University College Cork
Website Design Migration Project
1 Web Design Migration Project – Final Report
1.1 Executive Summary
Our original goal was to apply the new UCC web design to all UCC websites
within 18 months without significantly disrupting individual site information
provision. During this project we have made significant progress and
improvements to the university’s digital estate.








We’ve brought 348 sites through the process,
We’ve provided mobile accessible websites to the vast majority of public
facing UCC websites
We’ve introduced further improvements to the available website features
(improved social media plugins, improved news and photo galleries,
improved site homepage features),
We’ve established a panel of external suppliers who are available to help
us enhance our digital estate,
The Digital Estate Working Group has been established to manage the
university’s digital estate,
We’ve developed a new page for display of online courses in parallel to the
website design migration project,
We’ve also concurrently developed a new platform for the provision of
sports websites that will significantly enhance the presence of UCC’s sport
function on the world wide web (go live due 8 September),
Alongside the website migration project, we have also fully supported the
George Boole 200 site development.
The website design migration project sees further improvements to the UCC
digital estate that can be built on into the future. A number of sites were not
migrated as part of the project but will instead need support as full
redevelopment projects in their own right.
1.1.1 The Numbers
Phase
Live Pre Migration
Pilot
Phase 1
Phase 2
Phase 3
Total sites1:
Number of Sites
28
13
123
147
37 ~
348
Numbers of sites are estimates only as it is difficult to gauge exact numbers when sites
are changing on a daily basis. Some non-CMS sites have been included in the migration,
but most of the figures refer to the content managed sites.
1
Page 1 of 4
University College Cork
Website Design Migration Project
1.2 Phase 3
A total of 37 sites were passed through the migration process during phase 3.
Concurrently 49 non-CMS sites were evaluated. Of these,



21 sites were archived / removed from the webserver. This was because
they may have had a CMS equivalent or they were no longer needed.
Anything that may be of historical interest was moved to
http://www.ucc.ie/archive
14 web accounts were left as they were. This was because they may have
specific piece of software that could not be replicated under the CMS.
14 sites are in the process of being moved from the webserver either to a
wordpress site or to the main CMS. These are being undertaken by the
individuals in question and are no longer part of the migration project
itself.
Of the 37 sites identified through the migration process for Phase 3




5 were brand new sites and are still in development
4 sites are awaiting final sign off (expected before the end of August)
8 will remain as they are
15 went live
1.2.1 Separate Projects Required
There are a number of sites that have proved challenging to migrate as part of
the overall migration project. These will need to be tackled in individual projects
and as part of the ongoing improvement and development of UCC’s digital
estate.
1. Research: This is a key strategic area of the UCC website. Currently the
Research office maintains a non-CMS website. Any time they want to
make changes beyond minor alterations to content, they have to contact
the original developers which incurs costs. When the site can be moved to
the content management system, we can begin to provide a lot more
support for this area. We have built a duplicate of this site within the CMS
but additional design and development work will be required. Initial
scoping meetings have taken place with a view to progressing this in the
medium term.
2. Student Experience: Encompasses areas such as the old “Current
Students” section, the new “Students” section and the “Campus Life”
section. The whole digital landscape and how we communicate with the
students is being examined by the Student Experience function of the
university. One of the key goals from the process will have to be a
revamped web presence.
3. Accommodation: A cornerstone of both the student recruitment and
student experience pages of the site, the accommodation information
Page 2 of 4
University College Cork
Website Design Migration Project
needs to be looked at more holistically. Both Campus Accommodation and
Accommodation and Student Activities have agreed to cooperate more
closely on providing enhanced accommodation information for the end
user. This is expected to take a year to complete as there is bespoke
functionality on the ASA externally hosted website which will need to be
replicated within the UCC website. A firm set of requirements, project
owner and budget will need to be determined.
4. Beaufort Sites: The HMRC and CMRC, as part of the beaufort research
group have been excluded from migration while questions regarding the
restructuring of these related groups remain unanswered. Once clarity is
in place, their sites can be supported / changed as per the normal service
support from IT services.
5. Policies and Procedures: The policies and procedures of the university
need to be tackled as well. There needs to be a consistent way of adding,
approving and presenting policy and procedure information across all units
and departments. We have discussed this in the past with OCLA and they
agreed that this needs to be tackled. In the absence of an owner for
internal communications, though, this issue remains in holding. Again, a
firm set of requirements and project owner will need to be determined.
1.2.2 Out of Scope
1. Intranet sites
2. Student sites: The societies’ guild migrated their web presence to an
external service several years ago. Clubs sites will be moved to the new
clubs website service over the course of the next few months as part of
the move to a new web platform for sports.
3. Self-Hosted Sites: Three departments maintain their own webservers.
a. Physics
b. School of Music and Theatre
c. Business Information systems
We would recommend that they be encouraged to align their web
presences to the main UCC website design as part of any future upgrades
to their sites.
1.3 Final Analysis
The website migration project has seen a total of
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
309 sites fully migrated and live
351 sites passed through the migration process
150 non-CMS web site accounts removed from the webserver
30 brand new sites requested (21 of which are live)
A roll out of mobile accessible websites to the vast majority of public
facing UCC websites.
Page 3 of 4
University College Cork
Website Design Migration Project
Our original goal was to apply the new UCC web design to all UCC websites
within 18 months without significantly disrupting individual site information
provision. While we have not moved every single UCC website to the new design
(due to a variety of reasons as outlined above), we feel that the project has still
been a success as we have achieved a greater adoption of the main UCC website
design than in any previous redesign, within our target time frame and with little
disruption to the day to day running of individual sites. We can provide greater
support to a larger number of websites than we have in the past. We have a
solid website platform that can be grown and developed for future
improvements.
Page 4 of 4