HighEdWeb Michigan
A New Content Management System:
From RFP to Launch in 12 Months

Your Speakers
Holly LaRose-Roenicke,
Assistant Director
Web Communications
Aaron Maturen,
Programmer
Web Technologies (ITS)
Jason Swackhamer,
Director
Web Communications

About SVSU
• Enrollment: 10,500+
– UG: 8,700+
– Grad: 1,200+
• 77% full-time students
• 70% under 25
• 70% of incoming freshman
live on campus
• Alumni: 38,000+
• Regional institution with
some out state and
international students
• Founded in 1963
(50th Anniversary)

Our Organization
President
Academic Affairs
Administration &
Business Affairs
ITS
Web
Programming
Training Team
Enrollment
Management
Web
Communications
Student Affairs Public Affairs

First . . . A little history
• Began decentralized
Web management in
1994
• Typo 3 was second CMS
system since 1994
– Complicated to manage
– Lack of consistency and
accountability
– Dependence on IT for
providing functionality
• CMS compromised
Superbowl Sunday,
2011

Pre-RFP Situation Analysis
• Programming staff
— number and % of time
• Budget
— open source isn’t free
— making the case for $$
• Users
— who will be using daily
• Workflow
— levels of users, approvers
Key Factors in Needs Assessment

Web Maintenance
Web Communications
Manages oversight of website as a
whole; sets website standards;
Advises departments on social media
strategy;
Implements and trains editors on
content management system.
IT
Web Programming supports
University departments through
customized-programming requests;
Networking supports the
infrastructure to support the
network and servers
Content Editors
Reviews content with owners
annually, acts as department
gatekeeper;
Ensures pages meet the University’s
standards in terms of design and
best practice;
Attends Terminal Four training.
University Communications
Sets graphic standards and message
themes for University.
Provides images in centralized
repository

Needs Assessment
aka, What Does the CMS Need To Do?
 Enterprise System
— higher ed customers
 Decoupled publishing
— so we won’t loose live
content again!
Easy to Use
— Almost as easy as MS Word
 Easy to Create Templates
— flexible, easy for developers

The RFP
• A COMPLEX MONSTER
— 162 attributes
questionnaire, 19 pgs!
• Targeted Vendors
— enterprise, higher ed
• Purchasing Led
— managed communication
• Time
— gave a month for
response due to complexity

Selection Process
RFP Sent to 15
Vendors
RFP Responses Due
30 days later
5 Responded
RFPs Scored and
Ranked based on
119 criteria, price
Cross-Campus
Committee:
Demos from 3,
selects Terminal
Four
Cross Campus Committee: low, mid and high level web
editors, web programming, web communications,
training

Project Planning
Decisions, Decisions
• Design (templates, CSS)
• Sitemap
• Migration Planning
–All at once or phased?
–Who does it?
• Launch (how, timing)

Evaluate Current Website
Planning for Migration (Typo3 to T4)
 6,102 Pages
 Find patterns for categorizing content
 Create rules for finding content to
import into templates
 Never logged in to Typo3 back end

Set up new Environment
Terminal Four (T4)
 Create new templates for migrating
content into
 Port over CSS and page styles

Transform Hierarchy
Build New Site Structure
 Used excel to define the new structure
for the hierarchy
 Used python to create the pages in new
CMS and keep a reference of where they
were in old CMS
Tip: Use this as opportunity to fix site
structure (nested sites)

Content Migration
Import Content
 Army of minions
 Created an application
based on the new
hierarchy to assign pages
with links to old page and
new page
 Web crawler using
python and a hierarchy
 Automatically imported
about 3,100 pages…

Media Asset Migration
 Media had to initially
be imported by a
minion into T4
 All of the links to
images, PDFs, and
files had to be
relinked manually
Tip: All media will need
to be imported and
linked.

Quality Control
 Minions were
responsible for checking
their assigned pages
 Web Communications
also spot checked pages
Tip: Have content owners check
their content and website before
launch

Training for Admins
“Train the Trainer”
• Training from
vendor
• Training done on
“training accounts”,
not live sites
• Began converting
our own websites

Content Editor Training
Required for Login
• Login access given at end of training
- no exceptions
• Conducted using “training accounts”,
not live sites
• Conducted (25) 90-minute trainings
in 6 months, training 145 people
• Any changes made to live sites
between conversion and training
were done by minions, but from
training to launch were their
responsibility to update

Tips To Training Success
• Holding back login access
• Encourage users from same
department to go together
• Improved documentation –
ask vendors to see if they
have documentation to build
from
• Empower users with choices
and tools to improve websites
• Continuous help “T4
Tuesdays”

Redefining Roles
Web Communications (Content)
• Meet with every department annually
– Review content for accuracy
– Set goals/ priorities
– Review analytics
– Provide “report card”
• Assist Content Editors
• Provide training
• Administer access rights

Redefining Roles
Web Technologies (Programming)
• Administer template improvements and technical
aspects of CMS support
• New process for project requests
– New content templates
– Forms
– Special programming
• Clearinghouse for all online forms
• Cross training within department

Lessons Learned
Have a Communications Plan
• Set expectations
• Squelch the rumors
• Communicate process,
timing
• Consider a content freeze

Lesson Learned
Conduct a Crisis Plan
• Brainstorm worst-case scenarios and
solutions
 Search broken
 Links to all media files broken
 Server space maxing out

Lessons Learned
Know URL Structure
Tip: Try not to change it!
• Legacy Links are
persistent
— Scheduled Emails
— Google
— Bookmarks
• At minimum, have a
great 404 page

Lessons Learned
Anticipate What’ll Break (Forms)
• Some forms were processed by old CMS
 These broke
• Some were “included” with php on page
 These broke
• Some were external links
 Worked!
Tip: Include forms in migration schedule

Lessons Learned
Triple-Check Server Setup
 If you don’t want a phone call
at 4 a.m., make sure that there
is enough space on your
server for the website.

Lessons Learned
In Summary: 3 Key Takeaways
 Even though we moved fast, there were
times that could have moved even faster
because in the end, we needed three more
months
 Search engines take time to crawl
 Each site should have been reviewed and
signed off for accuracy by editors during the
training process

12 Months- RFP to Launch
- Selection
- Editor Training
RFP Responses Due!
Vendor Notified
-Project Planning, Install,
-Development
- Content Migration
- Quality Review
OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUNE JULY AUG
- Selection
- Editor Training
RFP Responses Due!
Vendor Notified
-Project Planning, Install,
-Development
- Content Migration
- Quality Review
SEPT OCT NOV DEC JAN FEB MAR APR MAY JUNE JULY AUG
Selection
Editor Training
RFP Responses Due!
Vendor Notified
Project Planning, Install,
Development
Content Migration
- Quality Review
Launch!

Lessons Learned
In Summary: 3 Key Takeaways
 Even though we moved fast, there were
times that could have moved even faster
because in the end, we needed three more
months
 Search engines take time to crawl
 Each site should have been reviewed and
signed off for accuracy by editors during the
training process

Questions, Comments, Discussion
Holly LaRose-Roenicke,
Assistant Director
Web Communications
hmlarose@svsu.edu
Aaron Maturen,
Programmer
Web Technologies (ITS)
atmature@svsu.edu
Jason Swackhamer,
Director
Web Communications
jjswack1@svsu.edu
@jswacky
Slides available via Tweet Deck: