Articles

If your organisation is running a SilverStripe website, you're not alone. SilverStripe is one of the most widely used CMS platforms in New Zealand, particularly among non-profits, NGOs, and government agencies. But a growing number of these organisations are looking at alternatives, and the case for moving is strong. Modern CMS platforms are cheaper to maintain, easier for editors to use, and more flexible to build on. This guide covers why organisations are making the shift, what the alternatives look like, and what's actually involved in moving.

"How much will this cost?" is usually the first question. It's a fair question, and it deserves a straight answer. The short version: a replatform typically costs less than a redesign, because you're keeping your existing design and content and replacing the infrastructure underneath. But the exact number depends on your site's size, complexity, and what you want to improve along the way. Here's where the money actually goes.

A website replatform replaces the technology that powers your website: the CMS, the hosting, the deployment pipeline, and often the front-end framework. It keeps the design, the content, and the experience your audience sees. It's a concept that's becoming more relevant as organisations find themselves running websites on platforms that were the right choice five or ten years ago, but now cost more to maintain than they should, limit what the team can do, and carry growing technical risk.

While AI continues to evolve and present new challenges, we've been learning a lot along the way, including what it could mean for our clients and the overall work we do at Haunt Digital. Here are some thoughts...

We built an AI-powered bill reader for Powerswitch and the strong results show how AI tools can effectively solve real world problems.

People often seem surprised or, at least, interested in our work in Australia. Here’s a bit of context about that work, and reflections on a recent trip I took to Melbourne.

Continuous Improvement (CI) is a key approach in enhancing and extending a website's lifespan. We've always encouraged it, but CI has mostly been used by clients with bigger budgets. The good news? New tools and technology are making CI easier and more affordable for all web teams to adopt.

The purpose of websites is changing, and an emerging area is direct forms of engagement between organisations and their communities. This article explores this phenomenon, with some thoughts about what this can mean, especially for owners and managers of publicly-funded and community-focussed sites.

Showcasing projects, people, and institutions at the forefront of the creative engagement with Aotearoa New Zealand and Latin America.

After #gardening-and-renovations, the #food channel is the water-cooler type Slack channel at Haunt Digital. A highlight of that channel this year has been Rob’s spicy chicken recipe, which is the result of reverse engineering some of Haunt’s favourite fried chicken recipes from around Wellington. In terms of Christmas dinner options, it's traditional because it's a bird, but radical in every other way.

In a previous article, we talked about why we went remote. This article outlines some of the things we've learned as result. Some of it's kind of obvious, but some of it's the result of a bit of deeper reflection and experience that comes from two years now as a fully remote business.

For most website owners (especially those without a dedicated IT team in-house), their relationship with their web vendor is crucial to managing cybersecurity outcomes. Proactively managing your site's security with the help of your vendor is key to significantly reducing the chance of an incident, and a costly recovery (and a stink time!). Here’s some things to think about when working with your vendor on cybersecurity, much of which we’ve learned along the way.

Asia New Zealand Foundation and the Asia Media Centre recently joined an increasing number of organisations choosing to move their websites to a headless CMS – making their website management easier, more secure and cost effective.

Post-lockdown, we trialled a hybrid work environment, but found it made more sense for us to go all in — so we closed the office and went fully remote. This is why.

We think that understanding how to manage technical debt with your vendor is an important way to get the most out of your web investment and avoid costly and unpleasant suprises.

TLDR; Like a growing number of organisations in New Zealand, Te Papa Tongarewa decided that the benefits of modern web architecture justified rebuilding two of their websites without making major design or content changes. Because of Haunt’s experience in this area and our shared passion for modern web technology, Te Papa asked us to support them with their re-platform project.

Rebuilding your existing website on Jamstack web architecture can be a great way to resolve technical issues on your current site and take advantage of modern web technology without investing in a complete redesign and rethink of your web presence.

Most web projects have good people doing great work on them. So why do so many fail?

We have found Jamstack websites cost less for our clients to own and operate when compared to other common web platforms.

Production partnerships can allow web agencies to specialise in their chosen area of expertise and reduce project risks, while still delivering a high quality, end to end service to their client.

Upgrading your Common Web Platform (CWP) website to CWP 2.0 can be difficult. If you haven't upgraded your website yet you should consider the options that are available. Note this article was originally published in 2019.