Migration and modernization of a complex Drupal platform for LIA
Laser Institute of America (LIA) is an expert institution that develops and shares expertise in laser technologies, their applications and safety. It's one of the few organizations that certify specialists in laser technologies by providing learning courses, conferences, training, memberships, brochures, and ANSI Z136 certified products.
The challenge
The LIA website had legacy functionalities, encouraging the customer to upgrade the platform to improve user experience and streamline business processes.
The client set up clear goals for our team:
- Drupal 7 to 10 migration for existing LIA website, while saving all the functionalities, content, and user data.
- Upgrading the website UI/UX to make it more consistent and easy to navigate for all types of users.
Delivered value
- UI/UX website redesign with improved shopping experience, including a single-step checkout, membership system, and user account management.
- Drupal 10 website development with minimal downtime for end users during new platform launch.
- Seamless data migration of all user accounts from a previous platform, including purchase histories, active certifications, and courses.
- Integration of the laser evaluator app on both sides using SAML SSO authentication protocol.
Solution
Starting with the discovery phase to dive deeper into the client's challenges and requirements, we conducted a comprehensive analysis of the existing platform and created a step-by-step development roadmap.
As a result, our engineering team conducted a complex webshop Drupal 10 migration, including thousands of products, orders, and customer records to ensure platform security, scalability, and stable performance. All the website changes were insignificant for end users as we aimed to reach minimal downtime during the launch.
Our engineers ensured smooth data migration, saving all the website content and users' historical data. We also integrated laser safety hazard evaluator software into the new website.
Simultaneously, we implemented a future-proof, user-friendly design to enhance the shopping experience and align it with current ecommerce best practices. Among the core improvements were the UI for individual and corporate memberships, search functionality, design for product cards, and learning courses.
