Important Dates and Information for the Upcoming CMS Migration

The migration of the iup.edu website to a new content management system, a move from Ektron to Cascade, is scheduled to begin in May and conclude in June.

Members of IT Services and the Digital Team are working with developers from Hannon Hill Corporation, creators of Cascade CMS, on the implementation and migration of the website.

Timeline

In addition to the preparation work that has been ongoing through the semester, the migration itself involves several steps: data transfer, migration, review, and clean-up.

In the data transfer step, the implementation team will pull the website data from Ektron and transfer it to the Hannon Hill developers. To complete that transfer, we have to "freeze" editing in Ektron.

Thursday, May 6, at 3:00 p.m. will be the deadline to submit edits to the site before the freeze period. Access to the CMS will be restricted on Friday, May 7, through the following week while we transfer the website data to the vendor for the migration. (In the event emergency updates are needed during this time, please contact the Digital Team via ihelp or web-team@iup.edu)

During the migration, our live website will be unaffected and Ektron will continue to function. Once data is transferred and the freeze period is complete, we will temporarily restore access until we complete the switch to Cascade.

However, any changes that are made or new items that are created after the freeze will not be migrated to the new site, as the data transfer will be complete. Therefore, we are strongly encouraging users to make only urgent/emergency changes to their site, and only create new content if it is absolutely critical between the freeze period (after May 14) and the Cascade go-live date. Any changes or new items that are made after the freeze, while we are still in Ektron, will be the responsibility of the site maintainer(s) to recreate in Cascade after the migration. NextGen web changes will be implemented after the migration.

The Hannon Hill developers estimate the migration itself will take up to two weeks to complete. We will begin the review and clean-up steps once all the data has been transferred. As the migration is mostly automated, we will need to review and likely adjust some things before we launch. We have approximately four weeks to complete this work. Web maintainers who have been trained in Cascade will be given access to their sites during this period to assist with review and clean-up.

Once the review is complete and the necessary updates are in place, we will make the final switch and bring the new, migrated site online. The length of time for the migration and review periods are estimates and may take less or more time to complete. The switchover date is dependent on and will be determined during the migration and review periods.

Web Maintainer Responsibilities

Maintainers do not need to migrate their data; that will be done through a scripted process. Once sites have been moved to Cascade, we will open access for maintainers to review their site and assist with any clean-up.

Training

More details about training and invitations to register for sessions will be sent via email in the coming days. Training will be offered to registered maintainers. If you are not sure of your status, reach out to the Digital Team to review the list of maintainers for each site.

In advance of the migration, two types of interactive, instructor-led training will be offered. A one-hour core session for light or infrequent users, and a two-hour full session for heavy or advanced users. A one-hour overview webinar will also be offered, intended for maintainers who may not use the CMS over the summer and plan to take training closer to fall, but want to see the new system.

Additional training opportunities will be offered during the summer.

We thank everyone in advance for their patience and understanding during the transition. Questions can be directed to web-team@iup.edu.

About Cascade CMS

Cascade CMS offers an improved creation and editing experience for our content contributors / maintainers as well as features to improve the user experience for website visitors. Ease-of-use of the system was an important factor during the CMS search process.

For maintainers, a more intuitive interface and customizable dashboards allow direct access to day-to-day tasks and items they need. Cascade's built-in tools check content on submission for accessibility issues, broken links, and misspellings. Maintainers will have access to deeper reports and data through a connection to Siteimprove, a tool used by the Digital Team to identify and resolve website issues.

Maintainers will also have access within the CMS to analytics reports and an out-of-date content report, giving more insight into site content and page performance. These tools and quality assurance features, combined with the easier-to-use and more intuitive interface, will hopefully make web content creation and updates easier for maintainers. Future possibilities with Cascade include personalized website visitor content and integrations with other systems.