We have spent the summer months deep at work in writing, editing and migrating content to the new website. We also received Drupal content management system (CMS) training in June. As with any new website and new CMS platform, it takes time to learn the new platform as you work with it. During the process, you encounter bugs or stuff that you didn’t anticipate, which can delay the migration of content and finalizing the site. Some of the integrations have taken longer to address than we originally anticipated, e.g., integration with the Acalog digital catalog, the campus directory (to be pulled from PowerCampus) and the campus calendar.
Our original project schedule with our project vendor, BarkleyREI, called for us to launch the site in late October 2021. We tried to move up the launch of the site two months to just before the start of the new academic year. However, this summer we have realized that moving up the launch date was too ambitious and more than we could take on as a team given that we service the marketing and communication needs for many campus clients and the month of August is an especially busy time for us. So we have returned to our original project schedule and now plan to launch the new website in mid-October.
University Beta Preview Period – September 13-24
Delaying the launch of the new website will also permit us to have a longer beta preview period, where we can share the site with the university community who can submit website updates and changes to Marketing and Communications and our team can then make content changes and updates before our launch date in October.
You can expect to see communication to the campus community as we get closer to the university beta preview asking faculty and staff to review the new site and submit site changes and updates to us using our web content update request form. Submitted content updates and changes to the site will be prioritized during the beta preview period and will continue
Revised Project Schedule
- Code Freeze 1 – 8/30-8/31
- Project Vendor Beta Review – 9/1 – 9/8 –
- Project Vendor Beta Resolution – 9/8 – 9/10 –
- Lenoir-Rhyne Campus Beta Preview (two weeks for people to submit site updates or changes) – 9/13 – 9/24
- Lenoir-Rhyne Beta Resolution – 9/27 – 10/6
- Code Freeze 2 & Site Hosting Migration – 10/7 – 10/8
- New Website Launch – 10/11-10/12 (fall break)
After site launch, our work doesn’t stop and will continue into the fall.
