Good afternoon,
As you’re aware, University Communications and MSU IT are working to implement a new content management system – Sitecore XM Cloud – and migrate MSU’s existing websites from the old Sitecore XP system to this new upgraded system. This all needs to be completed by January 31, 2025. Please read below for an update on this project.
Completed work
University Communications and MSU IT Sitecore migration project staff have made significant progress on the transition from Sitecore XP to Sitecore XM Cloud (XMC).
- All foundational phase work has been completed. This includes platform implementation and development of foundational page components.
- Content migration for approximately 20 sites has been completed or is in progress. University Communications will contact these units to initiate the website review and launch process and schedule staff training.
- Through this early migration work, we’ve learned that the process of migrating an individual website is faster than what was originally thought. Part of this is thanks to MSU IT; their staff members were able to develop tools to automate some of the process.
- Today we launched the first live website in XMC. The MSU Brand Studio is now running live on the new platform.
Looking ahead
Migration project staff are continuing to work through the list of websites that can be migrated using only the available foundational components. Website owners will be contacted individually as we approach the start of the migration time frame for their website.
In our current phase of the project, we are working on creating specifications and working towards development of additional components and functionality. Websites currently using these components in Sitecore XP will need to wait until this XMC development work is completed before we can begin their migration. We plan to migrate these websites starting in the late summer or early fall.
Training plans
For websites migrating from Sitecore XP to Sitecore XMC: We will initially offer site-specific training sessions to unit staff as each website content migration completes. Unit staff will be trained on how to use the system and will receive system access prior to receiving their migrated website for review. This will allow unit staff to make updates to the website while reviewing it prior to launch. As our migration process continues and more sites come online, we may adapt this training model to a group approach.
For units waiting to begin work on new websites: We will begin rolling out training and access to units soon. Please note that not all components and features will be available until development is completed later this year. Units may begin working on pages using foundational components and can add these additional features (e.g., news, calendar, people directory) when they become available.
Demo
We’ve created a short demo reel where you can view how simple it is to create and populate a page in XMC’s new Pages feature. Watch the demo here. An extended demo showing a build of a full page is also available.
We appreciate your patience and collaboration as we work through this technology transformation. As always, please let me know if you have any questions.
Regards,
Katie Kelly
University Communications