Client Overview
The client is a global law firm operating across multiple regions, with a strong emphasis on high‑quality knowledge management, internal communication, and digital workplace efficiency. Their existing intranet, built on Mercury Classic on SharePoint Classic, was reaching end‑of‑life. The client required a modern, scalable, multilingual, region‑friendly intranet environment aligned to Microsoft’s Modern SharePoint platform and Intelligent Decisioning’s latest Mercury Modern offering.
The Challenge
The classic intranet estate was large, content‑rich and regionally complex. The migration required:
- Seamless transformation of thousands of content pages and news items
- Preservation of regional differences in content, metadata and branding
- Re‑creation of advanced functionality that Classic pages relied upon
- Updating navigation, branding, templates and layouts to Mercury Modern standards
- Running delta migrations, image migrations and validation cycles
- Ensuring minimal disruption for user groups across multiple hubs
Weekly project records highlight challenges such as dealing with invalid HTML, ampersand‑related migration issues, inconsistencies in legacy page formatting, and a significant volume of pages requiring post‑migration validation.
Additionally, the client required improved navigation patterns, modern search behaviour and configurable regional news publishing—all while maintaining strict brand governance.
The Solution
1. Mercury Modern Deployment & Configuration
Intelligent Decisioning deployed the full Mercury Modern framework, including:
- MegaNav and Command Bar configuration to replace legacy navigation patterns
- Regionalised news templates via the Wayfarer engine
- Branding updates applied at scale across thousands of migrated pages
- Runtime CSS adjustments for region-specific visual elements (e.g., Canada-specific styles)
2. Automated Migration Processes
The team executed a multi‑stage migration programme:
- Full page delta migration with automated reporting and exception handling
- Document delta migrations across all sites to ensure continuity of content workflows
- Image delta migrations covering historical and updated assets
- Cleanup scripts including page cleansers for quick links, section headers, and branding alignment
- UAT entry criteria management and iterative cycles of page validation, reducing outstanding issues to a small subset requiring ID review
3. Enhancing Mercury to Meet the Client Needs
Where Mercury Modern’s extensive customisation options were not initially sufficient, ID extended the platform:
- Enhanced news distribution logic for regional publishing
- Added tools for updating section headers, links formatting and migrated content
- Introduced improved search configuration
4. Collaborative Approach with the client
The clients internal teams were closely involved, receiving:
- Regionally sandboxed training environments
- Direct support on configuration queries
- Iterative validation spreadsheets to track completion across hubs
The project benefited from open communication, joint problem‑solving and a unified goal of achieving a globally consistent modern intranet.
The Results
By project completion, the client had been successfully transitioned from a complex classic intranet to a strategically aligned Mercury Modern environment that delivers:
Modern UI & Consistent Branding
A fully refreshed user experience aligned with client-specific branding—applied automatically across thousands of migrated pages.
Improved Navigation & Content Discoverability
MegaNav, enhanced search, and command bar features significantly streamlined access to key resources.
Region‑Aware Content Management
Regional news templates, metadata alignment, and modernised Wayfarer processes enabled more targeted and efficient publishing.
Operational Efficiency Gains
Automation of deltas, content cleansing and validation reduced ongoing overhead and provided a repeatable model for future migrations.
Future‑Ready Platform
The client is now positioned to take advantage of Microsoft’s ongoing Modern SharePoint innovations and Intelligent Decisioning’s Mercury enhancements—ensuring long‑term sustainability and reduced technical debt.
Conclusion
The classic‑to‑modern migration is a flagship example of Intelligent Decisioning’s ability to:
- Execute high‑volume, technically complex SharePoint modernisation
- Enhance its Mercury product in response to real‑world customer needs
- Deliver a modern, intuitive, scalable digital workplace experience
Leveraging robust processes, advanced tooling (Wayfarer, MegaNav, Mercury Modern), and close collaboration with the client, the transformation achieved a modernised intranet estate ready to support the clients global workforce.
