Meiji University CMS Introduction: Overall Renewal

In 2011, Meiji University celebrated its 130th year. Until now, the websites were independently created by each faculty and department; the start of an authentic university website was apparently in the latter half of the 1990s. However, despite a feeling of limitation in terms of site operations, this university which held issues from a PR strategy perspective planned a total renewal of its site to coincide with its 130th anniversary.

In addition to the first introduction of CMS, how do we guide a highly difficult project to success that includes transition work which spanned 8,000 pages, and a large number of stakeholders? The solution to this issue is reflected back upon in interviews with: Professor Yutaka Utashiro (Faculty of Business Administration), who works as the Vice-Chief of the Meiji University PR centre and is a specialist at the Meiji University’s President’s Office Koji Shiraishi, member of the Public Relations section of the Corporate Planning Department of Meiji University, Kohei Takizawa, who is the Loftwork chief director who managed this project.

Takizawa　It was in November 2010 that my company became involved and the project started. Please tell me candidly what the reasons were for choosing Loftwork.

Utashiro　Loftwork understood what Meiji University was trying to achieve, and proposed the best way of proceeding with the overall project, as well as the most appropriate CMS product(WebRelease 2). Additionally, as it was a foundation that we could continue to use in the mid/long-term, there was a priority placed on the actual results of large-scale site renewal, the transition work to CMS, and full CMS introduction.

Takizawa　Thank you. My impression was that, as the concept was firmly structured, it was easy to make a proposal as well as to create an order of priority. There’s a tendency in those circumstances to focus on the volume of work required and to neglect what needs to be expressed, but that wasn’t an issue here. In terms of making progress, it wasn’t a case of suddenly renewing everything at once, but rather a two-phase deployment was decided upon; the first phase involved leaving the design as it was and using CMS in the back-end, and the second phase involved making progress with migrating the existing content to CMS while incorporating the new design.

Utashiro　From the two perspectives of time and volume, it was decided that it was necessary to distribute the workload. Firstly, the foundations were laid and a path was created to bring out information in rapid succession within the framework of the new mechanisms; only the parts which physically needed to be transitioned were done in bulk in one go. The visibly renewed part was to be brought out later, after having had some time for careful deliberation.

This is exactly what the“Lean Startup”is that Loftwork progressed. Firstly, firmly structure the parts that needed to be done, and then make progress in staged with the ＋α parts. But we didn’t have the practical know-how needed in terms of how to express that in a technological fashion, so that was hammered out via our interaction with Loftwork.

Takizawa　Now, in hindsight, would you say that splitting it into two phases was the correct decision?

Shiraishi　It was the best decision in terms of implementing operations that were as gentle as possible to the actual people involved as well. More than anything, managers within the university were able to gain time to get used to the new method of information transmission.Summarily, it was the method which would benefit us the most in the long run in terms of each user happily using CMS. I think that this was a big success factor.

Takizawa　For Loftwork, to avoid detours and duplication as much as possible, we eliminated overlapping work, and made adjustments so that we would be able to proceed to the second phase in an effective fashion. Additionally, unlike the first phase where the main concentration was on systems, the second phase also involved design, and consideration was thus required in terms of what direction to proceed in.

With the meanings of “this is a phase that makes your brain go a bit soft” and “let’s change switches”, we tried handwriting proposals, and got students to participate in feedback sessions so that we could learn more about our targets, and suchlike; it was an initiative that we enjoyed being involved in.

What really struck me at the feedback sessions was that the students were very aware of the state of the university site and faculty sites – more so than we had expected. Establishing “people” as the centre of the concept and reflecting this upon the design was also strengthened by our feeling of “we want to focus on people!” as we spoke with students.

Takizawa　In this project, there was constant discussion amongst everyone about various things, and a lively feeling that we were making something together. The design was not typical of Meiji university, or a design that placed importance on the dignity of the university, but rather an adventurous, playful design. Thanks to this, I think it made it easier to focus on people, and resulted in the creation of a , in the best sense of the word, ‘raw’ site. It was a real challenge to remove information on entrance exams from global navigation. How do you feel about this?

Created 2 manuals, one for supervisors and one for operators, and implemented workshops on each campus.

Takizawa　Since we are on the topic of achievement, if there are any assessment indicators, could you please tell us about them?

Utashiro　There are no specific quantifiable indicators. The purpose of this redesign is not to verify results. More than expecting a direct result, I expect an indirect result that slowly manifests itself. I intend to observe this closely. I would like to understand and continually analyze how our university home page is being looked at by using the access log etc, and then use the information to improve the relationship.

Takizawa　Regarding the factors behind this project’s success, how have you analyzed it?

Shiraishi　 We have been blessed with good ‘people.’ More than anything, being able to come this far together with a wonderful director like Takizawa. Also, without the participation of the Information Center Vice President, Utashiro, who has a great academic understanding of on-campus matters, the dedicated cooperation of all supervisors, especially the clerical system section, and the arrival of new graduate Web specialists to the public relations section, we would not have succeeded. Also, practically, being able to introduce CMS smoothly to the whole university in the first stage. I think 80% of the project was promised at this stage. I feel it was so important to have been able to completely change the operational base in this redesign.

Takizawa　Thank you (haha). Finally, please tell us about the outlook for the future.

Shiraishi　With the Web as the driving force, and while continuing to think about the relationship with social media, the main challenge will be how to get each stakeholder involved in university activities. For specific ideas on this area we are expecting a lot from suggestions from Loftwork, which possess a wealth of experience and knowledge about the Web and social media.

Utashiro　Universities must continue to change. Therefore, you could say that this is an experiment. As we continue to experiment, it would be great if we can get it to progress in the right direction.

Takizawa　Loftwork would also like to think hard about the new future challenges facing Meiji university. Thank you for the valuable discussion today.

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