The first step in the replatforming process is to assess your current platform and identify its strengths and weaknesses. This will help you to identify the pain points and areas for improvement that need to be addressed in the new platform. Some of the key factors to consider when assessing your current platform include:
Technology problems?
- Is our basic ERP storefront limiting you from building a modern, intuitive experience?
- Is your platform so heavily customized that it has become obsolete or impossible to support?
- Is your ecommerce site not mobile-friendly?
- Did you build your commerce on top of a CRM or CRM-based solution?
- Did you pick a platform that was built for B2C, and doesn’t meet your needs?
- Is your ecommerce data siloed from your ERP data or other backend systems?
- Is your data not refreshed because of integration issues? Support problems?
- Do you have to get in touch with a developer every time you want to make minor changes to your website?
- Are customer service representatives unavailable when you need them?
- Is your provider ignoring your support tickets? Experience problems?
- Are you failing to meet the expectations of your customers for powerful and seamless buying experiences? (Remember they’ve grown used to Amazon-like experiences)
- Is the navigation less than intuitive? What about the site structure or the pages?
- Do your customers have a hard time finding what they need to find with search?
- Are you failing to provide customer-specific information, pricing, catalog and order approvals?
- Do you have poor site performance, errors, down time or other experience problems?
Adoption/Onboarding problems?
- Are you finding it challenging to onboard customers?
- Are you experiencing high shopping cart abandonment rates?
- Did your sales team fail to embrace the new system?
- Is it cumbersome for team members (or customers) to use the platform?
- Are you failing to meet your digital revenue goals?
- Is the platform failing to meet the needs of everyone involved in your buying cycle?
If you have answered yes to several of these questions, it may be necessary to consider replatforming. However, it is common to experience anxiety and hesitation when updating to a new platform, and this is understandable.There are significant risks and challenges associated with such a big move, such as:
- Pushback due to mislagnment on prioritization from the different stakeholders
- Damaging the UX/CX and losing clients due to disappointment with the new design
- Cultural inertia and resisting the ensuing changes
- Data loss from moving data from one platform to another
- Experiencing downtime that can disrupt business operations and lead to lost revenue
- Compatibility issues of the new platform with existing systems and software, leading to integration issues and additional costs.
- Security risks: The migration process may create vulnerabilities in the new platform, leaving it susceptible to security breaches and cyber attacks.
- Cost overruns: Platform migration can be expensive, and unexpected costs can arise during the process, such as additional consulting fees, licensing fees, and software updates.
- Business disruption: Platform migration can disrupt business operations and lead to decreased productivity, customer dissatisfaction, and lost revenue.
To minimize these risks, it is important to carefully plan and execute the migration process, involve all relevant stakeholders, and test the new platform thoroughly before fully transitioning to it.
To assist you in effectively planning your replatforming project, we have compiled a list of best practices for implementing changes to your site while minimizing disruptions to data collection: