SharePoint to Umbraco Migration for a Corporate Portal

As SaM Solutions grew, the internal corporate portal became increasingly important for communication, knowledge sharing, employee services, and access to company information. However, the existing platform was based on SharePoint Server 2013 and no longer met the company’s technical, security, and usability requirements.

The portal was difficult to maintain, slow to update, and inconvenient for employees. Since SharePoint Server 2013 was approaching the end of support, SaM Solutions also needed to reduce future security, compliance, and maintenance risks.

The portal contained corporate news, policies, instructions, internal documents, and other employee-facing materials. Over time, part of this content became outdated or hard to find. This created the risk of employees relying on obsolete information, rules, or instructions.

The user experience also required a major update. The old portal had an outdated interface, a complex content structure, slow page loading, and limited mobile usability. Employees had trouble navigating the system, searching for information, viewing media, and receiving timely updates.

Portal administration was another challenge. Editors had limited flexibility when working with content blocks, templates, visual elements, and approval workflows. User management also needed improvement.

The old portal was available only through the corporate intranet or via VPN. This limited access for remote and mobile employees and reduced overall engagement with internal content.

SaM Solutions needed to choose between upgrading to a newer SharePoint version or moving to a more flexible platform that could better support its internal communication needs.

After analyzing internal requirements, SaM Solutions chose Umbraco as the new CMS foundation for its corporate portal. The platform offered the flexibility, usability, customization options, security, and extensibility needed for a modern employee-facing solution.

The project team prepared a detailed implementation plan and delivered the new portal within the agreed timeline and budget.

Portal migration to Umbraco

SaM Solutions migrated the corporate portal from SharePoint Server 2013 to Umbraco 11. The new CMS gave the client a more flexible foundation for managing internal content, corporate news, documents, events, employee services, and role-based pages.

The team safely transferred selected data from the old platform to the new solution. At the same time, the migration created an opportunity to clean up outdated materials, reorganize content, and improve the overall information structure.

Umbraco’s open-source nature also helped reduce platform-related costs and avoid unnecessary licensing complexity.

UI/UX redesign and mobile access

SaM Solutions redesigned the portal to make it clearer, faster, and easier to use. The new interface improved navigation, content discovery, page structure, and access to key employee services.

The portal was also built as a fully responsive solution. Employees can now use it from desktops, laptops, tablets, and mobile devices.

This was especially important because the old portal was available only through the corporate intranet or VPN. The new solution enables secure access outside the intranet, allowing employees to stay connected without using a VPN client.

Secure access and user roles

Security remained a key requirement throughout the migration. SaM Solutions integrated the portal with Azure Active Directory and implemented authorization and single sign-on functionality.

The new solution supports role-based access. Specific pages can be displayed depending on the user’s role and office location.

This helped SaM Solutions combine wider accessibility with strong control over internal content and employee data.

Integrations with corporate systems

SaM Solutions integrated the new portal with the client’s existing IT ecosystem, including HRM and Azure Active Directory.

The team also connected the platform with external third-party services. These integrations helped reduce manual work, improve employee workflows, and make the portal a practical daily tool rather than a static information repository.

The portal was also synchronized with the client’s event mobile application. This simplified the management of corporate online and offline events, meetings, and employee notifications.

Employee-facing functionality

The new portal gives employees access to a wide range of internal services and information in one place.

Employees can use the portal to:

• Access corporate rules, policies, instructions, and internal materials
• Read company news and updates
• Receive notifications about events and meetups
• Search for coworkers in the employee database
• Manage resumes
• Place and manage orders across food delivery services
• View corporate discounts and social benefits

As a result, the portal became a central platform for employee communication, internal services, and company updates.

Agile delivery

SaM Solutions formed an internal project team based on the needs of the portal modernization initiative. The team included a product owner, front-end developer, back-end developer, UI/UX designer, and QA engineer.

The project was delivered using Agile methodology with one-week sprints. Regular communication through Microsoft Teams helped keep stakeholders informed and ensured transparent progress throughout the engagement.

SaM Solutions delivered a secure, responsive, and easy-to-manage Umbraco-based corporate portal within 3.5 months.

The new solution helped the client move away from an outdated SharePoint Server 2013 portal and reduce security, maintenance, and usability risks. Employees received a modern platform that works across devices and can be accessed securely without a VPN.

SaM Solutions also gained a more flexible CMS foundation. Editors can now manage corporate content, news, events, internal materials, and employee-facing services more efficiently.

As a result, SaM Solutions received a modern corporate portal that improved employee communication, access to information, collaboration, and engagement.