The University of Otago
Founded in 1869, the University of Otago (Ōtākou Whakaihu Waka) is New Zealand’s oldest university and one of the top 1% of higher education institutions worldwide.
Industry
Higher Education
Products
CMS, Search, Data service, Integrations
The University of Otago, New Zealand’s first university, was struggling to keep pace with the demands of modern web experiences. Their outdated 12-year-old content management system (CMS) was buckling under the pressure, making it hard to keep content fresh and secure.
The old, on-premise system continually soaked up internal resources and was adding complexity to an already tangled web of integrations.
It simply wasn’t built for the scale or flexibility needed by a modern university.
“We’ve known for a long time that our web experience wasn’t cutting it,” shared Hone Paul, Director of Marketing at the University of Otago. “With so many different audiences, it was critical that we improved the way our site worked—for everyone.”
And the goals were simple.
After an extensive search and competitive RFP process, the University of Otago chose Squiz as its digital partner.
“We chose Squiz because they truly understood the unique needs of higher education and offered the best solution for our technology requirements,” explained Hone.
To kick things off, the university mapped out audience needs through pre-discovery sessions, including detailed UX research to understand user interactions and pinpoint areas for improvement. The team also ensured the new CMS aligned with Otago’s broader business goals.
"Working with Squiz as a blended team was phenomenal. Working together as one delivery unit meant the project team gained a massive amount of understanding and confidence in the detail of what we were doing," said Alexander Heyes, the Uni’s Program Manager.
A major first step in the transition to Squiz was the migration of more than 50,000 pages, along with hundreds of sites. “We took a like-for-like approach to ensure a smooth transition,” Hone said. The priority was minimizing disruption while moving to a platform that could evolve with their needs. The ease of the process enabled the team to run a fill site migration several times, over a three month period. They migrated all content from their current website to Squiz, checked the quality, improved the process, and migrated again. They didn't publish anything to the new site until well after the final migration, to ensure content accuracy and a high site performance.
"On the go-live day, issues cropped up, but we were sitting down in a command center with Squiz leads, and everything got sorted within hours. The level of professionalism and quality of support was just huge for a risk-averse institution doing a really daunting change," Alexander added.
By early 2024 the first step in the university’s digital transformation was complete, and the results were clear. The University of Otago now has a modern, scalable, and secure digital platform that meets their needs—and then some. Here’s what they have achieved so far:
A big security lift: One of the biggest wins was removing the cyber security risks that had plagued their old system. “We had significant risks with our previous CMS. Moving to the new system has completely removed that,” said Hone. A site scan conducted before the new site was launched revealed more than 100 medium or high-priority security issues. After the site had gone live, there were none.
A more consistent brand: With over 90% of pages now aligned to the university’s brand templates, their entire digital presence feels unified.
“We've been able to align our brand across our web presence with a coherent architecture around all our pages, which we never used to have. That key marketing pillar has finally been addressed.” - Hone Paul.
A more autonomous, efficient team: Content creation and management has never been easier. The team can now handle tasks independently, without relying on developers or designers.
“In the past, we needed a senior developer and a senior web designer for things that we can literally just do ourselves now. We recently needed a new website built, and on the old system that would have been a nightmare. We wouldn’t have been able to think about it. But this time, we had one built and up that afternoon. I don’t think we ever imagined it could be so easy.” - Maria Barsema, Manager of Web Experience at the university.
The team has shifted its focus from battling outdated systems to driving forward more strategic projects, unlocking time and energy for initiatives that matter. As they grow their team, they have also been able to bring people up to speed with site management much more quickly. In the past, it took months for new team members to understand and maintain the CMS. In contrast, two new people recently hired into the team were both confidently up and running on Squiz within three weeks.
Significantly better usability, both internally and externally: The new Squiz search functionality transformed the user experience, making it easier for students, researchers, and staff to find what they need. “The search improvements have reduced friction for anyone looking for information,” Hone explained.
In the past, for example, it was not possible to edit the search results presented to visitors. Now the team can make informed decisions about the type of results people want to see after completing a task on the website and improve the journey they have.
This has, naturally, also boosted user engagement.
Internally, the usability improvements were just as clear. "We did a system usability score (SUS) score analysis. It went from a 23 out of 100 to a 70 out of 100." – Alexander
“We received great feedback from staff and users about how much easier it was to navigate and how much better the site looked,” said Hone.
Maria echoed the ease: “It’s just so easy to train up new people. Squiz has a very shallow learning curve.”
The University of Otago’s partnership with Squiz shows how deep a strategic digital transformation like this can go. It has shored up security, created a consistent brand experience and better engagement, and freed up teams to work on what really matters.
And this is just the beginning!
“We’ve only just scratched the surface of what we can do with this new system,” says Hone. “We’re excited about where we’re heading, and we’re already planning our next big digital projects—things we couldn’t have dreamed of tackling before.”