The Blueprint for a Successful Intranet Migration

You wouldn’t start building a house without a blueprint – and the same logic applies to an intranet migration. A well-thought-out plan is the foundation of a successful migration.

Jumping into an intranet project without clear goals, stakeholder support, or a realistic timeline can lead to costly problems. Here we lay out a blueprint for intranet owners to plan and execute a smooth migration, from initial preparation through launch, with best practices at each step.

Define Your Vision and Goals

Every successful intranet migration begins with a clear vision of what you want to achieve. Define the business challenges your new company intranet should solve and the improvements you’re targeting. Examples of these areas include communication, collaboration, or knowledge sharing.

Set specific, measurable goals for the project so you know what success looks like. For example, improving intranet engagement or reducing time spent looking for information. These objectives will guide all other decisions and keep the project focused.

Gather requirements from various departments and user groups. Talk to stakeholders about their needs and current pain points. Perhaps HR wants a better people directory, or employees need a more powerful search tool.

Capture these requirements and prioritize them into “must-haves” and “nice-to-haves". This ensures the new intranet addresses critical needs first and stays within scope if trade-offs are necessary.

Align Stakeholders and Build Your Team

Intranet migrations involve many parts of the business, so getting the right stakeholders on board early is critical.

Executive Sponsorship

Start by securing an executive sponsor. This could be someone like a senior champion who believes in the project and can help secure the budget and buy-in. An engaged sponsor sends a strong message that this migration is a priority.

Assemble a Diverse Project Team

Next, assemble a cross-functional project team with clear roles. Include IT experts, content owners, corporate communications or HR reps, and a few end-user champions from different departments. This diverse team will cover technical, content, and user experience aspects of the migration process. Establish a regular meeting schedule to keep everyone aligned and informed.

Drive Success Through Transparent Communication

Transparent communication is key. Keep the wider organization informed about the intranet project’s purpose and progress. When people feel included in the process – for example, through feedback sessions or early demos – they’re more likely to support the change and even champion it.

Create a Realistic Project Timeline

One common pitfall is underestimating how long an intranet migration will take. Avoid this by creating a realistic project timeline with phases and milestones.

Typical phases include planning and discovery, design/configuration of the new intranet, content migration, testing, training & communication, and finally launch (followed by post-launch support). Work with your team to estimate the time needed for each phase.

Include buffer time for unexpected hiccups – something will almost certainly take longer than planned. Set an achievable launch date with input from your team.

If the timeline looks too tight (people still have their regular jobs to do), adjust it. It’s better to extend the schedule than to rush and risk issues at launch.

Best Practices for a Smooth Migration

With a solid plan in place, follow these best practices during execution:

• Conduct a Content Audit: Before moving anything, audit your current intranet content. Identify what’s outdated, redundant, or trivial and decide what to update, archive, or discard. This way, only clean, relevant information makes it into the new intranet.
• Test Early and Often: Set up a pilot migration with a small group of users to test the new intranet early. Their feedback will help you catch and fix issues well before the full launch.
• Communication and Training: Plan how to introduce the new intranet to all users. Provide training (live demos, webinars, or how-to guides) so employees know how to use the new features. Build excitement with internal communications – teasers, countdowns, sneak peeks – so everyone is aware that a better intranet is coming.
• Backup and Have a Rollback Plan: Back up your existing intranet data before migration and have a rollback plan. These precautions ensure you can quickly recover if something unexpected happens during the cutover.
• Measure and Adjust: Define what success means in measurable terms (for example, user adoption rates or search accuracy). After launch, monitor those metrics closely. If certain goals aren’t being met, schedule a post-migration review to make adjustments or provide additional training. Remember, an intranet migration isn’t “set and forget” – continued improvement after go-live is part of the process.

By following this blueprint and sticking to intranet migration best practices, you’ll greatly increase the chances of a smooth transition with no surprises.

Ready to put your intranet migration plan into action? Don’t start from scratch – download our comprehensive Intranet Migration Guide eBook for step-by-step planning templates and expert tips.

And if you’d like experienced guidance specific to your organization, reach out to us for a consultation. With the right plan and support, your intranet migration will be set up for success.