An AEM migration to remember
As you scale, so too will the need for a CMS that can operate at the sophisticated levels you need to compete. ABM, personalized journeys, multi-touch campaigns - data driven marketing requires incredible synchronization. As users flow in from their requisite channels and moments on their journey to learn about your brand or product and ultimately decide if you’re the right choice for them, will your platform accommodate?
Migrating content from one platform to another is a relatively simple effort. As long as most of the same fields from the legacy platform can find a home on the new one, the developer’s task is straightforward. What complicates things, is orchestrating the movement of thousands of pieces of content to a new category structure to match a new tag taxonomy based on new data (that maybe, you yourself researched and operationalized). To further complicate things, this must all be done while simultaneously maintaining a steady stream of new content. What made all of it worthwhile is that the new category structure, tag taxonomy, and content updates were a resounding success.
Migrating content from one platform to another is almost always fraught. I have been through it now and can testify - it is not a simple task but you can come out the other end with a stronger site, better audience quality, and better outcomes.
At Wiley I worked closely with a small but mighty Marketing Operations team that kept our ads live, our content fresh, and our pipeline pumping. We re-org’d and re-org’d and our team continued to keep the front end of our digital presence unperturbed - like a calm sea teaming below the surface. Even during tumultuous, long-day-into-night days spirits remained high and the team continued to meet deadlines and exceed expectations. We kept regular cadence across the globe, getting to know one another’s families, dogs, neighborhood idiosyncrasies, and lives. We took coding courses together to create unique content experiences for users. We took CMS training courses and internal learning time to not just get a handle on new martech, but to push it beyond expectations.
Positive leadership isn’t always obvious, but a good boss or manager’s traits become so once you experience otherwise. Like mundane news, everything going as well as or better than planned is rarely noted while fiery crashes get the lion’s share of attention. In all of my years of people management - building teams, mentoring young talent, fostering career aspirations and goals, developing skillsets, maintaining - I never had someone leave on bad terms.
