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Thought you might be interested in this article: Making The Business Case for Web Content Management: First, Admit You Have A Problem By Michael Silverman, CEO, Duo Consulting What is Content Management? Businesses and organizations that have large amounts of information to provide to users need a method for guiding that information from creation through editing, approval, publishing and maintenance to archiving. This process is generally referred to as content management. While the concept of content management has been around for a long time—newspapers have been using it for decades—it’s a relatively new term for most people. The rise of digital technology and the proliferation of Web sites have brought content management to the mainstream. All organizations, from large businesses with thousands of digital documents to small organizations with simple Web sites, find themselves having to deal with ever increasing amounts of information. Within the field of content management, more specific terms have evolved. Enterprise content management or ECM encompasses all the information of an organization and may include print documents, records, computer applications, images, multimedia files, etc.  Web content management or WCM refers just to that information that is made available via the Internet. In this piece, we will focus on WCM. As it became easier to publish content on the Web, many organizations discovered the need for a system to consistently manage content. A content management system or CMS is usually computer- or Web-based software that helps organizations manage their content collaboratively and efficiently. So how do you know if your organization is having a problem with content management? Nathan Rawlins of Serena Software, Inc., describes these symptoms: Updating critical Web content takes too long The IT staff is overwhelmed by requests to make changes to the Web site People responsible for creating Web content donít have access to make changes The Web site lacks consistent branding, look and feel, or navigation There is no record of who changed what and when Finally, changes to the site can only be made every week or so If any of those problems sound familiar, your organization may benefit from some help with content management. Before diving into a content management project, it’s best to determine why managing content is important to your organization. Knowing what your organization needs from its Web site will have a big impact on the CMS tools you choose, the priorities for your project and the time line to implementation. Business Goals First The first step in addressing content management in any organization is identifying the business goals. By starting with the end result, you can work backwards to make sure your goals are met. We think of business goals for a Web site as falling into two categories: acquisition and efficiency. Acquisition goals focus on things like gaining more leads or more customers, increasing sales, etc. Efficiency goals are designed to save costs, time or effort. While every organization is different, here are some common goals for a Web content management project: Acquisition Goals Attract Visitors The most effective Web sites are those that help people get the information they want, when they want it. And content that is not only relevant, but also fresh and regularly updated is a strong incentive for visitors to return to your site. A CMS makes it easier to present and update your organization’s content. Once visitors arrive at your site, what do you want them to do? Is the purpose to generate leads for potential sales? To sell products through an online store? To offer information about a particular topic?  Knowing exactly what action you want from site visitors determines how content should be presented and what features to include. Satisfy Customers Transforming a visitor to your site into a customer requires meeting that visitor’s needs. A CMS can help you customize your site based on individual user demands, making it easy for users to quickly find what they’re looking for. These days, many customers prefer to go to a Web site to gather information rather than make a phone call. For many business Web sites, the contact pages are the ones most frequently visited. Expectations for what information organizations will provide on the Web continue to increase. Organizations that don’t meet this standard risk frustrating customers. And don’t forget other users of the site:  employees, sales reps, suppliers, members, volunteers, clients ñ all of these users may need access to current, accurate content, as well. Efficiency Goals Reduce Effort With a CMS, you can take the same information and implement it across many different uses, saving time and effort. Content re-purposing is the ability to use content multiple times by taking it from a central repository and re-deploying it in newsletters, proposals, CRM systems, intranets, etc. With a CMS, information exists separately from any specific format, which means that the same content can be published in different ways:  as a Web page, text document, RSS feed or to a mobile phone or other portable digital assistant. Communicate Consistently Organizations often need to communicate a consistent message about their services, products, mission or policies. A CMS can store those bits of content in an accessible, central place. Logos or other artwork, or text documents like staff biographies and product descriptions are types of content that could be stored in a central database that is often referred to as a content repository. From there, it is easily accessible and insures that each time the content is used, it is accurate and uniform. Another benefit of a content repository is that it allows for easy re-use of content. For example,

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