Content Management Systems
Content Management Systems (CMS) have greatly evolved over the last few years. Some CM systems provide extensive features while others promise ease of installation and out of he box functionality. Any software package is only as effective as its alignment with long-term business goals and objectives.
At Mainward we understand that content management systems are most valuable in situations where a site is volatile and the content lifecycle process is complex. In some cases, a meticulous and precise information architecture may satisfy your needs.
A CMS is based on the concept of a unified content and metadata repository. The term content and information here are broad enough to include actual product content, product and marketing information, editorials, authored notes or articles, manuals, and anything that represents a unit of information to the end user. There are typically multiple workflows that feed content into this repository.
The fundamental messages behind the creation of a unified content repository are
- Unification of diverse information sources in a central location
- Tagging/indexing/qualification of data through a common set of terms or taxonomy
The former is designed to minimize the creation of unique content delivery channels that cannot be leveraged, while the latter is designed to support the content access adaptors in retrieving or manipulating information from various application sources.
At Mainward we learned that the typical challenges in implementing a content management system vary from one organization to another, but they usually fall into the following areas:
- Creation (including authoring, syndication, aggregation)
- Categorization (including metadata)
- Workflow (including approval, review and editing)
- Tagging (including qualification, integrity of tags, indexing)
- Storage and access (database or revision control system)
The objective of the CMS implementation is to provide ability to author, review, publish, organize, expire, archive and version content, with the capability for rollback controlled by a flexible workflow.
The solution steps for a CMS implementation involves
- Conducting user research to determine demographics and needs
- Developing sitemap and pages that supports various user needs
- Developing visual design that supports the client´s brand objectives
- Setting up a content management system that supports the site´s business and IT objectives
Mainward´s CMS Development Phases
Creating a directory structure
The directory structure needs to reflect the sitemap. Flexibility and scalability are the most important features of the directory structure.
Presentation Templates
The Presentation Templates are based on the HTML pages developed. These templates contain placeholders for CMS driven content. It is essential to create modular pages so that they could handle variable content sizes.
Developing Data Capture Templates
Data Capture templates allow an administrator to input content and metadata. The content contributor can enter their information into a data capture template and select multiple Presentation Templates to apply the content. The Data Capture Templates are created for all pages that serve content from the CMS.
Establishing the workflow
The execution of business processes to manage content is achieved by using a specific workflow component. The process entails setting up users and permissions to manage the authoring, reviewing and publishing process.
Generating content
A predefined process should strictly guide the population of the content. Repurposed existing content is automatically migrated using custom scripts that are built to extract content while new content is manually entered.
Deploying the website
There were two major components for deployment: the Presentation Templates and the Data Capture Templates. The table below describes how each could be used.
| Environment | Purpose |
|---|---|
| Development | This environment is used to create web pages, Presentation Templates, DCTs and workflow scripts. After system testing, these files are moved to the staging environment. Different directory trees are maintained to support various country websites. The Presentation Template remains common for all the country pages while the Data Capture Templates varied by country. |
| Staging | Content administrators use this environment to populate content and metadata based on workflow configuration. After the approval of the content and templates HTML pages are generated and made ready for deployment. The publishing process allows for creation of HTML pages from the DCRs and Presentation Templates. The workflow process is created in the staging environment to support the business processes. |
| Production | This environment is used by the end users to browse, educate and purchase products. |
System Testing
Creating and executing test scripts
To facilitate testing, business and technical test scenarios are created and executed at Mainward. User-based scenarios are used to structure a system test plan. This test scenario includes a set of sequenced user actions, executed in order to test a specific system function. The set of scenarios created provides a complete test suite of the application. This would mean that once the scenarios are executed and accepted by the test team, the application is production-worthy. The test scenarios created are based on the approach defined for the test phase.
Evaluating return-on-investment
At Mainward after every client engagement, and at the end of the project we work to provide evidence that substantiates the value of the user experience, strategy and technology implementation.
Some of the benefits identified include
- Implementing a single CMS infrastructure significantly reduced costs with respect to hardware, software licenses, and Internet service providers fees
- Developing a single framework for CMS enhanced content reuse and reduced costs of content creation
- Defining document templates with rules for content and metadata creation helped reduce costs of repurposing content, and also improved search results
- Usability tests after the deployment indicated an increased usage of the website.
- The metadata framework enhanced effective cross-selling of the client´s products