EDF Energy's seamless move to Drupal 10
Achievements
⭐️ Migrated all site content, with custom automations that ensured every page looked good in the new system
⭐️ Supported the client-side team with high quality technical project management
⭐️ Industry-leading performance when rated by customers in internal testing
A new Drupal build is an opportunity
Whilst some have groaned at the time and cost of a Drupal 10 rebuild, for many it's an opportunity. The new site was to be a reimagining of their Digital Experience, not just some boring reboot. edfenergy.com was going to carve a new future with streamlined channels for each user group and a new fresh theme.
Working with our partners in the EDF Energy team, we reviewed every feature added to the site over the last five years. Customer Experience Managers were able to choose what they wanted and needed - only the used features would be taken forward to the new site - and where it wasn't obvious, we obtained data and analytics to guide the decision making process.
This wasn’t just a cost-cutting exercise, either. Whilst it’s always good to skip over old unused functionality, the features that were taken forward were not just copied and pasted, but reviewed and discussed and redesigned - each ready for a new future.
Effective planning and organisation
Alongside the development work, our team provided the data and technical experience needed to guide the Drupal 10 build and migrate process, leading to a well-scoped, successful project.
As is common with big builds, the design work was not complete when we started. We were able to work in an Agile way to deliver the designs as they were ready. Our flexibility well beyond just agile principles means that we're often able to flex or stretch to help keep projects moving effectively.
Structured communication and frequent deliveries allowed for regular QA testing, performance testing, UAT testing and Content testing. Even as the end of the project neared, there were no surprises. The client team had been able to see, review, try out and test every workflow, process and page.
"The smoothest migration I've ever been a part of"
Ben Chipperfield
A very smooth content migration
The new www.edfenergy.com site came out on top in their customer testing - probably because they had a great site with excellent content!
It was decided that the migrations from old sites should retain the original content as much as possible. Customer success rates were already high, and it would be a lot of work to rebuild all the content. Bespoke automations converted the layouts of the original content into layouts for the new site, meaning it wasn’t necessary for editors to spend extensive hours recreating every page and checking layouts. Everything looked good as standard.
We ran the existing sites and new sites side-by-side in the same infrastructure, giving content teams chance to review the new sites before they went live. The new editorial experience made it easy to tweak wording or rework page layouts as needed.
The Help Centre rebuild
Pragmatism and real usage data ensured that effort was spent effectively on pages and functionality that needed it. That put critical pages like the Help Centre first in line for the resources required to redesign and rebuilt.
A platform of six sites has many stakeholders - and they all love us ❤️
The managers, leads and CxOs
Alongside edfenergy.com there are five other sites, all with their own teams, goals and stakeholders. Needless to say, we had a fair few meetings over the project timeline! We brought our best selves and were able to not only keep everything on track, but also ensure everyone was heard, everyone understood all the tech speak, and everyone was happy.
The project team
Large site rebuilds like this always bring up a selection of significant changes en route. It’s just how it works! 😇 Our knowledgeable team were able to steer those conversations with confidence, building trust in not just our words but in our real ability to work together through big changes and compromises.
The admins and editors
We’re pleased to have some really effective communicators and teachers among us, so were able to deliver both on-the-fly-mid-meeting training and officially scheduled training sessions. It helps that Drupal 10 has really simple and intuitive interactions, and we were able to ensure that by project completion the EDF Energy teams and stakeholders had sufficient knowledge and confidence to drive their new platform.
