompted to perform site and content audits and later propose to overhaul the entire content system if needed.
Before starting with content migration, companies are required to identify the scope of migration as well as the level of involvement of certain persons and teams during the process. The site’s new structure, including user analysis and content requirements, should also be taken into consideration. Slickplan’s great post provides some useful tips for successful content migration.
Besides content management systems (CMS), other systems such as those for electronic document and records management (EDRM), digital asset management (DAM), and enterprise file sync and share (EFSS) are commonly migrated from one platform to another.
Why Do Businesses Decide To Go For Content Migration?
There are many reasons businesses resort to content migration, even if it’s a long and complex process. Most of those reasons have to do with improvements in functionality and performance. Here are just some of them:
- Enhancing Cybersecurity: Some enterprises become targets of cyberattacks or cybercrimes while using a platform such as an outdated content management system, which can be prone to having vulnerabilities. As part of cybersecurity strengthening measures, content migration needs to be performed in such cases.
- Cloud-Based Migration: There are businesses that shift from systems such as CMS and EDRM to cloud-based platforms. Organizations turn to cloud-based technology in order to secure their files and enable authorized staff to access them anytime, anywhere—something that may not be fully possible with their current system.
- Storage And Network Upgrades: Other companies upgrading to bigger storage and network capacities, such as when they switch to a new server, will have to shift to a better platform to make room for upgrades.
- Integrating Systems: Growing businesses need to upgrade one system for it to fit into a specific platform. For instance, a company might have purchased a document management system when it was just starting out. Now that the company’s expanding, the management team has decided to subscribe to an integrated EDRM system that’s more suited to the platform that the organization is currently using.
- Disaster Recovery: Every business needs to be resilient to stay afloat, and cybersecurity can help with that apart from providing protection from cyberattacks. Part of strengthening a company’s IT structure is preparing for a devastating disaster. When one occurs, businesses should be able to keep a repository of their files, access everything in it, and transfer those files to a new or backup system to be able to operate again.
How Can Businesses Benefit From Content Migration?
When a business switches to a new platform or upgrades to a new server, network, or type of storage, the next question is this: when is the best time to migrate content? As it’s a time-consuming and productivity-disrupting activity, the management team should list down the potential benefits of content migration and make sure the pros outweigh the cons.
Content migration can benefit business in the following ways:
- Allows for easy content auditing
- Helps businesses analyze site weaknesses
- Aids in the smooth transition of users’ files
- Makes it easier to reorganize or overhaul content
- Allows companies to keep a list of users
- Preserves content so businesses won’t have to start from scratch
- Facilitates the comparison of old and fresh data
- Makes it possible to teach new members how to use the new platform using old data
- Enhances website security and promotes better site performance
- Enables streamlining of website content and design
Key Takeaway
Content migration isn’t an easy task and therefore needs thorough planning. Before doing it, everyone in the company should have a clear idea of the content to be migrated, the persons or teams involved, the objectives for migration, and the proposed (new) site’s structure and content demands.
Analyze your site content’s performance in line with your goals, and propose major changes if it’s not performing as expected. This way, you’ll get a fresh site that’ll live up to expectations and help you grow your business.