how to select the right cms

© 2016 Geoffrey Bock

Bock & Company Digital Strategies for Content and Mobility

Agenda

• Facing content management challenges

• Managing creative and editorial processes

• Content delivery opportunities

• Weaving content into a digital ecosystem



Two Questions

• What is the right CMS for your organization?

• How (& when) does content add business value?



• What is content?

– Static, largely textual

– Rich media

– A dynamic environment

Web Content Management Is a Moving Target



Web Content Management Is a Moving Target

• What is the web anyway?

– A single web site

– A collection of web sites

– Native or web mobile apps

• What needs to be managed?

– Changes on web pages

– Site-wide look/feel, navigation, or purpose

– Total digital experience



Content Management SolutionsGen1 1992 – 2010-ish

• Predefined pages

• Shared file system

• Single web site

Gen2 2001-ish - present• Component web pages

& templates

• Shared repository

• Microsites

Gen3 2010-ish - future• Accommodate mobile

• Personalized & ‘smart’

• An ecosystem for digital

experiences

Richness of content

and user experience

increases over time

Gen1 Gen2 Gen3



Three CMS Choice Points

• Contributing content

• Delivering content

• Sustaining the digital ecosystem



Contributing Content

• LoB adds/modifies content on a site

– IT develops/manages the site

• LoB manages multiple sites

– IT creates & maintains the enabling WCM platform

• LoB focuses on a business purpose –

– IT provides the purpose-built tools & other supporting services



Tools for Contributing Content

• Library services

– Separates a CMS from a file share

• Editorial workflow

– Great in theory

– Difficult to implement

• Beyond static text & images

– Managing rich media & multiple content types

• Descriptive metadata

• Assembling content from multiple sources

• Multilingual capabilities

• Administrative dashboards



Delivering Content

• Publishing information – Pushing information to

an audience

– Implicit pub/sub distribution model

• A task-oriented, interactive environment – Enterprise portal

– Ecommerce site

– Franchise network

• Producing digital experiences– Relevant for both

tethered & mobile

– Adapts to current context such as location-awareness

– Personalized, visual, &“smart”



Tools for Delivering Content

• From static pages to dynamic assembly

– Templates

– WYSIWYG

– Rich media objects

– Smart chunks

• Support for mobility

– Native vs. web apps

– Responsive website design

– Contextual

• Personalization

– Registration

– Cookies

– Audience targeting

• Tracking results



Weaving the Digital Ecosystem

• SEO tagging

– Descriptive metadata

– Google knowledge graph

– Schema.org tag sets

• Communities & social channels

– Facebook & LinkedIn feeds

• E-commerce syndication

– Single source of authoritative information

– Synchronizing metadata with partner channels



Sustaining the Ecosystem

• SEO best practices

• Content onboarding

• Link strategies

• Headless WCM

– Well defined APIs

– Web-wide good citizenship

• Developer community

• Prospects for serendipity



Towards a CMS Roadmap

• Focus on key business drivers and technology trade-offs surrounding the complete content lifecycle

• LoB can envision results and requirements, and quantify the business benefits

• Recognize the set of IT tasks and activities for powering competitive web sites, and separate them from those that rightfully belong to non-technical staffers

• Truly an IT-LoB partnership



1. Support the business

– Have a seat at the table for the business conversations

– Invest the time to contribute to the business planning activities

– Develop a content strategy

– Define an information architecture

– Determine CM roles and responsibilities

2. Be sure to clarify the business purpose for the CMS investment

– Publishing

– Marketing and sales enablement

– Operational tasks

A Decision Guide for IT Leaders




3. Lead the technical conversation:

– Web development

– Mobile/digital experiences

• Responsive web site design & beyond

• User identification

• Personalization

– Administration

• User management

• Taxonomy management

• Multi-site

– Customer engagement

– Community management




4. Set & maintain both technical,

security, and operational governance requirements

– Work with CISO and LoB leaders to identify risk profile

– Plan staffing commitments

5. Ensure integration with various services & applications within the enterprise ecosystem

– Emphasize extensibility & flexibility and scalability

– Exploit the environment

6. Invest in operational smarts



Making the Right Choice for your Organization

• Rarely starting with a blank slate

– Capture the legacy learning

• What’s working, what’s not working • What needs to be fixed

– Existing IT environment & enterprise architecture

• Technology platform & IT skill set• Infrastructure: How cloudy?

• Assess usability to determine requirements

– Content audit and information architecture

– Describe problem-solution pairs

– Personas, journey mapping, content modeling, etc. are useful UX design



Making the Right Choice for your Organization• Develop technology checklist

– Prioritize IT requirements

– Optimize for best long-term fit

– Track ‘new stuff’ that matters

• Remain agile & ready to adapt



Thank You!

Geoffrey Bock, Principal

[email protected]

THE RIGHT CMSHOW TO SELECT

For information on DNN’s Evoq CMS:

Product page for EvoqContent

http://www.dnnsoftware.com/products/evoq-content