Name: Navigating the Transition from Legacy to Modern CMS
Uploaded: 2024-07-03
Duration: 1:40
Channel: Mark McDermott
Description: I discuss the journey of migrating from our original ScreenCloud Signage CMS to the new Studio platform. The process involved automating tasks, supporting customers, and addressing hardware compatibility challenges.

I discuss the journey of migrating from our original ScreenCloud Signage CMS to the new Studio platform. The process involved automating tasks, supporting customers, and addressing hardware compatibility challenges.

Navigating the Transition from Legacy to Modern CMS

So very recently, about one month ago, we end of lifed our original ScreenCloud product, a product known as ScreenCloud Signage. It was the first CMS that we developed for digital signage back in 2015, and served us very well all the way up to 2020 when we stopped taking new customers on board. However, we had many thousands of customers still using that old product. So we went through a long and painful process of migrating them over to Studio, which is our new CMS product, only four years old. And it was really interesting. It was such a long and painful process. And one of the key learnings is you've got to automate a lot of it, but you've got to really handhold the customer through that journey. But then you end up with a group of outliers at the end who are maybe using hardware that we no longer support, because that hardware is now almost 10 years old, and isn't supported on the new platform, because we have greater expectations of what that hardware can achieve, and we're pushing things a bit harder. And so in the end, you are forced to push those last customers over the edge. Unfortunately, no one likes to be pushed, but it's very difficult to maintain two platforms for that length of time. So a clear communication strategy, plenty of options for upgrading the hardware. We discounted our own hardware to help with that, ease the pain there. And finally, we got to turn the lights off, which is a big relief to everyone. And hopefully all the new customers are enjoying the new platform.

Video

Navigating the Transition from Legacy to Modern CMS

Key Takeaways