Ikointl: Bringing People Together for Better Kiteboarding

As their community grew and they began offering an option to shop credits and merchandise, the need to migrate the site to the latest version became more pressing. And that’s when they came to AddWeb Solution, looking to hire Drupal developers who can offer tailored Drupal development services.

Our interactions with the client helped us learn that they were looking to hire Drupal developers who could:

• Process the Drupal 7 to 10 migration skillfully.
• Strategize the entire migration process effectively.
• Ensure that no data or information is lost, no matter what.
• Complete the Drupal migration process quickly and efficiently.
• Deliver the website with better performance and ease of administration.

About Ikointl: Ikointl was established in 2001 by kiteboarders Frédéric Béné and Eric Beaudonnat as the International Kiteboarding Organization (IKO). It grew from a 2-man initiative to the largest kiteboarding organization in the world. Ikointl now has an active community of more than 600,000 kiters. They also have 5,000 certified instructors and 350 affiliated centers across the world in more than 60 countries. The mission of the organization is to promote safety and sustainable kiteboarding by empowering kiters to participate in the sport with poise and confidence.

Once we got on board the project, the first thing we did was to analyze the existing site for any limitations or lapses that might interrupt the migration process. After the analysis, we decided to go with the Drupal 7 to 10 migration using a phased approach. We also worked with the client, explaining the latest features and their benefits, such as better speed, multi-language support, better performance, etc.

After the client learned everything about the migration, we decided to go at it with a strategic plan. In order to execute this, we needed an experienced and skilled team.

Based on the previous migration experiences and Drupal development capabilities, we assembled a team. The team also had a quality analyst to test the website after migration for performance, security, and management, along with a project manager.

In order to carry out the migration process, we assessed the content types on the older website and planned the migration based on the same. After the analysis, we created a checklist of the site modules to ensure that we got everything. After that, we went ahead and updated the Drupal version from 7 to 8. With this, the first phase of the migration was over.

We then moved on to the second phase. This started with taking the backup of the existing website. And we downloaded the fresh installation of Drupal 10 for the process. Having already carried out Drupal 10 migration multiple times, our team was already an expert in the process. And it progressed efficiently. After the same, we chose the most suitable method of migration as per the site’s features and modules.

The next stage was the assessment of the content to ensure a smooth migration. We identified a range of unused content pieces on the website. This helped us save a lot of time and effort during the migration process. At the end of the project, the site was migrated to the latest Drupal version successfully.

In the process of Drupal migration, we used Azure cognitive services API to accelerate advanced decision-making into client websites and Azure Entity moderation webform to manage their customer inquiries easily.

The website management time was reduced by 47%, and the number of sessions went up by 39%. As the site became exceptionally well-performing on diverse platforms, the number of users also went up. The site also registered more sales in terms of credits and merchandise.

Here is a breakdown of their platform’s performance in 3 months.