the CMS blog™

Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 05:57 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Joerg Dennis Krueger, Managing Director and vendor-independent consultant and analyst with Cara Europe Ltd in Germany, is committed to expanding the CM Pros community in Europe.
• Tony Pietrocola, President and Co-founder of Tenth Floor Interactive has more than 10 years in the content management industry and will work to market and expand the recognition of CM Pros.
• Paul Trotter, Founder and CEO, Author-it, New Zealand has worked with content management for the past 12 years and plans to use his practical "make it work" experience to champion CM Pros member benefits.
• Andrew Wilcox, president and founder of Everage Consulting, Canada, has served as Technology Manager for CM Pros and plans to follow through with the technology initiative currently in process.
• Barry Schaeffer, president of X.Systems.Inc, focuses on handling the organizational impacts of information technology changes and is dedicated to developing a body of CM Pros knowledge.

Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 10:46 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

If you are thinking about creating a new blog and are not sure where to start, or have already been blogging for for some time and are thinking of trying something new consider these ten things when selecting new blog software for your new blog.

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9. Templating System or Ease in Customization

10. Community and Support

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Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 04:53 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 12:33 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

I find myself writing a lot these days and it isn’t anything I ever thought I would be good at or anything I ever wanted to do. I always thought of myself as creative but in a graphical way never with words. It seems that more and more I am using Microsoft Word over Adobe Photoshop to communicate my visions and thoughts.

I build multiple web sites per week, some times I start from scratch, other times I have an existing site with few to many hundred pages. Most of the time I ask the customer what are the plans for the content. “Can we copy it from another web site and modify it with some of our information? or just copy what we have and we will update it.”

Content is the single most important part of your web site. It is what separates you from your competitor. Copying content from your competitor does not make you stand out. It blends your web site in with the rest. Flashy graphics will only do so much and they don’t entice a user to give you their information.

Updating your old content is fine as long as you really update it and then optimize it. Revising a few words and adding a couple paragraphs won’t cut it. You need to think about how your organization has changed, what is new, what separates you from the competition, and then optimize that content for the search engines. Starting from scratch also has its advantages.

Unless you have a large marketing budget, television commercials, radio spots, news paper and magazines advertising your company’s web site and products, the only way users will find you, other than by word of mouth, is the net. Where does every one start? A search engine. Google.

When you are writing content for your web site you should always consider who that content is targeted to and what keywords will they use to find your page of content. Those keywords or groups of words, keyword phrases, must be embedded within the paragraphs of the targeted page. The number of times those keywords appear is referred to as keyword density.

Keyword density is related to a pages ranking within the search engine and can be combined with formatting techniques to increase ranking even further, bolding, italics, headline, linking, bulleted lists and underline can all be used to emphasize your keywords.

Does any of this make sense? Sounds more scientific than creative and it is. I would have to say at least it makes more sense thinking of the page as a mathematical equation but to a point. This content must be legible to a person yet optimized for the search engine. This is where the art comes back in and the use of a trained professional, or copy writer can really make a difference.

Writing content for your web site is no joke. It can be extremely complicated to make yourself visible and it can be even harder to have a ranked page which will convert a user. Don’t overlook the content or the need for a copy writer when revamping your web site. Consider the targeted keywords and each pages keyword density. Consider also the time it takes to prepare the content properly and do you have that time. Once you realize content is King you will start finding higher rankings for your pages, increased traffic and more conversions.

Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 03:51 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

• Costs are coming down—especially when you consider hosted CMS products, also known as Application Service Provider (ASP) or software-as-a-service (SaaS).
• Quality is going up—in terms of range of features, ease of implementation, and usability.
• Trial is easier—with more and more CMS vendors providing downloadable trial versions or providing try-before-you-buy software and services.

As you can see in this chart by Forrester Research, the CMS market doesn’t seem to have stagnated at all. In fact, the rate of growth has increased over the past 4 years. Analysts do note, however, that the enterprise market has flattened, indicating that much of today’s growth is coming from the small- and mid-size business segments.

Since 2000, mid-size companies have been adopting a lot of the same types of software applications as the mega-size companies, including ERP (Enterprise Resource Planning), SCM (Supply Chain Management), and CRM (Customer Relationship Management). These systems are now recognized as essential IT infrastructure for companies who want to grow and be competitive.

Content management systems have not quite reached the status of essential infrastructure (although, arguably, they should). But, after getting their other IT ducks in a row, mid-size and even some small businesses, are seeing a CMS as the next logical step. And, they’re adding a CMS for the same reasons they implemented the systems mentioned above—growing their business and staying competitive.

As recognized by the big players, those that deliver the right content, in the right format, to the right customers, at the right time do gain a competitive edge.

Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 02:15 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

“When I grow up, I want to be an information architect.” Bet you wouldn’t have heard a kid say that 15 or even 10 years ago.

I remember the first time I heard the term. Actually, I think my boss at the time (now a well known content management guru) made it up. When describing my role on multimedia projects, he said, it’s kind of like being an architect, but not for buildings, for information. “Ah,” I said, “an information architect.” That’s what I want to be.

This was back in about 1995. Little did I know that the term was already spreading as fast as the Internet, and the field of information architecture was born.

A recent discussion on among CM Professionals brought up an interesting question—namely, what is the relationship between information architecture (IA) and content management? And, beyond that, what about the emerging discipline known as user experience (UX)?

• User Experience (previously known as User Interface Design) is the creation of the architecture and interaction models which impact a user's perception of a digital device or system. In content management, you want to keep the desired user experience strongly in mind when designing both your authoring interfaces and your end publications (Web sites or other types.) So, UX plays a very important role in content management.
• Information Architecture is the practice of expressing an information model, or concept for information. In content management, the task of analyzing the content, breaking it down into the appropriate chunks, defining of structure for how it will be stored, accessed, and presented is all information architecture. Again, IA is a critical aspect of content management.

One thing to remember, though: While UX and IA are important aspects of content management, there’s a lot more to it. Content management has equal parts of process and structure. UX and IA focus more about how to structure content, which is good. Add a few doses of workflow planning, like roles, tasks, and permissions, plus business rules to the mix and you have a decent recipe for content management.

Rita Warren of ZiaContent, Inc. is a veteran of the software and digital media industries with more than 10 years experience helping companies deliver content in compelling and sensible ways. Well known in her field, Rita served as technical editor of the first edition of Bob Boiko's acclaimed book, the Content Management Bible. She is a frequent speaker at national conferences and contributor to content management industry publications.

Posted by Rita Warren at 10:49 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

The term “Web 2.0” annoys me. And I’m not the only one who feels that way. Nonetheless, having a term to describe the fact that the Web is evolving is a useful. I’m getting used to it, and it’s definitely influencing my thinking about content management.

So, here’s why Web 2.0 bugs me. It implies that there was some defining moment that marked the shift from the original Web to the next Web. It did help to read the O’Reilly article that explains What Is Web 2.0? (Tim O’Reilly originally coined the term.) In this article, he cites the dot-com crash as that defining moment. Everything before the bubble burst was 1.0, everything after is 2.0. Ok. I’ll can sort of buy into that.

Realistically, though, the shift in the Web was not a point in time. It was a blur—as is every natural evolution.

In my opinion, Web 2.0 is an evolution of:

• Information conceived as pages – to – Information as components to mix and match
• The Web being shaped by large organizations – to – The Web being shaped by its users
• Relying on structure to find content to – to – The content being inherently findable
• Customers at the mercy of vendors – to – Vendors having to listen to customers
• A one-way conversation – to – a two- or three, or four-way conversation

Overall, this evolution is very positive. It empowers us as users, it increases knowledge sharing, and it’s scary, too. Too much central control can be bad. Not enough control can also be bad. It’s known as chaos. I predict that this Web 2.0 evolution will follow what I call the “Big Bang Theory of Business”—which is another topic that I’ll write about in the coming weeks—basically a pattern of expanding and collapsing as a way to find the optimal state of being.

In the meantime, even if you also think Web 2.0 is an unfortunate name, I encourage you to take the time to read more about it from O’Reilly and elsewhere. If nothing else, it’ll upgrade the way your think about the Web.

Here are just a few resources and other (similar) opinions on the subject:
- http://www.oreillynet.com/pub/a/oreilly/tim/news/2005/09/30/what-is-web-20.html"

- http://www.paulgraham.com/web20.html

- http://www.andybudd.com/dcontruct05/

- http://blog.del.icio.us/blog/2005/11/there_has_been_.html

Rita Warren of ZiaContent, Inc. is a veteran of the software and digital media industries with more than 10 years experience helping companies deliver content in compelling and sensible ways. Well known in her field, Rita served as technical editor of the first edition of Bob Boiko's acclaimed book, the Content Management Bible. She is a frequent speaker at national conferences and contributor to content management industry publications.

Posted by Rita Warren at 01:26 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Contrary to how most technology decisions are made, when it comes to a CMS, the users of the system ought to have a big say in what tool will work for them. Sure, features for system administrators and developers are important, but, not necessarily more important than usability.

One promise of CMS technology is enabling distributed authoring. In other words, you eliminate the IT bottleneck and let the people responsible for the content directly update and publish it. There’s huge benefit in taking the tech team out of the loop. The pitfall, of course, is partially losing control over what’s on the site to people who may or may not submit “good” content. This is why a CMS with a strong user interface and behind the scenes control is key.

Some thoughts on authoring and editing interfaces:

• So easy a 5th grader can do it? A good system provides an easy-to-use authoring and editing interface for non-technical users. Someone who knows how to do the basics in word processing software should be able to figure out how to edit content in the CMS without a week long training session.
• Is what you see really what you get? WYSIWYG editing is another common feature. In theory, this is the best kind of editing tool because most of us prefer to see what our content changes will do to the page as we make them. But, sometimes these types of editors add extra code to pages that cause errors, making the experience more frustrating than compelling.
• How does Times New Roman 14 pt. in lavender sound? Some CMS editing tools reinforce the rules of good design by using Cascading Style Sheets (CSS). Others do not. It’s great to let the users get in there and do the work themselves, but sometimes unleashed creativity needs to be tamed.

So, if you’re the one who’s leading the evaluation of a CMS, but you don’t represent the average user, what do you do? Fortunately, there’s a great solution. Many CMS tools provide evaluation versions of their software.

Try before you buy is now a viable option and highly recommended. It may take you a bit of time to set up and configure the trial software, but it gives you an opportunity to have various users take it for a spin while you watch for their reactions. It’s a great way to find out if the tool lives up to its promises…or if using it turns out to be “the pits”!

Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 11:14 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

It’s 10:00am. Does the rest of your organization know what your Web site is doing? We’ve all heard of (and probably work in) the fateful “siloed” organization, where each business group does its own thing. Sometimes there are good reasons for silos. Communicating across groups takes precious time, money, and patience. But, at times, silos can wreak havoc on the customer experience.

Customers are exposed to silos when systems don’t talk to each other real-time, like when inventory data in one place says product is in stock when its really not. But, very often, silos occur with content—in particular, with promotions, campaigns and new product launches. When marketing groups aren’t in lockstep with channels, the customer ends up confused or frustrated because the information they get from one source doesn’t match up with another source.

This week I went to order an item I saw in a catalog. The catalog advertised it as “on sale”, which was the main reason I decided to order. And, I like to order from the Web. It’s usually very simple and fast, plus, I don’t have to wait to talk to anyone, and I won’t get pressured to buy other stuff I don’t need.

When I went to the site, it didn’t show up on the “sale” promo page, nor did the sale price appear when I did find the item online. Darn. Now I have to call to place my order, otherwise, I’m afraid I won’t get the lower price.

This is an example of three “customer touchpoints”: Print Catalog, Web, Call Center. In theory, I could place an order in three different ways: mail or fax, click my mouse, or pick up the phone. It’s nice to have those choices. In fact, it’s great. But, when the content on one of those touchpoints is inconsistent with the others, it causes me distress and affects my perception of the company.

Now, I don’t know why the “on sale” info wasn’t on the Web. Maybe it was on purpose. Maybe internal communications were out of synch. But it does underscore the importance of having the same content available to all channels at the same time.

When working on getting your content under control, it’s helpful to think not in terms of just the Web, or just the marketing brochure, but all the places where customers interact with you:

Key Customer Touchpoints:

• Print – brochures, catalogs, point of sale materials, signage, advertising
• Electronic– Web site, e-mail messages, ads
• Personal – store employees, call centers, field sales reps, service reps

The more you can work to create and publish consistent content across all the touchpoints, the better. Your customers will thank you for it.

Posted by Rita Warren at 10:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

When the Web was full of “brochure-ware”, e-commerce functionality was only critical for dedicated online retailers. As business owners and marketers recognized new ways to monetize their Web investment, more and more companies have added e-commerce to their sites. Now even companies that don’t sell physical goods are making profits selling memberships or content. It’s a rare Web site that will never require an e-commerce component.

Ironic, then, when a business buys a content management platform, then decides they need e-commerce, they end up having to buy a separate e-commerce platform and integrate the two. Or, the opposite happens. They start with an e-commerce package with very limited content handling, only to find later that they need CMS features. The result? A messy process of integrating their e-commerce system with a CMS, often with dubious results.

While there are dozens more considerations involved in evaluating platforms, here are just a few things to look for when considering a complete solution to manage your Web site:

• If you’re looking primarily for a CMS, does it have an e-commerce component? Was the e-commerce part built by the same developers, or built separately and cobbled together? Does the system handle memberships and sale of intangible goods? How do you integrate your existing data, like your master product and inventory data?
• If you’re looking primarily for e-Commerce, what CMS functions does it provide? Is there a user-friendly authoring environment? How about workflow and version control? What types of content can you manage within the system? (Just a product catalog descriptions, or other types of content, like articles and documents?) How about managing images and media? How easily can you update the product catalog with new content? Is it a multi-step publishing process?
• If the solution doesn’t have both CMS and e-commerce functionality, then with which other systems have customers successfully integrated? Can you get reference sites and contacts?
• If you planning to expand your horizons (and, who isn’t?), are the CMS and e-commerce solutions built on the same technology platform (e.g., Microsoft .net, Java)? Are they built on open or proprietary standards? What features are planned in the next year or two? Does the vendor have other customers whose businesses are similar to your own and who will need similar enhancements in the future?

Bottom line (and isn’t that what it’s all about?): Beware of CMS and e-commerce integrations. They’re often trickier than you think. Without due diligence up front, you may end up with your hands tied when it comes to getting the system to do what you really need it to do.

Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 09:49 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

You’ve heard the phrase “the whole is greater than sum of its parts.” Well, when it comes to content, I don’t agree. When managing content, the value parts can be much greater value than the whole.

The vast majority of content in the world is written in the form of “documents.” Documents, by their nature, are intended to communicate a single idea, fact, or concept. Some documents are long and others very short. Regardless, authors tend to create their documents in such a way that you can’t just extract a paragraph from the middle, read it on its own, and understand it. You need the context of at least the beginning of the document to glean any meaning from it.

Then along came the idea of “compontentizing” content. What this essentially means is breaking down a document into smaller pieces (components) that can “stand alone” in their own right, and still provide meaning. (Note: Within the component, the content is often sub-divided even further into what some call “elements”.)

Technical documentation was one of the first areas where content components came into their own. This practice was also known as “single-sourcing”. But recently, the Web is where content components are having their heyday.

So, why are content components important? Largely for efficiency when encountering specific communication needs, including:

• Re-using content across different publications of the same kind, like two different versions of a user manual that share common content in some areas.
• Publishing content for different media – namely print, Help files, and the Web.
• Personalizing content based on the audience—for either print or online use.
• Assembling “landing pages” that lists short introductions to longer documents.

A lot of people still create Web pages in the “document-centric” way of thinking. When they want to add a page to their Web site, they sit down and write it like a document. Problem is, all the information is then trapped in this single document and can’t vary by user or be reused elsewhere without creating a copy of it. Once you have multiple copies of the same document floating around, that spells trouble.

Web content management systems (including XML-based systems) handle componentized content very well because the content is stored in a database field, or in multiple XML files that represent different “chunks” of information. The beauty of these systems is that these “chunks” of content can be automatically assembled back into documents according to rules.

Creating, storing, and managing your content as components provides huge value in terms of flexibility to publish the content in multiple places and to customize it for multiple audiences. So, when dealing with content, you may indeed find yourself in a place where the sum of the parts (components) is much greater than that of the whole (document).

Posted by Rita Warren at 12:19 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Elections Committee

Ann Rockley and Tony Byrne from the Elections Committee ask members to “Join us in congratulating our newly voted-in Board Directors. Let us support them in their hopes and aspirations for CM Pros.”

The winners are replacing outgoing Board members Scot Abel, Seth Gottlieb, Erik Hartman, and Samanta Starmer. Mary Laplante continues as Director for another year. Three of the winners will serve a two year term. One will serve a one-year term, replacing Scott Abel who assumed the role of Executive Director part-way through his term.

Incoming Board Members

The incoming board members are:

Besides the irresistible puns when talking about it—you know, that DAM system!—the concept of Digital Asset Management is a really valuable one for companies large and small.

At conferences I’ve attended, it’s surprising the number people who admit that they don’t really understand DAM. They don’t know what it is or how it differs from other types of content management—like Web content management, or Document Management. It’s also valid to say that there is no definitive definition of DAM, per se.

In the broadest sense, a digital asset is any type of information or media that is stored in an electronic format. It could be a customer record in a database, a spreadsheet file, a presentation, a digital picture, a scanned document…anything that you can store on a computer.

The term “Digital Asset Management”, however, typically has a much more limited scope, usually referring to managing image and media files. For businesses, we’re talking about your logos, pictures of products and people, videos of your CEO, or the Flash animation on your Web home page. These are kind of digital assets that most DAM systems handle.

As with Document Management (and unlike Web Content Management) these digital assets are stored as files. Image and media files, though, have some attributes that make them different to manage than documents.

• Finding. With today’s full-text search capabilities, documents are easy to find because you can search for words they contain. By their nature, though, images and video aren’t searchable using words. The only way you can find a picture of a running horse (unless you’ve named it “running_horse.jpg”), is to tag the file with metadata and search on those tags. A DAM system provides a way to tag your media files so you can find them.
• Converting. Even before the Web, it was not uncommon for companies to create and maintain different “versions” of their images. For example, one version for a high-color glossy brochure and another for a printed newspaper. With the Web, you often start with a high-resolution image and then “render” it in versions like a .gif or .jpg file. DAM systems can automate this rendering.
• Organizing. Organizing your content is a big part of content management in general, but media-type digital assets have their own special needs when it comes organizing them. Again, when you create different “versions” of the image or video in different formats, you also want to maintain a link between the “master” high-resolution version (the parent) and the other rendered versions (the children). DAM systems allow store files in a way that maintains these parent-child relationships.

Companies that find themselves dealing with headaches like never being able to find the original version of logo or image, or who are spending a lot of time and money creating and saving images in different formats, are good candidates for doing some level of Digital Asset Management. If nothing else, bringing all your media files into one place where you can find and use them…now that’s a beautiful thing!

Posted by Rita Warren at 11:21 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

"Don't pave the cow path." Now that's one of the most colorful pieces of CMS advice I've heard. Another great one: "Fix the hole in the boat before you put a more powerful motor on it." Or my favorite: "When you automate bad workflows, all you do is make mistakes faster!"

One of the most common mistakes people make when implementing a CMS is automating their existing workflows without taking into consideration that there may be a better way to do it.

Some call it workflow, others call it business process, but the end result is all about getting content through its lifecycle as efficiently as possible. Believe it or not, having good workflow doesn't depend on having an automated software solution (a CMS). Content management is not just software, it's a discipline that involves organizing and storing content in a logical way, then applying logical processes to make the content behave the way you want it to.

Workflow design is not rocket science (although I'm sure the rocket scientists are really good at it!) There are some important rules to know about designing a workflow—whether it's one that you automate or not.

1. Workflows are made up of Steps. A step is anything that is completed by one individual.
2. Each step has a Turn-around time.
3. Steps are made up of Tasks, which are one or more actions taken by the one step owner.
4. Between Steps is a Handoff, sometimes called a Trigger.

Like in a relay race, in a workflow someone carries the baton. It's a shared responsibility of both the passer of the baton and the receiver to look out for the handoff. A handoff could be putting a document on someone's desk. Or, it could be clicking a button that triggers an e-mail to be sent or a task to be added to the next person's to-do list.

Remember, when designing your optimal workflows, there's not just one. You'll need several—workflows for creating new content, for revising existing content, for publishing content to your site, for retiring content, and so on. Take the time to sit down and diagram out what you do now. Ask the people who are working with your content how they think it could be done better. Listen to them, and collectively come up with workflows that really work.

So when you embark for the promised land of content management, set your course first. Don't pave the cow path. Don't just make mistakes faster. Fix the hole in the boat, then put a more powerful motor on it—a CMS.

Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 02:28 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Balance. It seems like everywhere you turn, there's an article or a workshop about achieving that elusive state called "work-life balance." I attended such a workshop last summer and the moderator introduced a really helpful exercise called the "Wheel of Life". The exercise helps you see where your life is out of balance, and it got me to thinking. Maybe the same principle of balance applies to content management projects...

Speaking of unbalanced content management projects, as some of you know, last month did a CMS Challenges Survey. The responses clearly indicated that it's rarely technology that makes content management project challenging. It's the people—their knowledge, their skills, and their intentions. The conclusion I drew from the survey is that there are some key factors that are critical to making your CMS project successful. If you're lacking in one or more of these areas, your project becomes unbalanced.

In the "Wheel of Life" exercise, you start with a page with circle broken up into eight segments, like a wheel with spokes. Each segment represents an area of your life—family and friends, physical environment, spirituality, health, fun, career/life purpose, money, and romance. Your task is to evaluate your level of satisfaction with each of these areas of your life. In doing this, you often find that one or more areas is lacking. This probably means that the "wheel" isn't turning smoothly, making for a less-than-happy experience.

After a dozen years in the content management field, it wasn't hard for me to come up with my equivalents for a happy CMS project. Here they are:

CMS Project Critical Success Factors

• Clear, Agreed-upon Business Goals
• Executive Sponsorship
• Committed Users/Stakeholders
• Realistic Timeline and Budget Expectations
• Solid CM Knowledge/Expertise (either internal or from outside)
• Experienced Project Manager
• Strong Technical Resources
• Good Communication between Business and IT

Now it's your turn. To do this exercise, draw a circle and divide it into eight sections, labeling each with the above critical success factors. (Or you can download this worksheet.)

Seeing the center of the wheel as “0” and the outer edge as “10,” rank your level of confidence in each area of your project by drawing a line, creating a new outer edge (as shown in the picture). The new perimeter of the circle represents your “Project Wheel”.

How bumpy is your ride? I'll leave it to you to draw your own conclusions about how to bring your CMS Project Wheel back into alignment. Good luck!

Rita Warren of ZiaContent, Inc. is a veteran of the software and digital media industries with more than 10 years experience helping companies deliver content in compelling and sensible ways. Well known in her field, Rita served as technical editor of the first edition of Bob Boiko's acclaimed book, the Content Management Bible. She is a frequent speaker at national conferences and contributor to content management industry publications.

Posted by Rita Warren at 12:50 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

A small business owner I know recently came to the conclusion that she "desperately needs a CMS." She has a couple of employees. She creates a newsletter, posts weekly tips, has an e-commerce component, and frequently promotes special offers. "I have over 300 hand-coded HTML pages on my site," she said, "and it just getting chaotic."

Most businesses start a Web site with basic content, very basic functionality. Over time, the site grows "organically." Organic in vegetables is a good thing. Organic on a Web site, it's not!

Now, not every small business Web site needs a CMS behind it, but there are often some very good reasons why a CMS becomes worth the effort.

So, how do you know need a CMS?

1. When a tiny wording change means having to call "that %#@& Web person" again.
2. When you ask for different color scheme and graphics and find out "it's going to take how long?"
3. When you find yourself wondering "why do customers keep calling when that information is on the Web site?" (Hint – they can't find it!)
4. When it takes you longer to find the content you created last month than it took you to create it in the first place.
5. When the pain of changing is less than the pain of staying the same!

While making your site more dynamic and interesting could be a reason for using a CMS, the majority of businesses are motivated by the "pain" factor. For most of us, being disorganized and unstructured is a highly uncomfortable state.

I ran into this overwhelming content chaos myself several years ago when I realized that my home office was driving me crazy. Then I read a book called "Getting Things Done" by David Allen that changed my life. The book's prescription was to set up a highly structured filing system and a trusted place for my "to-do" tasks. The catch? You had to dedicate to a whole weekend to setting it up. And I did. The result? Years later, all my files are still neatly labeled. I know where everything is. My desk is clear and uncluttered, and that gives me the mental space to do creative things—like write this blog!

The bottom line is that when you're spending time dealing with the headaches of your Web site, you're not spending that time thinking of that new marketing promotion or a better way of serving your customers.

Ironically, when you commit to moving your site to a CMS, you may do so to alleviate the pain. But, the end result will ultimately be that it helps you unleash business opportunities that were previously buried underneath all that content mess.

Rita Warren of ZiaContent, Inc. is a veteran of the software and digital media industries with more than 10 years experience helping companies deliver content in compelling and sensible ways. Well known in her field, Rita served as technical editor of the first edition of Bob Boiko's acclaimed book, the Content Management Bible. She is a frequent speaker at national conferences and contributor to content management industry publications.

Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 12:04 AM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

See my comment in the Zia Content CMS Survey.

In December, 2006, ZiaContent, Inc., an independent consultancy, surveyed a group of content management professionals to uncover trends in what challenges most often come up when implementing a content management system (CMS).

The online survey was presented as a single multiple-choice question with 16 options, asking respondents to rank what they have experienced as the biggest challenges when implementing a CMS. Other questions included their role on CM projects, and a free form space for comments or advice.

Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 07:12 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Paper is a lot easier to manage, states a study conducted by the Association for Information and Image Management (AIIM), an international authority on enterprise content management.

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Here's an older article from eWeek but still very relevant to the world of content management and media assets. With more than 53 years of multimedia content under its belt, Playboy Enterprises takes content management and rights management very seriously.

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Jim Rapoza of eWeek is out with a news analysis and his definition of content.

"Content is king." That's how the saying goes, but just what is the definition of content?

Can content be defined as documents, Web pages, pictures and other digital media? Is content blog postings, e-mail, group discussions and chats? Is content essentially any knowledge that can be managed, stored and accessed?

Trying to define content can be especially confusing and even terrifying for the companies that have made it their business to manage the diverse pieces of content that exist today.

There was a time when the differences between various content management platforms were clear and distinct: Web content management products were designed for creating and managing content on Web sites; groupware and collaboration systems managed the creation and distribution of interactive group content and knowledge; digital asset management products controlled the storage and manipulation of images and other digital media; and, of course, document management platforms helped track, store and control the movement of business documents.

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Posted by R. Stacy Cook at 06:53 PM | Permalink | Comments (0) | TrackBacks (0)

Hotscripts.com talks to Tony Byrne, founder of CMSWatch.com and he shares his insights on the wonderful world of CMS. Including answering the central question, what is CMS?

http://www.hotscripts.com/newsletter/

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A new international standards organization that aims to enable a vast array of enterprise content management systems to interoperate began its first day of business May 16.

The iECM (Interoperable Enterprise Content Management) Consortium, organized by a trade group, the AIIM (Association for Information and Image Management) of Silver Spring, Md., was born following a year's worth of preparation by individuals from more than 50 major companies and government agencies, an iECM spokesperson said.

Interoperable ECM

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