Making WCM Easy with Alfresco Share 3.2February 18, 2010

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Agenda

• Introductions & Housekeeping

• The Myth of "One Size Fits All" WCM

• Common WCM Challenges with Typical Web Sites

• Using Alfresco Share to Address these Challenges• Demonstration

• Q&A

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Introductions

• Michael Trafton – Chief Architect, Blue Fish Development Group

• Joshua Toub – General Manager, Blue Fish Development Group

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Who the heck is Blue Fish?

• Blue Fish has been singularly focused on ECM for 11 years

• Primarily in the areas of:• Web Content Management

• Document Management

• Custom Application Development

• Full lifecycle projects (cradle to grave)

• Alfresco expertise in "Small Bites"

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The Small Bites Menu

• Appetizers• Alfresco Evaluation

• Alfresco Sandbox

• Entrées• Alfresco Requirements Workshop

• Alfresco Architecture Review

• Alfresco System Architecture

• Alfresco Solution Design

• Alfresco Configuration

• Alfresco Customization and Development

• Dessert• Migrating Documents into Alfresco

• Alfresco Sandbox• Alfresco Requirements Workshop• Alfresco System Architecture • Alfresco Solution Design • Alfresco Configuration

Quick Start Package

from $2,500to $20,000

Myth of "One Size Fits All" WCM

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WCM Myths

• We often hear WCM vendors say that their product is a good fit for

any and all WCM projects…

• …but that's not what we've seen out in the field• Sometimes, WCM really streamlines web site production

• Other times, WCM makes it much harder to do your job

• Why is that?

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Different Types of Sites

Leading Edge Web Sites Traditional Web Sites

• Volatile – Look & Feel Changes Frequently

• Innovative - Ajax, Flash used for User

Interface, eCommerce and other

Applications

• Diverse – Multiple Sites with Different

Visual Themes

• Stable – Look & Feel Only Changes every

3-5 Years

• Conventional – HTML, CSS, Flash used

for Eye Candy

• Homogenous – Consistent Visual Design

Throughout

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Different WCM Needs

Leading Edge Web Sites Traditional Web Sites

• Flexibility

• Rapid Time to Market

• Easy to Test, Easy to Change

• Changes to Several Files at Once

• Avoid Stepping on Other Developers' Toes

• Rollback Things that Didn’t Work

• Contribution by Business Users

• Enforce Consistency of Look and Feel

• Repurpose Content Across Multiple

Platforms or Sites

• Reduce Time and Effort for Future

Rebranding

Leading Edge Web Sitesneed a CMS aimed at

Web Developers

Traditional Web Sitesneed a CMS aimed at

Business Users

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Where Does Alfresco AVM Fit?

• Alfresco AVM is great for Leading Edge web sites• Manage and deploy code and web content together

• Sandboxes let users work on lots of connected files in a protected area

• Submit a collection of changes that go live together

• File System-based UI (CIFS) allows easy use of HTML/code editors

• Snapshots allow large sets of changes to be rolled back

• This flexibility and power can be overwhelming for traditional sites• Can we tweak Alfresco to be a better fit for traditional sites?

Common WCM Challenges for Traditional Sites

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We Often Hear…

• User Adoption is low• People still email their content to the web team in MS Word

• New users struggle to use the system• They were not part of the initial training

• Infrequent users struggle to use the system• The training "wore off"

• IT team is still too involved• We're not getting the ROI we wanted

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Why Is This So Hard?

• Need more focus on the “Casual Contributor” role• Web content is not their job

• It's extra work on top of their normal job

• They aren't web savvy• Not designers, don't know HTML

• They don't know about WCM• and they don't care – they just want their content on the web site

• You can't train them • There are too many of them, too far away, etc.

• They hardly ever contribute content • There's no reinforcement

• An Intuitive User Interface is Key

What We've DoneUsing Alfresco Share as a WCM Platform for Traditional Web Site

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Key Points About Our Solution

• Site Designed by Developers, Maintained by Business Users• Similar to popular blogging software• You decide what the web site is going to look like, then create forms that

allow authors to enter content that conforms to the site's design

• Content as a Service Pattern• Web site consumes content from Alfresco• Separates WCM expertise from Web Site Expertise• Particularly useful in Portals, Intranets, E-Commerce Sites, Environments with

high reuse, Environments with multiple technologies

• Different UIs for Casual Contributors and Approvers • Approvers are typically the "web team"

• Focused on the web – they "get it"• Overworked, need as much help/automation as they can get

• Don't have time to spend making author's pages pretty

• Approvers can deal with a more typical WCM UI

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Casual Contributor UI

• Integrated with the web site• Web site IS the user interface

• Intuitive and Bullet Proof

• Requires Zero Training

• Wizards and Forms• Guides authors through the process

• Eliminates mistakes

• Power Users would revolt, casual users love it

Casual Contributor UI Demo

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Approver UI

• Built on Alfresco Share

• Uses same forms as Casual Contributor UI

• Makes approval easy

• Provides more control for advanced users• Copy/Move files

• Control permissions

• Retire/Expire files

• Advanced search

• etc.

Approver UI Demo

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Alfresco CMS

Web Site

or

Portal

Portal Requests Navigation

Portal Issues Searches

Portal Requests Content

Portal User

Portal User Requests

Web Page in Browser

Approver

Approver

Approves

Content

Author

Author

Creates/Edits

Content

Architecture

• Built on Alfresco DM

• UI Built Using Components from Alfresco Share• Forms Service for Web Page Templates

• Content as a Service• Web Site requests content from Alfresco via RESTful APIs

• Content Fragments, Queries, Full-Text Search

• Simple Workflow for Approval• Email Notifications eliminates need to log in and check an "inbox"

• Folder Actions• Attaching aspects, object types, and workflows

• Automatically filing content based on attribute values

• Sending Email Notifications

• "Lifecycle" States for Effectivity and Preview

Questions?Michael Trafton

mikey@bluefishgroup.com

Josh Toub

joshua@bluefishgroup.com