At a glance
NHFB’s challenge
With Drupal 7 coming to end-of-life, support for GovCMS D7 SaaS is due to end in November 2021. NHFB needed to transition to GovCMS Drupal 9 (GovCMS D9) before the November deadline.
NHFB’s transformation
Salsa recommended NHFB migrate its site to GovCMS Drupal 8 as step 1 in a two-step process, with GovCMS taking care of all D8 to D9 migrations in 2021 (step 2). This approach allowed NHFB to migrate its site sooner and with reduced risks. We rebuilt the whole site in GovCMS D8, including updating and integrating a custom data conversion tool.
The outcomes
Technical strategy to supplement the broader NHFB team
Migration to GovCMS Drupal 8 for an easier pathway to GovCMS D9
Upgrade and integration of data conversion tool with faster reporting
Reduced overall ongoing costs for the website
“Our experience with Salsa has been really positive. From our first onboarding session, to going live with D9, Salsa has been really supportive. The level of care and engagement from our project manager exceeded our expectations.”
Beci Imbriano
Director Policy, Planning and Performance
Full case study
NHFB’s challenge — end-of-life GovCMS Drupal 7
With Drupal 7 coming to end-of-life, support for GovCMS D7 SaaS is due to end in November 2021. NHFB needed to transition to GovCMS Drupal 9 (GovCMS D9).
NHFB approached the market for an experienced GovCMS vendor to provide technical skills for the GovCMS D7 to GovCMS D9 migration as well as ongoing digital services.
NHFB’s transformation — GovCMS Drupal 7 to Drupal 8 to Drupal 9
With GovCMS supporting the GovCMS D8 to D9 transition, Salsa recommended NHFB migrate its site to GovCMS Drupal 8 as step one in a two-step process. This strategy meant NHFB could migrate its site sooner (to Drupal 8) and with reduced risks. The site will then be upgraded from D8 to D9 by GovCMS in 2021.
The NHFB rebuild and migration project used a streamlined approach, delivering whole feature sets across migrated content, backend development and frontend development.
Data integration for report pages
The site had over 165,000 pages/files, including nearly 145,000 report pages. These report pages were very important because they’re a key function of the NHFB and essential for providing transparency of public hospital funding, payments and activities.
The GovCMS D7 site used a custom data conversion tool hosted on a third-party platform, which pulled raw data from data.gov.au and converted it into standardised reports. Salsa needed to re-architect the solution with minimal costs to support GovCMS 8/9. However, there was no technical documentation for the tool.
We analysed the tool, upgraded the code to meet Drupal 8 standards, and then migrated the tool onto GovCMS8. Updating the tool and consolidating it onto the same platform has delivered many benefits, including:
A simpler overall architecture
Faster data conversion and reporting
Reduced costs with less servers and support (one platform instead of two)
We’ve also identified future roadmap opportunities to further increase the speed to market for new report information.
The outcomes — strategic site migration
Major outcomes for NHFB include:
Technical strategy to supplement the broader NHFB team
Migration to GovCMS Drupal 8 for an easier pathway to GovCMS 9
Reduced overall ongoing costs for the website
Integration of the data conversion tool, including improved code and faster reports
The integration of the data conversion tool pushes the boundaries of what's possible under GovCMS SaaS. This means NHFB can achieve its goals while staying on the SaaS platform and getting all the benefits of SaaS.
About NHFB
The NHFB is an independent agency with 29 staff that support the Administrator to oversee the administration of Commonwealth, state and territory public hospital funding and payments under the NHR Agreement ($59 billion in 2020-21).