There comes a time in every midmarket company's lifecycle when migrating to a different content management system (CMS) becomes a necessary evil. But it doesn't have to be painful.

Whether your company is looking to migrate from a legacy system or a proprietary CMS to a commercial or an open-source platform, it is important to lay the groundwork before jumping into the initiative, according to digital design and development firm Thought Matrix.

The company's latest newsletter outlines four basic principles of migrating content management systems, a valuable lesson plan for any midmarket company.

"A good CMS implementation enables stakeholders to manage their own content, thereby increasing the adoption of the CMS over time," Tony Rems, managing partner at Thought Matrix, writes in a whitepaper. "Poor implementations, on the other hand, tend to result in one or two people performing all the updates for the rest of the organization. Businesses invest significantly in creating content, but often end up with the content locked up in an HTML page where it cannot be effectively reused and monetized."

Here are four items to consider:

Connect key stakeholders. Whether your users are in charge of the actual content, the functionality of the site or database, the taxonomy and information architecture, or the localization and translation, having a clear command structure in place solves a lot of upfront problems.

"[You] must determine who is responsible for the functionality and whether it will move to the new site, and if so, in what form? In addition, an owner must be identified for any changes to the content," says Rems.

Establish realistic timelines. One of the biggest mistakes Rems sees with many content migration plans is that enterprises rush into time estimates with a general formula. Let's say your site has 10,000 pages, and you estimate migration will take approximately 5 minutes per page. Not bad, but if you do the math, that adds up to 50,000 minutes, which is equivalent to 833 hours. It would take 20 man-weeks to complete the migration. Add to that the large spreadsheets that content managers pass among the different stakeholders... Can you say, "Set-up for failure"?

Instead, Rems suggests using a simple database-oriented, open-source CMS as a buffer. "This allows [you] to begin preparing for a migration while a new CMS platform selection is still in process, or the new environment is still awaiting procurement."

Avoid breaking current sites. Sites that are more application-oriented or those with a great deal of functionality and integration are much more difficult to migrate than standalone sites or relatively static sites.

So the key here, according to Rems, is to have a complete understanding of what really exists with respect to content and functionality, looking at solving the issue with either a decoupled or integrated CMS. Then, "consider whether certain applications or regions can be staged over time with a roadmap for the move, which will simplify the overall process and mitigate the risk to the organization."

A highly dynamic site might choose a decoupled CMS, since an integrated one would require a midmarket company to rebuild the majority of application functionality. Compare that to a site with simple functionality, which may have an easier time with an integrated CMS.

Emphasize localization and translation. While English remains the dominant language of the Internet, it won't last. A translation memory system can reduce the overall translation effort a great deal, Rems suggests. Translation memory applications, such as Idiom's WorldServer and SDL's Trados, are translation "learning" systems that ensure faster and more consistent translation over time. This is very important if your midmarket company outsources most of its translation needs, says Rems.

Ultimately, your CMS should not rule your company, nor break your existing content, Rems adds. Proper planning and effective communication are the glue that will hold a migration together, which most midmarket stakeholders would consider sound advice.

— Michael Singer, Senior Editor at Internet Evolution, is focused on executive (Executive Clan) and midmarket (Midmarket Clan) issues.