Managing Enterprise Content 177
| Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy | |
| author | Ann Rockley, with Pamela Kostur and Steve Manning |
| pages | 592 |
| publisher | New Riders Publishing |
| rating | 10 |
| reviewer | Scott Abel |
| ISBN | 0735713065 |
| summary | Provides the concepts, strategies, guidelines, processes, and technological options that will prepare enterprise content managers and authors to meet the increasing demands of creating, managing, and distributing content. |
The authors, Ann Rockley, Pamela Kostur, and Steve Manning, make the case for their "Unified Content Strategy" -- a practical and logical way of researching, planning, preparing, testing, implementing and selling content management across an enterprise. The lessons contained in this easy-to-read volume are not lost on smaller organizations, however; departments, small work groups, even individuals, will also benefit from learning innovative ways to effectively create, use and manage content.
The author's main message is that a well-planned "unified content strategy" can provide a dramatic improvement in the way content is created in an organization. A "Unified Content Strategy" is defined as "a repeatable method of identifying all content requirements up front, creating consistently structured content for reuse, managing that content in a definitive source, and assembling content on demand to meet your customers' needs." According to the authors, improvements that result from implementing such a strategy include "increased quality and consistency and long-term reduced time and costs for development and maintenance. In addition, reuse provides support for rapid re-configuration of your content to meet changing needs."
Of particular importance, the authors provide guidance on selecting a strategy before you get started; they explain their Unified Content Strategy, the importance of single sourcing (write it once, use it often), and how a properly planned content management initiative can help your organization deliver the right content to the right people at the right time in the format they desire. The authors also cover topics including: information modeling (the key to content reuse), content analysis, usability, IT and Business partnerships, metadata strategies, the importance of XML, tool selection, change management, training and more.
Section one of the book includes three chapters that address content creation, content reuse, and the return on investment a Unified Content Strategy can provide content-laden organizations. The authors set the stage for the introduction of their methods in Chapter One, "The Basis of a Unified Content Strategy," by illustrating the demons involved in what they call, "The Content Silo Trap" -- a common situation in which content is created by authors working in isolation from one anther, oftentimes re-creating the same types of content over and over again for different purposes (e.g. print, web, online help, marketing collateral, call center/help desk, computer-based training, etc.) The authors say content silos negatively impact the bottom line of any organization because they don't promote collaboration, leverage existing content creation activities, nor do they support the overall goals of the enterprise. Far too often, according to the book, silos create inconsistency, inaccuracy, and costly, unnecessary content re-creation expense. By adopting a Unified Content Strategy, organizations can enjoy faster time to market, reduced costs, improved quality and usability of content, improved workplace and customer satisfaction, as well as unique opportunities to innovate. Each of these topics is explored in the chapter with examples sprinkled throughout the book.
Chapter 2 describes, in detail, the "Fundamental Concepts of Reuse." It's an excellent chapter for those attempting to better understand the content their organizations create and how content re-use can help streamline the content creation process. The authors explore why you should re-use content, who's been doing it and why, as well as the two types of content reuse -- opportunistic and systematic -- and the benefits and drawbacks of each. Examples are provided for these methods in addition to a description of circumstances where reuse may not be appropriate. The entire chapter is available for download.
Chapter three, "Assessing a Return on Investment," helps readers determine the anticipated savings realized by adopting a Unified Content Strategy. A discussion of how to quantify and qualify the goals of such an effort are discussed, and information is provided to help you start assessing your actual costs (training, technology, consulting, lost productivity, etc). If you've got to sell your project to upper management and demonstrate potential ROI, this chapter is an excellent starting point. Don't overlook the section on developing metrics -- it's extremely useful.
Section two, "Performing a Substantive Audit: Determining Business Requirements," is a four-chapter compendium of information designed to help you establish where the content pains are in your organization and how you can address them. Chapter four and five help readers identify and understand their "content lifecycle" (to determine where improvements can be made to your existing processes) and chapter six, "Performing a Content Audit," seeks to help readers gain an "intimate understanding" of the nature and structure of the content to be managed. The authors describe how to perform a content audit, and provide several excellent examples of the process using scenarios that many readers will understand (medical devices, consumer electronics, banking institutions, learning materials). Instructions for building a reuse map -- a tool that identifies which content elements are reusable, where reuse would be beneficial, and whether the content would be reused "as is" (identical reuse) or with modification (derivative reuse) -- are provided. This section will not be lost on IT pros who have been using object-oriented programming reuse strategies for years. However, managing content is not the same as managing code. Content appropriate for public consumption has some unique considerations that the authors discuss in detail. Practical examples will help you think through content issues you may not have considered before.
Chapter 7, "Envisioning the Content Lifecycle," examines requirements gathering by using two fictitious companies as examples. A series of tables and explanatory text is provided to help readers better understand how to tie requirements to a return on investment. Readers are encouraged to use the exercise as the basis for designing improvements to your business processes and tool selection. In many organizations, IT departments are ill-equipped to develop solutions that address content lifecycle issues because IT staffers don't fully understand issues affecting content creation, management, publishing, archiving and translation. The authors attempt to shine light on this issue by exploring the importance of involving a team of subject matters experts, users, clients, etc. to help ensure the requirements gathered will help create new and improved business processes. The lesson: There's no sense automating a bad business process.
Section three tackles the issue of design by introducing the concepts of information modeling, metadata, dynamic content, workflow and implementation. Each chapter is jam-packed with real-world information and examples that simplify the concepts presented. Of particular interest is Chapter 8, "Information Modeling," which helps readers understand the significance an information model plays in the formalizing of content structure, and the subsequent creation of DTDs and schemas. As well, Chapter 9, "Designing Metadata," does an excellent job of exploring the role metadata play in labeling, categorizing and describing content, thereby enabling organizations to provide dynamic content to users on demand. This chapter is also available online. Visit "A Metadata Primer" at CMSWatch.
The remainder of the book discusses objectively the tools and technologies you can use to support a Unified Content Strategy. Such familiar topics as Extensible Markup Language, selecting tools, and evaluating vendors are discussed, as well as various authoring, workflow, and delivery systems -- necessary parts of any content management initiative. The book gives equal coverage to collaborative authoring, change management, implementation challenges and transition planning, although the authors admit they aren't able to cover each topic in as much detail as some readers might desire. Readers will need to seek out additional resources for such information. A useful glossary of terms, an extensive bibliography, and several appendices are also provided. Appendix A is a "Checklist for Implementing a Unified Content Strategy"; Appendix B explores the issues affiliated with "Writing for Multiple Media"; Appendix C examines vendors and their products; Appendix D includes a "Tools Checklist"; and Appendix E explores "Content Relationships."
The book could be improved by lengthening some examples, and by providing a few more case studies (although they are admittedly hard to obtain in such a new arena). As well, the book publisher should have abandoned their table structure for one that would better accommodate the information provided. However, providing access to a companion web site is a great idea that will allow the authors to provide additional information to readers when issues arise that are not discussed fully in the book.
Regardless of your particular situation, if you've got an interest in content management, I highly recommend Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy as well as the book's companion web site. The site provides a solid overview of the strategy, a free chapter from the book, a Return on Investment (ROI) calculator, glossary, white papers and more. The content on this site is extremely useful and is indicative of the quality content found in the book.
Scott Abel is a content management strategist who assists his clients in planning and preparing for content management initiatives. Scott is a frequent presenter at industry and professional service seminars, an instructor at Indiana University Purdue University at Indianapolis Community Learning Network, and vice president of the Society for Technical Communication (STC), Hoosier Chapter. You can purchase Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy from bn.com. Slashdot welcomes readers' book reviews -- to see your own review here, read the book review guidelines, then visit the submission page.
me (Score:5, Funny)
Re:me (Score:2)
Well, I would be more interested if the title were not so cryptic.
Re:me (Score:2)
Does it actually matter? (Score:3, Insightful)
Fundamentally, managing a web site is going into the publishing business. Not something you should do unless you actually have something to say, and people interested in hearing it.
Re:Does it actually matter? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:Does it actually matter? (Score:4, Interesting)
Well, maybe I'm not the archetypal customer, but I do judge companies from their webpages when I'm about to do business with them.
In my experience, well managed websites usually means well managed business, and better produts or services.
It would be interesting to see how important this is for a business though. I doubt many people think this way when they're buying stuff. My guess is that it will become more important in the future.
Re:Does it actually matter? (Score:3, Interesting)
Do you really need to ask that these days? Think about it.
Imagine, you want to buy, say, a fancy hat. How imagine two companies, one with a big web site with pictures and descriptions of all their fancy hats, and one with a single crappy web page that says "We sell fancy hats" and a phone number. Who would get your business?
I used have to expound the virtues of web sites to pointy-haired bossed five years ago, but now they most
Re:Does it actually matter? (Score:2)
I was specifically not thinking about web sites that sell articles, because these are not the ones where content management is an issue. Catalogues are not content. The other counter example is that of w
Re:Does it actually matter? (Score:1)
No - it seems to me that website usability and graphics design budget are inversely correlated.
Content management tools do address a real problem, but not one that couldn't be addressed better with CVS and a text editor. But doing that requires your users to learn HTML (or at least use a decent HTML editor).
Re:Does it actually matter? (Score:2, Insightful)
Having content in some sort of database makes it easier to script search engines for results. Also, if you ever get to the point where you can sell or syndicate yo
Re:Does it actually matter? (Score:2)
Intel's Intranet and Cisco's website.
Intels intranet is (or at least was when I worked there) extrememly well designed to help you find any corporate info that you were looking for.
Cisco's website (at least for me) is the ugliest thing I have ever used. although their searches seem to be rather relevant - there is no smooth navigation of the information on their site. IT SUCK ASS.
now - many of you might disagree - but
Re:Does it actually matter? (Score:2)
Yes, it matters esp. for tech support (Score:3, Insightful)
Yes, I have. It substantial pay-offs
in enterprise technical support.
We found this at Sun, when we improved re-use
among our enterprise call center tech support
our QA, and our marketing release notes.
For example, we improved consistency among
what our marketing website claims as features,
what our customers actually try to do with it,
what QA finds as potential issues or bug fixes,
and what tech support can tell the customer.
Re:Does it actually matter? (Score:1)
CMS systems are not just about managing a website. In fact, a CMS system may not even push content to the web.
The book is NOT about managing websites. It is about managing content at the enterprise level.
As an example of content, think about Boeing. The have a huge amount of CONTENT (i.e. service documentation, engineering specs, wiring diagrams, etc.) that pertain to a specific jet.
If you were to look at the printed versions of all this content, I
Re:Does it actually matter? (Score:1)
A company's website is its face on the internet, and could be seen by many people who woul
Re:Does it actually matter? (Score:1)
Consider, the company for which I work has no real CM system in place. So when I'm assisting in preparing a proposal, things like our references and our procedure documentation have to be hunted down throughout many documents, then cut and pasted into the current one. In a CM type world, I could go to the application, select the document pieces, and drop them into a new proposal.
Based on what? (Score:1, Insightful)
Re:Based on what? (Score:4, Informative)
Re:Based on what? (Score:5, Insightful)
cvs, makefiles, and perl can't do it for a daily newspaper, weekly syndicated catalog company, or ad agency who needs to have stock photography categorized and in-sync with newsletters.
a lot of people assume that "content management" is nothing but a way to keep a website up to date, which is like saying engines are only used for mowing lawns.
Re:Based on what? (Score:3, Insightful)
What makes you think content providers for web sites are capable of writing HTML, or even using Dreamweaver? Don't you think they might try to format the page if using plain text... and if they are using plain text how on earth do you seperate a title from a paragraph, or use italics or bold? I know, you make them write something around the title
Re:Based on what? (Score:5, Insightful)
You will get everything from wrong fonts, colours, line breaks and your entire site/intranet will look a mess.
And when it starts to hit you is when your boss says that it doesn't work on a big clients browser (they still use Netscape 4) and that sales want to access the intranet on their PDA's. Using HTML here will just not work.
XML is no 'silver bullet' and I certainly agree that educating 'non web savvy' users to use XML is just doesn't work in real life. They break it, can't figure out why they break it and what happens is the site doesn't get updated but if you write your tools carefully and choose the appropriate software, XML will allow you to use XSL amongst other technologies to get your site working great on IE, Opera, Konqueror, PDA's - whatever.
Once a site gets to a certain stage, simple tools aren't that powerful and you will usually find that managers don't like simple looking UI's - they want Javascripts, Flash, you name it. If your site is being used to promote your company it -needs- to look good.
POSTNUKE!! (Score:1)
This allows non-technical users to manage the content.
We (www.gmmsolutions.com) make a living providing this to companies that don't have the technical expertise to maintain their own sites! Give it a try!
Re:POSTNUKE!! (Score:2, Insightful)
I think there ought to be a classification to distinguish between these two forms of content management.
Re:Based on what? (Score:1, Interesting)
They all suck.
Of the lot Mediasurface (even though it's least expensive to purchase and maintain) is the best. Meaning, it sucks the least.
By the time I'm done typing this, someone will have posted "Try this Open Source offering, it's great - I've used it!". No, it's not. It sucks. I've tried every Open Source CMS and they all suck as bad as the proprietary o
Re:Based on what? (Score:2, Insightful)
which database, perl or python, web-centric, XML or not...these are technical issues that CAN be worked out, and are basically irrelevent.
for example, from reading your post, it seems as if one requirement you have is the ability to scale with users and size of content. that can be fixed, althought I'm sure you're finding it difficult so far.
what is *MORE* difficult to fix is getting a CMS to work in an
It's a bigger deal than you might think. (Score:3, Informative)
In short, content management is huge. CVS wit
Re:Based on what? (Score:1)
Re:Based on what? (Score:2)
i think that this book looks like a fantastic piece of work. we run our entire knowledge management system on livelink and since it moved from a user base of 30 to 150 people, things have gotten a little out of contro
Re:Have you ever USED any of these? (Score:2)
firstly, yes, I use Livelink and Documentum on a daily basis. yes, there are pitfalls to them, as there is in any sofware product that caters for large user bases, so could you please justify your "They are all CRAP" statement a little better?
a "home-grown" solution can be built on top of any of the repositories by leveraging their SDKs. in fact we work with many vendors who have streamlined these repositories with Workflow and additional UI to provide more focused application b
Re:Have you ever USED any of these? (Score:2)
Re:Based on what? (Score:2)
Please define "crap".
Does that mean only Ubergeeks can use it, so that Newbies are left in the cold? Or does it mean that it is targeted to the Newbie, and is missing the necissary Geek factor?
Or do you mean "Buggy, crashes all the time" crap?
Or does it mean that it only runs on _______, and I don't use _________.
You know, vague terms like "Sucks" "Crap" really don't help anyone do anything better. So instead of making overly general
Some thoughts on Engineering Enterprise Management (Score:4, Insightful)
1. Creativity. Prototyping encourages creative development by both the developers and the users. Like brainstorming, once team members begin traveling down a path, the possibilities of what they can come up with are practically limitless. Creativity is an area of a person's work that can make that person's job much more satisfying. 2. True evaluation by system users. Watching the application in action is the only way that most people can truly evaluate it. Due to the limit of items the human mind can hold in their conscious mind, people cannot see all the components of the complex systems we are documenting. People only see the potential problems when they see the entire process and they are only going to exert a limited amount of effort in reading about a system being considered. 3. Find problems and possibilities early on. As we've learn through the years, the most costly problems are those that go undetected the longest. The earliest we find something, the less our cost. That's a core component of TQM-Total Quality Management: find the costliest errors early. A prototype allows you to develop an application with only the resources (cost) that make it verifiable so that it can be reviewed by those with the right domain knowledge to either correct errors that are identified or uncover additional opportunities that were previously not considered. Successfully blend solid strategic thinking and tactics- spend the correct amount of effort up front to ensure you are building the right solution before you spend the big dollars to build it right.
Yes, folks do raise some valid concerns about prototyping so let me take a crack at responding to the three that I have heard the most often.
1. "Is it done yet?" (Raised expectations). When users see something that looks real, there is a belief that it must be just about ready to use. The best way to handle this is to make sure that everyone is aware of the process so that when you remind them that there is still plenty to do, they are not totally shocked and are somewhat accepting of that idea. If they are told up front how things will progress and the benefits of doing things this way, they tend to be all for it. Keep them aware of all progress -- even the parts that they can't see -- with regular sta
Re:Some thoughts on Engineering Enterprise Managem (Score:1)
CMS in one book? (Score:1, Redundant)
Implementing a CMS is an art and can not be learned by reading one book.
you learn by practice and understanding your user needs. Not by enforcing what the books say on your users.
Re:CMS in one book? (Score:3, Insightful)
What is "content management" (Score:3, Interesting)
In a parting gesture, the Web publisher you fired replaced photos of board members with sheep.
So what is content management? At the smaller scope, it would just include the text from your webpage. At its largest scope, it would include your entire intranet, and the policys regarding its use.
An online Starcraft RPG? Only at [netnexus.com]
In soviet russia, all your us are belong to base!
Karma: Redundant
It's about time someone wrote a book on this... (Score:4, Insightful)
Return on Investement is important! (Score:5, Interesting)
Granted, this situation is partly the result of internal politics at my corporation, but i think that if the ground work for ROI was done more thoroughly up front during the delivery of this CMS this would not be much of an issue. I for one will buy this book if only to get some insight into industry standard ways of how to caluclate ROI for things like content reuse, publication between channels of delivery, content maintenance costs, etc.
If anyone has any suggestions on how to manage this situation, or how you've dealt with similar concerns, i'd be open to your thoughts.
Re:Return on Investement is important! (Score:3, Funny)
> out our version controlled dynamic webservices portal IN FAVOUR OF HTML
Ahhh, so you'll be hiring lots of HTML monkeys soon. Good.
The country needs jobs!
Ok (Score:3, Interesting)
Dynamic is a word that is thrown around an awful lot. How is your content system dynamic. Does it change based on who is viewing it? Or do you mean by dynamic someone updates the content via some interface and then it changes. That's not really that different than editing a file. It's not really all that dynamic.
Without more information, I'm leaning towards HTML. Why don't yo
Re:Ok (Score:3, Interesting)
- session management for logon to our transaction based web services, and for tracking of user experience and browsing patterns
- dynamic display of content based on business rules (e.g. if you claim you're a student, or you're a pre-exsiting customer and we KNOW you're a student, we're not going to pre-qualify you for a platinum visa)
- re-use of content for other channels of publication, like e-mail and wireless
- repurpose of content for dis
Re:Ok (Score:2)
Of course not. The reality today is that maintaining intranet-pages is about as popular as going to the dentist.
Why ? You don't get anything out of it, generally because everybody takes it for granted anyway and nobody wants to commit content.
And your boss will think you don't do any "real work" because you just upda
Re:Return on Investement is important! (Score:2)
I've seen too many groups go through a six-month-plus evaluation, specification and implementation cycle on a CMS ... only to discover that it doesn't actually do what they wanted it to do and the people tr
It's easy (Score:3, Funny)
Re:It's easy (Score:2)
Enterprise Content (Score:1, Redundant)
The title... (Score:1)
One Word... (Score:3, Funny)
It's the market leader for a reason.
Re:One Word... (Score:3, Interesting)
Vignette never delivered on its personalisation promises, and once you've removed that the only thing left going for them is caching.
It is the caching and cache flushing that enables those big sites to run so well... nothing to do with managing the content at all.
Purchase some cheap boxes and throw squid on
Re:One Word... (Score:3, Insightful)
Well, I've known some Vignette places and they were NOT happy with it. It seems to be more of a very very very complex database front end than an actual CMS. I think they locked in a bunch of customers early on and are now gradually losing them.
Now, if only it was so easy to dismiss WebSphere...
Re:One Word... (Score:3, Insightful)
I had the displeasure of working with it when I worked for quepasa.com (remember this [slashdot.org]?) Not only was it unbelievably expensive, it was horribly broken. Built-in commands would literally stop working one day. As in, pieces of the production site (that hadn't been touched in weeks) would suddenly not work. As an example, one day the DATE_FORMAT command broke. It was off by one. You could roll dates back a few days with i
As a former Vignette employee... (Score:2, Interesting)
Vignette's software is a giant, expensive mess that doesn't actually do much of anything. The only working part is the database cache, and that's not exactly rocket science. The rest is all marketing, and unfortunately marketing and engineering don't talk much. The biggest thing Vignette has going for them is the $300m or so in the bank, which has been pretty much the only thing keeping their head above water for the past few years.
signed,
a former Vignette employee (quit, no
Re:One Word... (Score:2)
I'm currently developing a replacement for a Vignette deployment at my current employer and every time I interact with the Vignette system, I'm reminded of why my employer now has a policy prohibiting any new Vignette projects.
If you must, use Vignette for p
Tools are the key. (Score:5, Insightful)
What we need a warm-fuzzy WYSIaWYG editor that can looks like a word processor but uses XML as it's native format so that documents can be diffed and transformed easily. There are lots of word processors, and lots of XML editors, but no word processors for XML. (and please, before you mention OpenOffice.org, bear in mind that it's DOC format it zipped XML, and therefore not diffable.)
The tools are close - you can almost use OpenOffice.org for docbook, or someone could develop the tools to diff and transfrom their current format, but until then we are stuck with proprietary formats (making books like the above necessary, i guess).
Re:Tools are the key. (Score:2, Informative)
You should take a look at Arbortext's Epic [arbortext.com]. Looks like it would fit your needs.
Re:Tools are the key. (Score:2)
Re:Tools are the key. (Score:2)
Content Express!! (Score:1)
It's a module for Postnuke CMS!
GMM Solutions
[http://www.gmmsolutions.com]
CMS Solution Providers.
Re:Content Express!! (Score:2)
I need an editor, not an editor tied to a CMS (and a browser).
Re:Tools are the key. (Score:1)
Neat. I didn't know that. I managed to unzip a .sxw file and got the content.xml file. Trivial, but the xml is all on two lines (one for the header, then the rest written as a single, huge string). When you diff something like that you will get nothing useful. I suppose all you would need is to insert newlines before and after each tag to chop the file into diff-able pieces. No need to re-assemble the original files, just diff with copies.
Zope as content management system (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Zope as content management system (Score:1)
You need to be able to archive HTML, Word, Excel, PDFs, Images, Videos - the list grows and people want to be able to search through videos etc etc.
Zope's great but like many posters have said they just don't work for a large organisation which will rely on a good intranet/websi
Re:Zope as content management system (Score:3, Informative)
But I already think to migrate it to accept a bigger user base. The key solution that will lets us doing it is ZEO [zope.org] - Zope Enterprise Objects, which
Re:Zope as content management system (Score:2)
Managing Enterprise Content. (Score:5, Funny)
I suppose you could probably catalouge the series based on when the ship blew up, because that happened quite a bit.
(btw, if you're reading this Clever, I don't really think your episodes sucked, except for maybe the last one you were in... I had always kinda hoped you'd come back, but NOOO, you had to go and do some stupid shuttle manuever and kill your bud, and then blame it on his dead body, blowing a WHOLE YEAR at the Academy! And why didnt they ever let you shack up with that hot engineer chick?! Huh?! Huh?!?))
Fsckint Sheet... (Score:2)
Slips on headset. Imagines putting disk in whirlwind. Has slight Reloaded Orgasm.
Ahh, weren't mid 90's "State of the Art" Special Effects great?
Re:Fsckint Sheet... (Score:2)
You don't understand the scope of the problem (Score:5, Interesting)
I work for a rather large (unnamed company) which has one of the largest data centers in California (nope not that company, you would be suprised who we are).
In any event our intranet consists of over 150,000 flat HTML pages. We have over 2000 web servers running anything from NT4 to Unix to our Mainfraims hosting web services to get data out of them.
Now look at the problem of having a couple dozen physical locations where employees work. We also have 2 physical mirrors of all our data in 2 different locations.
Now here is the problem. The guy who works in the company cafateria wants to update his webpage which has the menu for what they are selling at the cafateria in building X.
He has no idea on how to use any technical tools, but the man cooks like there is no tomorrow. So don't ask him to wack away at HTML. Do not ask him to use CVS. Do not ask him to start a script. He wants something like a word processor to go in and edit his webpage.
Now this presents another whole new problem. How do the systems administrators know Mr. Chef is allowed in. How do we do rights management accross all our servers. We have everything from Mainframes to desktops, to NT to Windows 2003 to several flavors of *nix.
Now how does the system get back ahold of Mr. Chef when he doesn't update his webpage? There is no use in having information about a cafateria menu which is 2 weeks old? How does the system know that the data is stale, and how do we get Mr. Chef to come back and update his website. There needs to be some type of self governing mechinism.
So I don't think CVS or whatever will solve this problem. Interprise CMS problems are of the non-trivial type. Our company has spent the last year or so studying the problem, and will problably spend another year or so before we actually choose the direction we are going. And to be honest we are probably looking at a $50+ million investment to roll out our CMS system. How's that for non-trivial?
Ted Tschopp
Edison Carrier Solutions? (Score:1)
Re:Edison Carrier Solutions? (Score:2)
Re:You don't understand the scope of the problem (Score:2)
What's an "Interprise?"
Re:You don't understand the scope of the problem (Score:1, Insightful)
Have a look at documentum:
http://www.documentum.com [documentum.com]
They have document management backed by a relational database to hold the metadata. Includes workflow, signoffs and query language. Yes it also does web site management(a "small" but still growing part of the content management picture). Mr. Chef will still be printing the menu for many years to come. Now can I get that menu on my PDA via 802... :) Oh and drop me an email when chef makes baked alaska!
Re:You don't understand the scope of the problem (Score:2)
Re:You don't understand the scope of the problem (Score:3, Informative)
We use CVS here and it works a treat. The guys change the web pages using Dreamweaver, then they just look at the Explorer window, see the files they've changed highlighted in red and then right-click and select "Commit" from the menu. Totally
True Content Management Story (Score:5, Funny)
Buyer: All the old logos will need to be identified and changed.
Guy from our company (on a competing team): We'll have to examine every page on every site to make sure we get them all. I estimate 3 weeks.
Guy from my team: Or we could go to the Compliance cabinet where those things are kept, find the Logo.gif file, and change it there. I estimate 3 minutes.
Guy #1: What if not all of the logos came from that cabinet?
Guy #2: So your people haven't been following the branding guidelines? The ones that are in place for exactly situations like this?
Guy #1: No, we've been following them.
Guy #2: Ok then. Next.
Re:True Content Management Story (Score:2)
Re:True Content Management Story (Score:2)
The product is not, and I dont think ever will be, a purely web content solution. It's intended to enterprise document management. The tools to do that are outstanding. Much better
Everyone wants to go to heaven... (Score:4, Interesting)
(sigh). Yet another book that shows us the Promised Land, but without a guide to get there. If I had a buck for every time I have cursed the lameware cobbled together to manage content on development projects...
Managers are all in favor of content management, but in my experience they don't have any idea of what that means. They would prefer to pay far more for a system developed in house instead of buying COTS components or systems developed for the very purpose.
Not that it's all their fault: IT vendors oversold their products' capabilities and ease of use & customization, so many organizations are rightly skeptical.
Still, books like this perhaps should have a chapter discussing how to motivate the managers to understand the importance of an effective system, and how to close the credibility gap.
cms sucks (Score:5, Interesting)
CMS is hard when users have been using FrontPage for 5 years and still can't make pages look the way they want. CMS is hard when users create a 375 page document, complete with images and tables, and ask "how can I publish this to our clients via the website? By the way, it's a Word Doc." CMS is hard when, after 5 years, your users don't understand that "save the file to servername sharename" means "file > save as > \\servername\sharename\filename.ext".
How can you create a CMS when all people know how to do is save files into "My Documents", and still manage to lose them?
If I have to say, "that means backslash-backslash-servername-backslash-sharenam
This is the heart of CMS, as I see it. CMS is stringing networking, websites/intranets/extranets, and the ol' File Manager (Explorer) together in a way that is understandable by people who refuse to learn or try to comprehend anything new.
As I've begun using Linux, I've started to see how using symbolic links could simplify things more. I could smbmount, ln -s, and say "if you want to publish that *here*, save it to siteB/filename". The only clarification I'd have to make is "no, you don't have to type anything else, just siteB/filename". Unfortuantely, we're using Windows on the clients and Web Folders and Mapped Drives just don't do the trick.
My advice to anyone who embarks on a CMS project: Don't. In fact, better advice: Kill yourself.
Re:cms sucks (Score:1)
CMS is hard when, after 5 years, your users don't understand that "save the file to servername sharename" means "file > save as > \\servername\sharename\filename.ext"
After 5 years of correcting users, I would probably have changed the instructions users need to follow to say "file > save as > \\servername\sharename\filename.ext." Or maybe map a drive (as part of a standard image) and just tell them what drive letter t
Re:cms sucks (Score:2)
Followed by:
"Why is filename.ext the only file on our intranet now? Where did everything else go?"
Re:cms sucks (Score:2)
Junction points are a little better than parsing points, and work very much link symlinks do.
-----
Content management examples (Score:5, Interesting)
Since that point, we've evolved it to more of an "electronic" filing cabinet. A networked box holds sanitized example documents by category of law (divorce, custody, personal injury, business formation, wills and probate, etc.). It is more useful than things were before, but it is not ideal. If you do something that is unusual or especially good, you are encouraged to submit it to the file.
In addition, "how to" documents are created for new or unusual practice areas as guidelines or checklists for various procedures (how to handle a basic will, checklists for complaints, client interview checklists for various types of cases, etc.). None of this eliminates the use of sound judgment or experience, but the documents serve as tools to assist the attorneys -- it is sometimes hard to stay on track or get everything in a client interview that can last for over an hour. The checklists help with that.
Not everybody contributes to the file repository and there is nobody in charge of vetting the documents to ensure that they are "best of breed" type documents. It does prevent the "reinventing the wheel" problem to some extent, however.
When I worked for Ernst & Young, they were really pushing to make information retention and reuse a priority. Contributions to the document repository were considered in performance evaluations. The resources were aggressively managed (vetted, categorized, reviewed documents to prevent "staleness") by knowledgable individuals for each practice area and there were a number of groups which were extremely focused on reselling knowledge.
IT people who can provide this sort of service are going to do well. Service businesses cannot improve margins without making use of technology to improve efficiencies, and content management is a fantastic way to help them get there. Very very few small to medium sized businesses really make use of content management to increase their margins, and this is one area where, even in a bad economy, IT can really help to make a positive contribution to the bottom line.
GF.
Re:Content management examples (Score:2)
This is good, but its only half the battle. Not only do you have to reward participation in the knowledge management system (contribution, vetting) you have to do it on an equal b
General Content Management Sentiments (Score:3, Interesting)
1. Content management is NOT making web sites. Sure web sites can be built off the back of a content repository (Vignette + Documentum for example). Enterprise Content Management is a blanket term for the storage, management, collaboration, publishing of many forms of content. This content could be, for example in Life Sciences, highly regulated documents outlining manufacturing principles of drugs. Or it could be "How to use the water cooler". One of the many challenges that enterprises face today is how to extract business content from employees brains and make it accessible as such that you don't lose intellectual property when you lose staff.
2. The XML thing. This is the tricky one. The majority of content today is authored in MS Office. Users of all walks of life author content. Many attempts at WYSIWYG XML editors have failed pretty dismally. The reason being is that users do no like to change the way they work. Two years ago, at the same set of conferences, everyone was talking about authoring in XML. It hasn't happened and it won't. Just plain old Microsoft Word styles are a pain in the butt to use - and thats just marking up style, not context or meta. Try asking a user to describe every paragraph within some form of taxonomy tree. You get blank faces or grimaces.
Anyway, just some food for thought from, dare I say, the real world!
Re:General Content Management Sentiments (Score:2)
And yet they often do. The hard truth is that the users will do what you tell them to because their jobs are on the line. They will bitch and moan but they will either do it or get fired.
If the comapny has a vision and if the company has a plan which it thinks will make them more competitive then there is no reason to stop that plan because the user don't want to change the way they work.
It's not up to the users to determine strategic
online resource for more about this subject (Score:1)
http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200305/
http://www.intranetjournal.com/articles/200305/
What is content management? (Score:2)
Is this an appropriate definition? But then there's also mention of XML content management, which doesn't seem to fit my def. Can somebody explain what this is or how/if this technology can be leveraged by the average web developer? D
Re:What is content management? (Score:1)
Re:What is content management? (Score:2)
CMS Explained (Score:2)
MANAGEMENT
A content management system is about managing content in a systematic way. If you examine the premise, it implies a set of procedures for handling content (create, edit, view, delete, and more complex procedures built from these basics) in a systematic, structured way. From these advanced procedures arise
Very helpful! Thank you ;) (Score:2)
I'll tell you what I'd do to the Enterprise (Score:1, Redundant)
Oh, wait...
Mangling Enterprise Content (Score:2)
The book is worthless (Score:2)
Consider the following level zero problem. You have a server full of files people in your group have produced over the past few years. You want to find out what's in each file.
Not only is this one of those problems everybody has, but I think it can be shown that if you can't solve this problem, you're out of luck generating any kind of content structure without reinventing your company's knowledge from the ground up.
As soon as the person who created the file sa
Advice (Score:2)
Just don't get stuck with a bad one. m'kay?
Do your homework - because every time someone spends money on a bad solution, a bad company stays in b
Oh damn! (Score:2)
Re:PHP is the way to go (Score:2, Interesting)
php isn't gonna help anyone at a daily newspaper, or an audio/video production house, or a catalog company...these are places that need and use CMS solutions. the common mistake here is to assume that "content management" only applies to websites.
Re:PHP is the way to go (Score:2)
PHP? You've gotta be kidding.
PHP is the epitome of mixing content and presentation. Sure you can separate it but it just doesn't seem to be aimed at doing so. Mason [mason.org] seems to be better at it -- it at least tries to enforce separation.
No, I don't have a good replacement -- but PHP as a good web content generator is not a good idea IMO.
Re:which products? (Score:2, Informative)
I've just started reading the book myself, so I can't tell you too much. My impression, though, is that the authors don't discuss specific tools or technologies (except XML), instead they focus on helping you understand what your needs are, then they give you help to deciding which tools and technologies will work for you based on those needs. That makes sense because what works for me and my needs probably won't work for you.
That said, there is a 100 page section titled "Tools and Technologies". It'