We’re in the process of replacing Shropshire Council’s staff intranet. The one we use currently sits on a Notes Domino platform that was delivered to us on Stephenson’s Rocket, it’s that old.
Dale and Lewis have performed miracles to ensure that it has limped on in a more or less serviceable fashion, but we decided that enough is enough, and started thinking about a competitively priced replacement. I use the phrase ‘competitively priced’ euphemistically here of course. It needed to be free. Of course it did.
After a couple of scoping sessions we decided that we would migrate, more-or-less as we did with our website in March/April, all content page by page onto an out-of-the-box WordPress structure, developed in the style of the gov.uk site by the GDS team. This would be the quickest and easiest way to complete what came to be seen as phase one, with phase two planned as a more subtle exercise in culling pages, updating information, improving the layout – a general content overhaul. In phase two, we’d also consider a more versatile and comprehensive platform.
However (best laid plans and all that…), it soon became apparent that the WordPress solution didn't offer us what we expected, and we couldn’t simply use it as an interim dumping ground for the existing content because it got upset when we tried, so we decided to scrap phase one and head straight for phase two, a decision greeted with near-universal glee as everyone knew what this meant……UMBRACO!
Yep, back to what we know and love. So we have until March to review existing content, construct a new platform in Umbraco from scratch, move the revised content onto the new platform, and then make it pretty.
We’re taking a service-by-service approach, sending out Project WIPpers to visit each service, assessing their requirements, and reporting back. We’re having weekly meetings focusing on a particular service, being fairly ruthless in considering what can go and what should stay, so that the end result is a lean, mean useful resource for staff.
In this way, the whole team is engaged in the project and will feel a sense of ownership in the finished product. All very democratic.
Will keep you posted…