The Future of i:Create

We are committed to being transparent with you throughout this transition by sending out notices and keeping this page up to date as our plans are finalized. If you’re not already receiving our email notices or if you have questions that aren’t answered here, please reach out to your Account Manager.

If you are not sure who your Account Manager is, please contact our Head of Account Management, Michelle Teichman, at michelle.teichman@ghd.com.

End-of-life and migration process

Register for our upcoming webinar on the iCreate to Govstack transition

The retirement of i:Create has become necessary due to advances in technology, best practices, user needs, as well as market and competitive pressures.  

i:Create has been around for more than 20 years. Due to its age, i:Create has become difficult to maintain and keep up-to-date with best practices in development, security, performance, and accessibility. 

Govstack has been developed with adaptability and scalability in mind, so it can provide the strength and flexibility needed to carry us and our customers forward into the future.

Maintenance for your services will end approximately six (6) months before your service end-of-life date, while support services will be available all the way through to end-of-life. We will be contacting every customer with your specific end-of-maintenance and end-of-life date.  

All clients will receive initial communication in November 2024. Depending on your specific services, you will receive follow up communication in either November 2024, December 2024, February 2025 or March 2025 with more information about your end-of-maintenance and end-of-life dates.

If you believe you have not received this information, please contact your Account Manager, who can also provide this to you.

We will contact you soon with your specific migration timeline. Depending on your specific services, you will receive follow up communication in either November 2024, December 2024, February 2025 or March 2025 with the details of your end-of-life date and your migration timeline.

Please visit the i:Create to Govstack Migration Centre for more information or if you would like to see a sample migration timeline.

You can also contact your Account Manager at any time, who can provide this information to help you plan. 

Yes, technical support will remain unchanged. Please continue to use our support portal and bring any other items to your Account Manager. 

Your Implementation Team at GHD will work with you to migrate the content of your website. This will begin with an automated tool that will bring all of your existing i:Create website content into your new Govstack site, including your existing sitemap. From there, our team will clean up 200 pages for you. View full details outlining what we'll complete as part of our content migration clean up process.

Following your team’s training on Govstack, you will finalize the content clean up as a learning exercise.

Form Builder and Calendar are being carried forward into Govstack as Govstack Forms and Govstack Events. All of your Form Builder and Calendar data will be migrated as part of our upgrade process, including all calendar events, calendar subscribers, and responses submitted to your Forms. Some clients may have a special setup with multiple installations of the i:Create Calendar - historical events will only be migrated for one installation. We will work with you to determine which installation we will migrate historical events for.

News articles will not be migrated as Govstack uses a different News tool. If retaining historical news records is important to you, we can discuss options for manual migration or provide an export for internal reference.

Please speak with your Account Manager if you have any questions. 

In most cases, your annual subscription amount will not change and will come into effect when we give you admin access to your Govstack website. 

In cases where products have been upgraded or you choose to add new products, features or services to your Govstack website, your new annual fees will reflect these changes. All new costs will be completed by way of a Change Order, requiring your team’s signature.

In terms of the one-time cost to upgrade to Govstack, your Account Manager will determine this with you based on the scope of your individual project.

Communication from our team will be regular and ongoing. You will receive formal communications via our i:Create mailing list and also have open communication with your Account Manager and your Implementation team throughout the entire process.

After your new Govstack website has gone live, your Account Manager will be your main point of contact, and you will continue to have access to our Support portal as well as the Govstack Learning Centre. We also have information publicly available on the Govstack website outlined in the Future of i:Create webpage. 

Your primary contact will be your Account Manager.

If you are not sure who this is, please contact our Head of Account Management, Michelle Teichman, at michelle.teichman@ghd.com. 

In addition to the communication you will receive from our team and the support of your Account Manager, the i:Create to Govstack Migration Centre and the Future of i:Create section on our website are great resources for your team.

We will also be hosting webinars, the first of which will be on December 16, 2024. If you have not already done so, please register for the webinar series. 

You can also reach out to your Account Manager with questions. If you are not sure who this is, please contact our Head of Account Management, Michelle Teichman, at michelle.teichman@ghd.com.

Govstack features and training

Access Govstack training videos Visit the Govstack learning centre

Govstack has retained many of your favourite and most-used features from i:Create, as well as introduced some great new tools (e.g., the ability to create your own Landing Pages, access to the Govstack Pattern Library for unique page design and layout, and a click-drag-drop CMS). However, some of the modules and products that very few customers were utilizing or that GHD did not feel were up to the standards of our team and customers have been retired.  

Your Account Manager will be able to speak to your specific services when you discuss your upgrade to Govstack.

The upgrade to Govstack includes full CMS and product training - in fact, you can even access Govstack Training now if you’d like to get ahead!  

You will also have 24/7 access to the Govstack Learning Centre to empower you to take advantage of all the features Govstack has to offer, and keep control of your website and services in your team’s hands. 

During the pre-GoLive stage of the migration process, once we've setup your new Govstack website and migrated your content, you'll also have access to live Trainer Office Hours a few times a week. These are open drop-in sessions with one of our amazing trainers where you can ask questions and be shown a guided walk-through.

GHD leverages top-of-the-line security through our Systems team and Microsoft Azure Cloud Hosting, with a guaranteed uptime of 99.95%, far exceeding the industry standard. Please visit the Govstack website for more information on Security and Compliance in Govstack. 

Michelle Teichman, Head of Account Management
+1. 519-884-0525
michelle.teichman@ghd.com

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