Content migration in COYO: from the old intranet to the social intranet

Finding and sharing knowledge quickly, providing employees with information, and facilitating lively interactions – a modern intranet can help establish a new knowledge and workplace culture within a company and thus form the basis for digital transformation. Providing social features such as the ability to “share content” or “follow profiles” also increases user interaction with the platform and promotes an open, collaborative corporate culture.

The extent to which the intranet is actually used on a day-to-day basis depends on a number of factors, with the platform’s content at the top of the list. It will play a role in determining whether the new platform is successful or not. After all, the content is ultimately the most important resource for employees. Documents, links, contact information, templates, and forms can only unlock their full potential if they can be found quickly, are easily accessible, and are relevant to the employees’ own work. They help determine how satisfied employees are and how strongly they identify with their employer.

This is why it’s important to answer the following questions in a timely manner when moving to a new intranet system: What content are we migrating? And above all, how do we want to present the content on the new intranet? The decision depends, of course, on the objectives you want to achieve with the platform. The intranet solution that the new digital home is based on also plays a major role, however. This is because each solution has its own specific characteristics and requires the new content structures to be adapted to the respective system.

Content migration as a key factor in the success of social intranets

COYO is a social intranet that improves communication, collaboration, and the transfer of knowledge between employees. The software manufacturer offering an intranet solution of the same name has chosen not to use the traditional hierarchical structure and has eliminated the need for complex document management systems. Instead, COYO primarily works with Pages and Workspaces. These are defined by Apps and Widgets and can either be highly collaborative or purely content-based.

What does this mean for the migration? It isn’t possible to just copy and paste – instead, the following needs to be reviewed each time before content is moved from the old intranet to its new digital home: Is the content relevant to all employees or only to a specific group? Is it information that you are required to publish or should it only be visible to certain members? A page should be used for official company news such as information on privacy, as this content is prepared and issued by the Corporate Communications department. Content or topics that are highly work-related or with a strong focus on project work are best posted to workspaces.

Afterwards, you need to ensure that the content is compatible with the new system and – depending on the specific use case – assign it to the various applications. The apps can be blogs, wikis, events, or even document, list, and form apps. Widgets add extra features to the apps and can be used on pages as well as in workspaces. The choice of widget depends on whether the content is static, dynamic, or personal. During the migration itself, COYO’s rich text editor (RTE) supports the process by allowing the content to be created, moved, and edited in a user-friendly way. The RTE is a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor, meaning that you see any changes you make immediately.

It is never too early to prepare for the migration

To ensure that the migration is a resounding success, it is important to draw up a complete inventory of all of the current content early on and then identify which content is going to be migrated. In addition, the content structures must be adapted to the new information architecture in a timely manner. After this is complete, there will be nothing standing in the way of a lean, fast, and flawless migration. And for your employees, this means that they can find relevant information and easily share their knowledge – thus helping them work independently.