Many companies embark on a content management exercise with great expectations and clear strategic objectives, but they often end with a less than ideal outcome. The exercise tends to go something like this:
* Management decides it has had enough of having its information stored in a miscellany of file directories, filing cabinets, people`s heads and other inaccessible places, and it wants this information centralised. It also wants its Web site to be up to date, and for that up-to-date information to be approved and authorised and exactly the same information a customer would receive if he called the call centre or read the company`s latest brochure.
* Consultants are engaged, and at significant cost they work with corporate IT staff to extract requirements and begin delivering solutions. Typically the project is delivered late and over budget, but at least initially it seems to be in line with requirements. All content is neatly stored in a single place. Web forms allow users to capture content and route it automatically for approval. Approved content is displayed in all the right places. No more file directories. No more old news on the company home page.
* However, a few months later, management finds staff working around the new system, and in effect bypassing the new processes. Intranet pages are printed out, and instead of all staff working off a single version of the truth via the intranet, they are instead creating islands of information on their PCs. It becomes clear that staff are not buying into the intranet, and its value is accordingly marginalised. Similarly, the Web site is not up to date.
* Management reinvigorates the content management programme and for a while matters seem to improve. But the improvements are transitory and an illusion: staff are still working around the new system, but they have become more sly and secretive as to how they do it. In addition, staff are now actively complaining about the new system, and requesting to do things their own way.
* The consultants are called back in, and again they request significant budget to enhance the new system. Version 2 is duly delivered, but in a few months the situation reverts to its former state, with staff working around it, asking for further changes, and slow response times.
* Ultimately the consultants are dismissed and the company returns to its old way of working: it might not be ideal, but at least people will get their work done.
Why it failed
Implementations such as the above tend to fail for one simple reason - not enough attention was paid to users` needs. Neither internal management nor the consultants spent enough time and trouble to find out what they would be willing to use, and what not.
Implementations tend to fail for one simple reason - not enough attention was paid to users` needs.
Jarred Cinman, product director at Cambrient
However, that was only the start. Recognising that CMS (content management system) software cannot work without end-user buy-in is only the tip of the iceberg. In fact, it cannot work without end-users at all.
To avoid the problems noted above, any business implementing CMS needs to have the following human bases covered:
1. Know how users currently work: It might not be the best way, but it`s what they know. People generally hate change, unless it removes a nagging pain. Which brings us to...
2. Know where the users` pain is: This is often (if not always) a different pain to the pain managers feel.
3. Apply a huge chunk of project money to training and user acceptance: That means, pick a CMS provider which knows how to talk to people as well as computers. Plan feedback sessions, training workshops, pilot groups. Let users tell you what the system could do better.
4. Have your Web site and intranet built by people who understand usability: Usability is an entire issue on its own. It affects the design of a page, the layout of content and the steps involved in the publishing and administration tools.
5. Create a system, create a job: Lastly, understand that adding a computer system, particularly in the fuzzy, messy world of content, means creating new work to be done. Writing good content is not a natural born skill. Neither is knowing how to categorise it or where to best publish it.
Consider working with a CMS provider that understands CONTENT and not just content management. Recognise that you are creating a publishing business when getting into the content game. And that means working out how best to manage that transition.
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