How To Implement an Intranet Migration Without the Headache

So you’re moving intranets? Sounds simple enough. Turn on the new one and shut down the old one.

Only, it’s never that straightforward, is it? No technology change ever is.

Before you hit the button and trigger everything big bang, take a moment to step back and review this quick guide to intranet migration. It’ll be worth it, we promise.

Why migrate your existing intranet?

At the very beginning of your intranet migration process, you must be secure in the knowledge that the move is worth it.

See if you identify with any of these common reasons for migration:

• Problems with information architecture: Inconsistent uploading and downloading protocols, files have different naming conventions, and users find it hard to retrieve documents.
• Consolidation of document storage: Users are inefficient due to duplicate documents and fear of saving something in the wrong place.
• Issues with updating metadata: Files get added but metadata lost, leading to poor versioning and manual updates.
• Out-of-date functionality: Lack modern features like advanced search, employee engagement, and multi-party conversations.
• Out-of-date usability: A clunky user interface means it takes forever to complete simple tasks.

Things to prepare for your intranet migration

When preparing for your intranet migration, put these five items at the top of your priority list. 

Only when you’ve sorted these are you ready to flick the switch.

• Assessing current intranet infrastructure: While users will welcome a better experience, it’s important to replicate where files get stored and how they get accessed.
• Lay out the migration plan workflow: You’re not ready to go until you can walk through each stage with a clear view of what happens when.
• Stakeholder communication: Plan for advanced warning, rationale for migration, user benefits awareness, and build-up to migration. There must be no potential for users being surprised your intranet migration is happening.
• Employee training and support: To drive adoption from day one, ensure users and admins have advanced training and can access self-help materials like video tutorials and FAQ databases.
• Backup and data security measures: It pays to be pessimistic. By planning for failure at every stage, you’re ahead of the curve should something go wrong. Secure sensitive data, and ensure all databases, files, and data are backed up and compliant with your industry guidelines.

How to pull off the actual migration process

• Select the right platform: Choose a new platform that meets your organization's genuine needs. This means digging into integrations, advanced features, and deployment options. Looks for modern platforms like Workvivo that include functionality like peer recognition, community building, and onboarding insights.
• Information architecture: Develop a clear information architecture for the new intranet, organizing content in a logical and intuitive manner to make navigation and retrieval easy. This should mirror your existing setup then add new functionality.
• Intranet content management: Define roles and responsibilities for content owners to maintain and update content regularly. Establish guidelines for content creation, naming and formatting, and publishing.
• User adoption strategy: Develop a comprehensive user adoption strategy that includes training sessions, workshops, tutorials, and communication campaigns to promote the benefits of the new intranet and encourage user participation.
• Permissions and security: Thoroughly plan permissions and security settings to ensure sensitive information is protected and users have appropriate access levels based on their roles and responsibilities.
• Integrations and workflows: Deep dive into possible integrations and work out whether you can use out-of-the-box options or whether you need to build your own.
• Migration process: Execute in phases rather than opting for big bang. Start with a pilot migration of power users to test the process, gather feedback, and address issues before migrating the entire content. Use metadata to categorize and tag content for easy retrieval.
• Communication and training: Keep employees informed throughout the migration process via internal communications channels. Think about webinars, newsletters, and intranet announcements. Once migrated, continue to provide ongoing training when new features get released.
• Feedback and iteration: Gather feedback from end users (using a built-in feedback tool) during and after the migration process to identify areas for improvement. By continuously iterating based on user feedback, you’re committing to providing the best possible user experience.

Expert tips for successful intranet migration

It’s one thing checking off these do and don’t items. It’s another to hear directly from the horse’s mouth.

When Dalton Parker was CTO at TVS Pro, he says he came across many issues. He summarizes his learnings here…

“My biggest takeaways from our issues were:

• Gaining a full understanding of software systems (features, workflow, etc).
• Gaining an understanding of data alignment between old systems and new systems (how we were using systems versus the industry/best practices).
• Documenting the new process and using that documented process for training.”

Darren Floyd, the Sharepoint Administrator and Migration Specialist at Croydon Council, also shared five tips he’s learned firsthand when migrating intranets in the past:

• Get a senior project sponsor: Having someone in your corner at all times really helps.
• Engage your stakeholders: Seeing is believing so use wireframes and draft sketches.
• Communication is key: Favor regular updates rather than as-and-when.
• Conduct a content audit: Get content owners as involved as possible for priority ranking.
• Hold something back: Complete your intranet migration then wow them again in a few months time.

If you’re migrating from Workplace by Meta (Facebook), Workvivo has been named as the only preferred migration partner. This means Meta customers can get a white glove-supported migration path with the help of both Meta and Workvivo.

It’s our top priority to support customers through this transition, and our team is working to make this process as frictionless as possible. We put our customers first, and this will be no different for the Workplace from Meta customers. We are excited to welcome Workplace from Meta customers into our incredible customer community and see the amazing things they can do with Workvivo

John Goulding, CEO and founder of Workvivo

Intranet migration case studies

Successful migration projects are executed by those who learn from previous experiences and take all the positives into the planning and execution of the next one.

Browse these high-level case studies to see which relate the most to your business.

Ryanair Migrates Intranet From Fleet Tweet in 6 Weeks

Ryanair, Europe’s largest airline, has connected 90% of its 24,000+ disparate users to its new Workvivo intranet. Completing the migration from Fleet Tweet in only six weeks, Ryanair now has 13,000 weekly active intranet users.

One of the biggest features in use throughout Ryanair now is the open forum style CEO Q&A. 250 questions have been submitted and responded to directly by Eddie Wilson, CEO.

Following the successful migration, Ryanair has seen a 30% increase in internal applications.

We are a low-cost airline, so to invest in something like this was a big deal for us. So we did a lot of due diligence. We wanted to make sure that whoever we brought on board for our internal comms platform, was working with big players out there as well

Eddie Wilson, CEO

Evri Brings 6 Hubs and 25 Depots Together

Evri, an international courier company, completed an intranet migration and said that its new tool, Workvivo is “miles ahead” and has seen “a massive increase in employee engagement”.

With 81% of Evri’s 8,000+ employees registered to the new intranet and 90% of those active every month, it’s improved its employee engagement score by 0.5 and awarded more than 900 peer recognition badges in the first year alone.

Workvivo does help me to do my job better on a daily basis. Working in procurement, obviously, I may buy a number of different things, and if people have any questions, I can point them direct to Workvivo. They know how to use it, and it'll also update them on changes to policies

Perry Law, Senior Procurement Manager

Nordell Eliminates 100% of All-Staff Emails

Nordell, a UK plastics manufacturer with 200 staff, now has 93% of its staff using Workvivo and is seeing a ton of benefits compared to its previous solution.

Nordell wanted a one-stop shop for employee communication and leadership messaging. Now boasting an employee retention rate of 85%, that’s exactly what they got.

For the first time ever, we’ve engaged 100% of night staff. We’ve never engaged more than 20% of night staff on anything

Daniel Grover, Head of Commercial

FAQs about intranet migration

1. What does ‘digital workplace’ mean, and how does intranet migration contribute to creating a more digital workplace environment?

Digital workplace is the umbrella term for a consolidated and engaging hub for work. While the office is the place where work physically gets done, the digital workplace (a collection of online tools) is where work literally gets done. Intranet migration enables the digitization of a workplace by creating an accessible hub for information, files, and data.

2. What are the key functionalities that should be considered during an intranet migration to ensure a successful transition to the new platform?

During an intranet migration, look out for these modern features:

• Content management system
• Search and retrieve using filters
• Blog posts and videos
• Company news feed
• Document repository
• Employee directory
• Internal surveys and polls
• Social networking
• Built-in feedback
• Instant messaging
• Video conferencing
• Q&A forum
• Advanced user and onboarding analytics
• Multilingual support
• Employee recognition tools
• Mobile app support

3. How can templates be utilized during the intranet migration process to streamline content creation and design consistency?

By replicating existing content and file path infrastructure through the use of templates, you ensure the content you’re migrating gets carried over. You minimize information gaps and reduce the risk of loss of data, information, and content.

4. What types of integrations should be prioritized during intranet migration to enhance connectivity and productivity within the organization?

First, audit your existing intranet or collaboration setup for existing integrations. Then move onto nice-to-have requirements. Common integrations include CRM, HR, payroll, sales management, and other collaboration tools like Microsoft Teams, Slack, or Zoom.

5. How can permissions be managed effectively during intranet migration to maintain security and access control?

Audit existing permissions and user security settings before your migration. Review to ensure these are correct before replicating on your new platform. Also use this as the opportunity to introduce extra settings that may be available in your new intranet.

6. What strategies can be implemented to encourage user adoption of the new intranet platform among employees?

Modern intranet systems like Workvivo include employee engagement tools from the very beginning. During your planning phases, make users aware of features like Q&A forums, discussion boards, and peer recognition. As you onboard employees, take advantage of intranet analytics like logins and user activity, clicks and interactions, or top users and reach.

7. How can stakeholders be engaged throughout the intranet migration process to ensure their input and support?

As the project manager, create a stakeholder engagement matrix to discover who should be kept informed and how. This may include weekly updates, decisions to be made, and any blockers. Use a variety of email updates, newsletters, and videos and diagrams based on the types of stakeholders you’re communicating with.

8. Who are the content owners, and what are their responsibilities during the intranet migration process?

Content owners are the people responsible for the content that gets uploaded by their department or team of users. During an intranet migration, they are tasked with ensuring their team’s content is up to date, follows appropriate naming conventions, and doesn’t contain any erroneous or duplicate data.

9. How can the migration process be optimized to minimize disruption to end users' daily activities?

Thorough planning is the key to a swift and successful intranet migration. If possible, use the end-of-day, weekends, or after hours to turn off existing functionality. Make sure you communicate every change in advance, just before it happens, and when complete so users are always in the know.

10. What resources are available for employees to learn about the new intranet platform, such as webinars, tutorials, and training sessions?

As well as creating your own in-house Q&As and videos, lean on your intranet provider for training material. With Workvivo, you can access ebooks, podcasts, and webinars to gain a thorough understanding of the platform and how other customers are using it.

Get the job done (right) with Workvivo

Ready to migrate your intranet?

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• Stay informed and aligned
• Feel included and engaged
• Find all the information and tools they need

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