cms selection: the "c" is for content! - confab central 2015

CMS Selection: The “C” is for Content! Figuring out what you need the CMS to do, and then figuring out if it does.

© 2015 SAPIENT CORPORATION

Hi!

I’m Anne Casson. I have 18+ years of experience strategizing, planning, designing, creating, and structuring content to function effectively for brands and consumers.

•  Director, Content Strategy, SapientNitro •  Editorial > UX > CMS Practice > Content Strategy •  CMSs, eCommerce platforms, PIMs •  Financial Services, Insurance, Pharma, Retail •  Confab newbie!

@annecasson



Today’s Session

•  Goal & Caveats •  A Basic Approach to Vendor Evaluation •  Defining Requirements •  Typical Categories of Content Considerations •  How They Translate to Requirements •  Q&A


Goal

•  You head for lunch with a better understanding of content considerations for your business, and the confidence to prioritize and then translate those considerations into CMS requirements

Image source: http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3tldhx


Caveats

•  This session will be platform agnostic •  It is not meant to replicate a comprehensive

vendor evaluation •  We will not cover all the categories of

requirements that require definition as part of an evaluation

•  We will cover common categories of content requirements

Image source: h"ps://bymagazinetravel.wordpress.com9


Let’s dive right in.


A basic approach to vendor evaluation

1. Define Requirements Either solo or facilitated by an agency partner, define and document CMS requirements (as well as outstanding questions). Then prioritize. 2. Vendor Shortlist Use research reports (E.g.; Forrester or Gartner) to identify 2-3 key vendors that provide a CMS as part of their portfolio. 3. Vendor Evaluation Thoroughly analyze each vendor on the shortlist against detailed requirements across specified focus areas such content management features, workflow capabilities, ability to integrate with external systems, vendor-provided training and support, etc. Then select one!


Where do I start?


Defining Content Requirements for CMS

1.  I require a CMS. 2.  It should hold content. 3.  It must do templates! Or something.



1.  Define and document your content needs into a process flow




2.  Organize those needs into categories (I’ll get you started)




2.  Organize those needs into categories (I’ll get you started)

3.  Formulate questions designed to determine the impact of a CMS on those needs


Content Processes

What are all the things you do, or want to do, with digital content today? •  Create an article •  Select photography •  Create an infographic •  Enter in to CMS •  Edit, review, revise, preview, approve •  Translate •  Tag (SEO keywords, performance measurement, and related product content) •  Create a FB post and tweet •  Create a related video •  Create captions & transcript •  Publish •  Tweet •  Repurpose as a series of blog posts •  Archive or decommission

BONUS POINTS! Think about content owners

& roles while you think about process.


Basic content process diagram

Create9 Review9 Approve9 Publish9

Author9 Editor9 Legal9 Content9Manager9





Typical categories of requirements

Category Examples

Content Management content authoring, rich media, preview, site design, testing, tagging

Page Templates consistent layout with some flexibility in component use, sharing across BUs

Publishing versioning, revert, archiving capabilities

Localization multi-lingual content, sharing

Personalization geo-location, pages visited, referrer, tags, time of day, customer profile

Workflow user management, authorization, manage review process, approvals, queues

SEO metadata fields

Search (inside the CMS) author, user group, time stamp, text search

Integration content creation platforms, eCommerce, multi-channel distribution, social media interaction

Product Support training, services, resources

Reporting analytics


Formulating questions

Content Management •  Does CMS allow for centrally managed assets? Do all documents, images, animations, and videos

live in one location? •  Can I upload files in bulk? •  Will I have the ability to batch content? (Copy it in bulk and then do something with it, like tag it

or export it.) •  Does CMS support user-generated content, including need to moderate and maintain? Page Templates •  What level of support is there for page templating? •  How flexible are layout and landing page templates?



Publishing •  Is there support for content versioning? •  Is there support for content caching? •  Is there support for preview? •  Is there support for multi-channel delivery? •  Can I do scheduled/time-based publishing? •  Does it support parallel/multiple publishing queues?

Localization •  Does CMS support content reuse on multiple pages, sites, screens, or channels? •  Can I designate nodes of content as “corporate/no edits,” “shared/you can edit”? •  Can content originating at a local level be shared back “up” to the corporate level? •  Can content items and page templates be shared between sites? •  How does the system support translation?



Personalization •  Does CMS support content meta information? (Page types, media types, product types, etc.) •  Do I have the ability to identify content dependencies & relationships?

Search (within CMS) !  Does it allow for text-based content search? !  Does it allow for advanced search based on content meta information? !  Does it allow for search based on author or user group?



SEO •  How does the CMS help me create search engine-friendly content? (Metadata fields like keywords

and description; heading tags to text, SEO-friendly URLs, populate image alt tags) •  Does the CMS analyze my content and provide recommendations and best practices to improve

my search engine placement? Workflow •  To what level do I have role-based access control? •  Can workflow trigger external tasks? •  What level of workflow capability comes OOTB? •  Can I customize workflows?


Q&A


THANK YOU!

cms selection: the "c" is for content! - confab central 2015

Technology

document cms requirements

dene requirements

sapient corporation

categories of requirements

content needs

structuring content

detailed requirements

cms requirements image