Content  will  Always  be  King  A  discussion  on  the  importance  of  content  transformation  and  dynamic  publishing  in  today’s  enterprise  

Mukul  Krishna  

 

     2  

Content  will  Always  be  King  

TABLE  OF  CONTENTS  

Content  will  always  be  king  ..................................................................................................  3  

The  Expanding  Interactive  Content  Universe  ...................................................................  3  

Revisiting  Enterprise  Content  Publishing  .........................................................................  5  

 

   

 

 3  

 

CONTENT  WILL  ALWAYS  BE  KING  

Over  the  past  few  years,  as  organizations  have  started  embracing  digitization  of  their  workflows,  there  has  been  a  massive  amount  of  emphasis  on  process  at  the  cost  of  content.  Ultimately,  in  today’s  business  environment,  one  of  the  most  critical  assets  for  any  organizations  across  any  vertical  is  its  branded  intellectual  property  which  resides  as  digital  content.  The  best  corporate  strategy,  business  plan,  marketing  campaign,  product  plan,  financial  strategy  –  you  name  it  –  is  useless  if  it  cannot  be  communicated  and  used  effectively  and  in  a  timely  manner.        

The  Expanding  Interactive  Content  Universe  

Each  year,  enterprises  invest  billions  of  dollars  in  hopes  that  their  corporate  communications  —  which  may  include  video,  audio,  graphics,  text,  and  images  —  are  accessible,  up-­‐to-­‐date,  and  relevant,  to  drive  their  marketing  outreach  programs.  These  assets  are  the  fuel  that  drives  all  corporate  activities,  including  marketing  initiatives  used  to  directly  engage  with  stakeholders.  The  look  and  feel  of  this  information  is  equally  important  and  in  some  case  more  so,  than  the  message  conveyed.  Well  crafted,  up-­‐to-­‐date,  value-­‐laden,  and  brand-­‐consistent  content  communicates  a  company’s  qualifications,  establishes  their  thought  leadership,  and  legitimizes  the  message  behind  the  medium.    

For  decades,  print  advertisements,  TV,  radio  and  mail-­‐outs  served  as  critical  touch-­‐points  between  a  company  and  its  customer  base.  Then  the  Internet  introduced  Websites  as  another  standard  communications  channel.  And  now  digital  devices  such  as  smartphones  and  tablets  have  revolutionized  the  way  companies  communicate  with  potential  customers.  As  the  new  digital  touch  point  with  customers,  smartphones,  and  tablets  shift  one-­‐dimensional  communication  to  multiple  dimensions-­‐  an  interactive  dialog  in  the  making.  Whether  receiving  customized  offers  via  mobile  devices,  launching  a  video  from  within  an  e-­‐magazine  on  an  iPad,  or  interacting  with  digital  signage  at  a  local  retailer,  customers  engage  with  vendor  communications  more  actively  than  ever  before.    

The  explosion  in  digital  content  has  changed  the  consumer  and  enterprise  landscape  over  the  past  10  years.  End-­‐users  have  been  inundated  with  all  types  of  content  that  needs  to  be  accessed  anytime  and  anywhere.   This  has   spawned  many  new  business  models   in   an  effort   to   tap   into   the  ever  expanding  availability  of  different   types  of   content  on  myriad  devices.    

 

The best corporate strategy, business plan, marketing campaign, product plan, financial strategy – you name it – is useless if it cannot be communicated and used effectively and in a timely manner.

 

     4  

Content  will  Always  be  King  

Though  the  larger  consumer  market  has  adopted  technological  advances  around  managing  and  consuming  digital  content  rapidly,  the  traction  within  the  enterprise  has  been  slower.  This   is   despite   the   rapid   adoption   of   digital   content   within   organizations   as   most  enterprise   content   is   still   woefully   unsearchable   and   languishes   in   departmental   silos  across  the  enterprise.    

Another  key  reason  for  slow  enterprise  wide  deployments  has  been  the  lack  of  awareness  and  proper  direction  within  an  organization  to  deploy  digital  content.  Enterprise  wikis  and  blogs   did   not   face   initial   enthusiasm   in   the   enterprise   market   as   companies   did   not  understand  the  value,  nor  did  they  feel  that  they  could  trust  employees  to  use  these  tools  responsibly.  However,  early  users  have  shown  the  tremendous  value  proposition  that  on-­‐demand  and  interactive  content  bring  to  the  enterprise  space.    

 

 

 

At  the  heart  of  any  workflow  is  a  storage  system  (central  or  federated)  married  to  a  repository  service  as  part  of  a  content  management  platform.  Enterprise  Content  Management  married  to  the  storage  system  has  become  arguably  the  most  crucial  piece  within  the  content/information  workflow.    

Content  Management,  as  the  term  describes,  is  a  solution  that  enables  the  ingest,  archiving,  indexing,  search,  retrieval,  browsing,  annotation,  conditional  access,  version  control,  repurposing,  collaboration,  display,  transport  and  cross-­‐platform  publishing  of  content  in  a  seamless,  collaborative  and  secure  environment  which  is  easily  integrable  with  other  third  party  systems  within  the  content  workflow  spanning  the  asset  lifecycle  from  creation  to  delivery.    

 

This is despite the rapid adoption of digital content within organizations as most enterprise content is still woefully unsearchable and languishes in departmental silos across the enterprise.

 

 5  

Such  systems  are  largely  client/server  applications  that  enable  the  It  provides  a  platform  for  traditionally  siloed  systems  to  integrate  with  and  provide  a  collaborative  workflow  environment  for  different  knowledge  workers  to  seamlessly  work  on  content  creation,  management,  repurposing  and  delivery  

Revisiting  Enterprise  Content  Publishing  

Since  the  advent  of  desktop  publishing  software,  traditional  publishing  has  not  radically  changed.  In  fact,  expanding  requirements  to  publish  faster,  more  personalized  information  across  print,  Web,  and  digital  devices  cannot  be  met  using  traditional  publishing  tools.  This  is  because  they  require  repetitive,  time-­‐consuming  processes  for  content  repurposing,  updates,  and  distribution.  As  a  result,  inaccurate,  out-­‐of-­‐date,  and  ineffective  content  has  been  propagated  to  audiences  even,  for  example,  after  situational  changes,  fallacies,  or  redundancies  were  realized.  

With  an  ever-­‐increasing  variation  of  available  media  resources,  incorporating  vast  and  disparate  information  has  remained  an  on-­‐going  pursuit  for  traditional  book,  magazine,  and  newspaper  publishers  as  well  as  corporations  that  communicate  through  documentation,  Websites,  marketing  materials,  and  other  publishers’  publications.  Time-­‐consuming  and  resource-­‐intensive,  traditional  publishing  requires  laborious  page-­‐by-­‐page  recreation,  repurposing,  translation,  and  reconfiguration  of  content.  For  complex  publications,  content  creators  have  been  tasked  with  maintaining  multiple  versions  for  different  audiences,  in  different  languages,  and  for  different  media  channels,  further  complicating  and  adding  inefficiency  to  the  publishing  process.  

Modern  enterprises  are  increasingly  aware  of  the  evolving  role  and  significance  of  digital  content  within  their  organizations,  and  many  have  been  looking  toward  the  media  ecosystem  to  resolve  greater  organizational  content  creation  and  management  requirements.  Dynamic  publishing  combines  previously  diverse,  un-­‐combined  yet  related  technologies  into  a  single,  unified  platform  that  saves  time,  costs,  and  burdens  placed  on  knowledge  workers  across  all  functional  areas  within  an  organization  —  regardless  of  whether  they  are  creative  talent  working  with  marketing,  or  business-­‐line  managers  in  various  departments.  Rather  than  just  a  diverse  set  of  functional  technologies,  dynamic  publishing  technology  is  a  concept  where  the  whole  is  greater  than  the  sum  or  its  parts.  

Frost  &  Sullivan  defines  dynamic  publishing  as  a  value  chain  of  software  products  and  processes  that  enable  the  creation,  repurposing,  publication,  and  delivery  of  rich  content,  which  can  include  text,  graphics,  and  video,  audio,  and  real-­‐time  data  amongst  other  media  types,  across  a  variety  of  publishing  channels.  These  solutions,  though  traditionally  deployed  on-­‐premise,  can  now  just  as  easily  be  vended  through  the  cloud  as  a  service  and  are  the  critical  first  step  for  any  enterprise  content  strategy.  

 

Modern enterprises are increasingly aware of the evolving role and significance of digital content within their organizations, and many have been looking toward the media ecosystem to resolve greater organizational content creation and management requirements.

 

     6  

Content  will  Always  be  King  

Knowledge  workers  are  constantly  challenged  with  being  able  to  communicate  with  internal  and  external  stakeholders.  Selecting  the  most  relevant  channels  can  aid  a  company  in  cutting  through  the  clutter  and  delivering  clearer,  more  concise  and  personalized  information  to  customers,  employees,  partners  etc.  However,  for  many  companies  the  barrier  to  publishing  to  multiple  channels  is  the  resource  requirements  associated  with  manually  repurposing  and  formatting  content  for  different  formats  and  devices.  This  barrier  is  dramatically  reduced  when  publishing  processes  are  automated.  Since  dynamic  publishing  enables  a  company  to  manage  content  at  the  source  and  independent  of  final  format,  they  can  “Create  Once  and  Publish  to  Many”  channels  faster,  quicker,  and  with  greater  information  quality.  This  helps  marketers  leverage  more  channels  because  they  can  easily  create  layouts  for  new  channels  and  deliver  information  to  them  as  their  needs  evolve.    

The  value  proposition  of  dynamic  publishing,  when  harnessed  properly,  can  thus  empower  marketing  executives  to  launch  marketing  campaigns  across  diverse  channels,  even  those  that  might  have  not  been  anticipated  earlier,  by  simply  repurposing  existing  content  in  a  channel-­‐specific  layout  created  through  the  dynamic  publishing  solution.  Dynamic  publishing  provides  substantial  resource  reductions  associated  with  content  reconfiguration,  repurposing,  and  reformatting.    

Knowledge  workers  that  access  and  work  on  the  same  pool  of  content  housed  in  a  centralized  repository  can  now  leverage  this  content  interdepartmentally.  This  not  only  boosts  collaboration  but  also  enables  knowledge  workers  to  refresh  content  more  frequently,  while  at  the  same  time  reducing  content  and  departmental  silos.  For  example,  content  created  for  a  product  can  be  leveraged  on  the  company’s  website,  published  to  a  PDF  document,  and  to  an  iPad.  When  this  content  is  updated  at  the  source,  it  can  be  regenerated  to  all  channels,  supporting  up-­‐to-­‐date,  consist  content.  In  today’s  world  of  24/7,  anytime,  anywhere  access,  dynamic  publishing  solutions  are  the  mantra  to  achieve  success  in  real-­‐time,  multi-­‐channel  content  transformation  and  distribution,  boosting  enterprise  collaboration,  and  streamlining  workflows.  

 

Frost  &  Sullivan,  the  Growth  Partnership  Company,  works  in  collaboration  with  clients  to  leverage  visionary  innovation  that  addresses  the  global  challenges  and  related  growth  opportunities  that  will  make  or  break  today’s  market  participants.  For  more  than  50  years,  we  have  been  developing  growth  strategies  for  the  Global  1000,  emerging  businesses,  the  public  sector  and  the  investment  community.  Is  your  organization  prepared  for  the  next  profound  wave  of  industry  convergence,  disruptive  technologies,  increasing  competitive  intensity,  Mega  Trends,  breakthrough  best  practices,  changing  customer  dynamics  and  emerging  economies.    

In today’s world of 24/7, anytime, anywhere access, dynamic publishing solutions are the mantra to achieve success in real-time, multi-channel content transformation and distribution, boosting enterprise collaboration, and streamlining workflows.