Choosing Web Content Management Solutions

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Choosing Web Content Management Solutions

• Kim Guenther
• Online, Sep/Oct 2001 25 (4) 25 (5)

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Outline

• Why do I need WCMS?
• What is WCMS?
• Choosing WCMS

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Why do I need a WCM?

• The site has grown beyond the ability to manage
  it as a collection of static HTML pages.
• More people (non-technical) wish to participate
  in publishing content to the Web.
• More functionality is required to serve Web site
  users and site developers.
• Increased collaboration is required between
  content creators and Web site developers.
• Standards need to be implemented for look and
  feel and how participants structure and define
  their information before publishing to the Web
  site.
• Content repurposing is required to serve several
  audiences to the Web site.
• Increased capabilities are required to deliver
  content through different modalities, such as
  hand-helds.

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Defining Web Content Management

• Content Management is a combination of
  well-defined roles, formal processes, and
  supporting systems architecture that helps
  organizations contribute, collaborate on, and
  control page elements such as text, graphics,
  multimedia, and applets.
• WCM streamline the front-end process of managing
  content through well-defined workflows and
  templates, and allow more effective management of
  back-end processes to include defining,
  standardizing, controlling, staging, routing,
  storing, and delivering content to the Web.

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WCM Features

• Easy for participants to add content to a Web
  site
• Templates (no need to know HTML) and workflows
• Allow the site administrator to lock down
  components of the site, such as layout and design
• Specially-defined workflows allow people to
  contribute and participate within a pre-defined
  role, but require them to follow a series of
  tasks based upon their user role
• Workflows are often tailored and roles assigned
  for each type of information (marketing or
  research) or per department (human resources)

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Approaches to Managing Web Content Portals

• Enterprise Information Portals (EIP) and
  Enterprise Portals (EP)
• One category of content management solution
  especially relevant to organizations hoping to
  aggregate content from many applications within
  the enterprise
• A portal is exactly that, a gateway or window to
  information contained within the enterprise that
  can often be customized based upon end users' own
  personal preference for information.
• Information relevance is determined by the
  end-user who predefines preferences for
  information using a profile that then defines
  "rules" for content delivery

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Approaches to Managing Web Content Portals
(Cont.)

• Strong in personalization and tying together
  disparate data sources
• Weak in the actual nuts and bolts of content
  management
• In general, sophisticated portal applications and
  their supporting architecture are not effectively
  designed for true content management, so it is up
  to the Web team to bridge that gap by developing
  this functionality or purchasing and implementing
  another application
• Portal vendors Epicentric, PlumTree, Sequoia,
  Verity, Autonomy, BEA WebLogic, and Sagent

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Approaches to Managing Web Content DM

• Around for a long time
• Strong in structuring information, building topic
  hierarchies, indexing content, facilitating
  collaborative workflows, and document imaging
  capabilities
• Strengths include management of complex
  documents, version control (including check-in/
  check-out), document level security integration,
  and audit trail capabilities
• Slow in incorporating many of the standards of
  today's Web development environment
• Vendors Documentum, PC DOCS, Open Text,
  FileNet, and Interleaf

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Approaches to Managing Web Content CMWeb

• CM solutions designed with the Web in mind
• Core functionality is centered on content
  creation and presentation through the use of
  templates and well-defined workflows to guide
  contributors
• Facilitate management of content at a granular
  level, which leverages the way content can be
  repurposed in terms of presentation and delivery.
  
• Use XML technology
• Most offer their own HTML editor and other tools
  allowing simple programming, e.g., JavaScript,
  without the need to know the code.
• Play well with many third party tools, such as
  search engines and other more popular HTML editors

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Planning for WCM

• A good place to start in planning for WCM is to
  look at your current Web environment what works
  and what does not?
• A thorough investigation on your part will reveal
  where the strength and weaknesses are in your
  current processes and tools.
• Think about the long-term (one to three years)
  development priorities for your site (pick an
  application you can grow with)
• Content management strategy
• Begin with a review of your current content
  management strategy identify the strengths and
  weaknesses of your current process for developing
  and maintaining the site.
• How many people do you currently support? Who
  contribute content to the site? What's your
  current process for allowing participation and
  how might that change with the implementation of
  a WCM? How do people want to contribute actively
  building their own departmental Web sites or just
  providing content?
• Make sure you actually go out and talk to people
  in your organization

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Planning for WCM (Cont.)

• Functionality Requirements
• Determine which parts of your business strategy
  would be enhanced with Web-based support, and
  begin to develop a multi-year phase-in plan to
  guide your efforts.
• Web governance board can help you determine what
  functionality should be weighted the heaviest in
  a review of WCM applications.
• Functionality can also be assessed with a
  thorough inventory of your site to identify file
  formats and document types that need to be
  supported in a WCM system.
• Existing resources current in-house skills and
  staffing

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WCM Terminology

• Workflow The heart of most WCM applications,
  workflow allows you to assign a sequence of
  interdependent tasks, and assign individuals or
  roles for each task. Workflows can be assigned
  for different types of content or for different
  Web sites-Internet or Intranet-or Web sites tied
  to specific departments that participate in Web
  site development.
• Auditing or Audit Trail Many WCM applications
  supporting work-flows also support auditing.
  Auditing is the ability to look at a sequence of
  activities within a work-flow to determine who,
  when, and why content was changed.
• Staging Many large Web sites choose to "stage"
  Web pages or content before they are pushed out
  to production. Often "staging" is done as part of
  the workflow where the last task will be to stage
  the content on a staging server for review before
  placing it onto the production server.

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WCM Terminology (Cont.)

• Roll-back or Versioning The ability to
  "roll-back" a page or a part of the Web site to a
  previous version. This has great implications for
  organizations that are highly regulated like
  health care, where the organization may need to
  show what was contained on the site in previous
  versions.
• Check-in/Check-out A feature designed to
  facilitate collaborative participation on a
  single document without participants overwriting
  one another.
• Behavior Tracking The ability to observe a user
  of your site and capture click-through or
  click-stream data to be stored in a user profile.
  Often, this information is tied to a cookie file
  for repeat visitors so that more targeted
  information is provided, e.g., ads, news, etc.

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WCM Terminology (Cont.)

• User Profile Information stored in a profile
  database that reflects the users preferences for
  content. A profile may also store historical
  information, such as past purchases.
• Business Rules Business rules are tied to
  behavior tracking and the creation of user
  profiles. Rules are created and assigned to
  specific profiles that determine the types of
  content they might receive and the format of that
  content. So, a fictitious example from my own
  health care environment might set the following
  conditions consumers who type in the search
  phrase "acupuncture' will be shown a banner ad
  for an upcoming seminar on alternative therapies,
  
• Personalization the ability to match content to
  predefined profiles. Profiles are either defined
  by the end-user through an entry form or assumed
  based upon behavior tracking and applied business
  rules.

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Drivers of WCM Selection Criteria

• Criteria to be considered when choosing a WCM
  tool
• Overall goals and strategy of the organization
• The specific requirements for functionality
• The content management environment (people and
  process)
• Criteria flow from business and strategic plans
• A business plan defines the goals and objectives
  of the organization and explains whom your
  organization serves and how
• A strategic plan provides the roadmap or
  blueprint your business will follow to meet the
  goals and objectives of organization, and even
  defines how you will reach your different
  audiences to serve them
• A Web strategy defines the specific set of Web
  goals and projects that delivers on individual
  aspects of the overall strategy

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Developing an Organization Web Strategy

• Ask a representative group of your organization
  to prioritize a list of ways that the Web can
  support the primary goals of the business
• Ask the group to define the different audiences
  who will be served with a Web site and the type
  of content they may need, along with how that
  content will be identified, managed, and
  delivered
• Ask the actual consumers to get specific
  information directly from the most knowledgeable
  sources
• Create a matrix of identified audiences mapped
  against the high-level functionality they require

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Gathering User Requirements

• Requirement-gathering weeds through wishes and
  desires to focus on and document absolute
  business requirements
• Detailed technical requirements can be gained by
  working with users or constituencies to create
  initial-use cases for each functional area to
  more specifically define the transaction of value
  between user and system
• Mapping functionality by user groups will begin
  to pinpoint the necessary technical requirements
  as functional requirements are considered against
  technical architectures (platform, OS, DB)
• Functional and related technical requirements can
  then be matched against particular products'
  capabilities

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Understanding Your Content Management Environment

• Your overall Web strategy will need to address
  how content will be created, maintained, and
  delivered
• These are the primary areas of consideration for
  any CM effort, and will directly impact the type
  of WCMS you choose
• Three methods for managing Web content
• Distributed authoring
• Centralized authoring
• A mix of the two

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Distributed Authoring

• Virtually every individual in the organization is
  an author
• Built around a small core group that develops
  standards, policies, and an evolving template
• The core team establishes the environment, keeps
  the servers running, and perhaps provides some
  training
• Authors participate by contributing content using
  templates and following standards for look and
  feel. They publish their content to the Web site
  directly
• Most often the strategy for a Web site supporting
  multiple sub-sites or smaller self-contained that
  branch from the parent site
• Departments step through all phases of CM for
  their own areas content creation, management,
  and delivery

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Distributed Authoring (Cont.)

• Distributed authoring put tools in the hands of
  the people who know the content
• The IT team becomes a group of technical
  Webmasters
• Their task can also be to do a final check of
  content while it is on a staging server so that
  they can ensure that the content follows
  standards such as "look and feel" and metadata
  integration
• Require a person in each department be
  responsible for identifying and placing content
  into whatever process you have put in place to
  move content up to the server

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Distributed Authoring (Cont.)

• Quality of the content varies greatly
• Need a strong Web support process, one that can
  adapt to a large and most often non-technical
  clientele that it serves
• Rely heavily on a governance structure to make
  sure the content (such as review) is OK before
  it goes "live"

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Choosing a WCM to Support Distributed Authoring

• Ease of learn and use
• Do participants need to know FTP and HTTP
• Form-based content submission
• Licensing that results in reasonable cost
• Per-seat charge?
• Server horsepower (CPU speed and of servers)?
• Workflow
• Is the CM tool scalable, especially with regard
  to number of contributors and associated
  workflows?
• You may need to support workflows for each
  department and/or for each type of content you
  publish
• If you already have a process that works
  effectively for CM, make sure the tool's workflow
  can fit your Web-publishing process

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Centralized Authoring

• A centralized group that has all publishing
  responsibilities in its hands
• The centralized Web group accepts content from
  authors and applies the appropriate template or
  underlying HTML programming and posts
• The department originating the content have the
  option of final review
• IT team can take on many different
  responsibilities, moving them from a strict IT
  shop to one that includes staff involved in
  content production as well (writers, editors, and
  Web site producers)

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Centralized Authoring (Cont.)

• Advantages
• All of the technical underpinnings of the Web
  site, even templates and standards, can be
  applied
• The centralized team, as a point of control, can
  provide more consistently uniform and better
  overall quality
• Legal issues can be better managed with regards
  to the content
• Disadvantages
• The Web group can act as a bottleneck
• May appear to be more expensive
• Generally requires more staff
• Organizationally, this model depends on a
  structure to aid service delivery

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Choosing a WCM to Support Centralized Authoring

• Support skill
• What programming languages is the WCM tool based
  on (Java, C), and does your staff have the
  deep, required skill sets to become highly
  proficient?
• Will the WCM require initial setup by the vendor
  or an outside consultant?
• Overall tool effectiveness
• Does the WCM package offer a highly effective and
  efficient tool to serve as the core of service
  delivery for the Web team?

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Final Thoughts

• The concept of workflow is the real power behind
  most robust WCM applications you need to set up
  a workflow to accommodate a myriad of approaches
  to allow participants to contribute
• Focus on getting the best core functionality you
  need
• Choose an application that meets your needs now,
  but one that will take you out a few years
• Choose an application where you can build in
  additional functionality as necessary

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Issues to Consider Content Creation

• Does you Web development process require a
  task-based workflow? If so, who is doing what at
  each stage of development, and what do those
  roles involve, e.g., writing, editing, reviewing,
  designing? How many workflows will you need to
  support?
• Do you require a collaborative work environment
  where several people may be working on the same
  Web site? If so, make sure the WCM supports check
  in/check out capabilities, version control, and
  audit tracking (knowing who did what to each Web
  document and/or notifying participants when a
  task is due)

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Issues to Consider Content Creation (Cont.)

• Are rollback capabilities supported? This is very
  important in environments that are highly
  regulated where the institution may need to show
  the Web site as it existed in previous versions
• Can participants create documents in the context
  of the complete Web site?
• Can non-technical contributors participate with
  minimal training, preferable with tools they
  already use? Does the tool require something on
  the client's desktop machine in order to
  contribute or is participation through a Web
  browser?
• Can participants contribute in both WYSIWYG and
  source code view?

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Issues to Consider Content Management

• Can content be separated from form through the
  use of templates and XML (very important for
  content repurposing and locking down template
  components)?
• Can third-party tools already in use can be
  leveraged by the WCM, e.g. search engine, server
  log analyzer?
• Can metadata be managed and applied so that
  content cannot be posted without required
  metadata fields?
• Are both staging and production environments
  supported (very large Web sites generally
  maintain a server farm consisting of development,
  staging, and production servers)?
• Does the tool support time-release content and
  removal of dated content through the use of time
  stamps?

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Issues to Consider Content Management (Cont.)

• Can different components making up the Web site
  be delivered via databases, e.g. graphics,
  metadata, programming code, text?
• What file types are supporting HTML, XML, XSL,
  Java, JPG, GIF, PNG, ASCII Text, wav, Java
  applets, PHP, Perl
• Does the tool support site management utilities
  such as automatic link tracking and assignment
  when links are changed, orphan page prevention,
  and expired file identification and notification
  to owner?
• How well does the CM tool scale? Is there a limit
  on users, workflows, or files?
• Can the tool work with access control provided by
  directory services?

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Issues to Consider Content Delivery

• Can content be repurposed to a variety of
  templates and modalities, e.g., handhelds?
• Are business rules and content targeting
  supported so that content can be delivered to
  specific predefined groups?
• Does the tool support personalization and backend
  profiling necessary to support personalized sites
  and targeted content delivery, e.g., cookies,
  certificates?
• Are email lists or integrated chat capabilities
  supported?
• Is there support for open object models and
  messaging formats Java and XML? These languages
  are especially important for typing in legacy
  systems.