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Content Management Musings
By Doug Gorman
We read that the economy is getting better, but business is basically tough! That big raise you've been dreaming about is probably not going to happen unless both you and your organization thrive. In order to thrive, both you and your organization will have to manage information better. If only there was some technology to help make your job easier.
Your company hasn't forgotten you. During the next year, or so, in all likelihood, your company is going to purchase a content management system. Yes, according to a leading research organization, there is a 90% probability that 80% of the Fortune1000 will have purchased a content management system by the end of the year. It’s all the rage.
Content Management Systems are the Rage
The prediction is that 88% of large corporations will have one "installed" by the end of the year. Packaged content management systems are in and homegrown systems are out.
Content management systems differ from document management systems in that they take a granular approach to information. Re-usable information objects are easily managed from a database. Publishing is accomplished from a database of objects to various media including paper, the Web and PDF files. Single sourcing is in. Big repetitive manuals are out.
With a content management system, publishing costs can be reduced dramatically. Translation costs can be reduced, in some applications by a factor of 10. Information maintenance costs also plummet.
Reality of Content Management
But there's a dirty little secret. Your content management system is only as useful as the information objects you put in it. And, while goodness includes the system's ability to manipulate information, the main goal is for people to be able to use the information to do their jobs faster, cheaper, better. This can only happen if people can easily write to the system and people can easily retrieve from the system. ("Garbage in" still leads to "garbage out")
What People Want
"Gee, wow, thanks, you should have asked." When we ask workers at all levels what they wanted this year, no one told us " I want a content management system" What people at all levels want is better information so they can do their jobs better and take some stress out of their lives.
Evolution of Technology
From Stone Age (tools) to the Industrial Age (Machines) to the Information Age (computers) society has tried to improve life by applying "things" to the needs of people. The domain of these "things" I equate to technology. (If you don't think a stone knife was a technology, then you haven't been reading the pictures on your cave walls.) Technologies are designed. They have architectures that help solve problems and meet the needs of people. From axes to hydroelectric plants, to computers, there has been tremendous creativity and thought put into applying technologies to make life better. Technologies have grown and advanced based on the sharing of knowledge-and so it is today.
Historical Importance of Information
Information has always been vital to making life better. The Neanderthals, Greeks, Romans, British all used information to improve life. Information about machines and how things worked have been important through the ages. If you think about it, information was always formulated to meet the needs of the times, to be consistent with the then-current knowledge about capital, people and technology.
Evolution of Information Architecture
In early times, information architecture was as simple as words and language. In the Middle Ages, language and the printing press evolved to expand the perceived need for and usefulness of information. Throughout the Industrial Age and the early Information Age, the book, or document was an important component of the architecture for information.
Evolution has led to hatred of documentation and manuals and towards user tailored information
But now, our organizations' technology, capital and information needs have evolved beyond the word, beyond language, and beyond the document. Multimedia is pervasive. We have learned to hate documentation and manuals.
But, we now have the ability to present people with just the right information they need to do what they have to do, when they need to do it, in a form that is easy. They can now begin to reach the promise of the Information Age - that Information can be used to make a better life.
Information Architecture - the Next Frontier
Now that capital, people and technology are ready for the Information Age, we must learn to develop information using appropriate architectures. Jamming a dysfunctional manual onto a Web site just doesn't work. Putting 100 pages of words into a content management system doesn't help. Organizations must now learn to develop information for knowledge bases - information that moves quickly and meets the needs of the organization.
A new Information architecture is needed. The information architecture for this age will use words, language, and multimedia, but it will organize those things in finely concentrated chunks
that can be easily developed, accessed, used and re-used. To reach its potential, standards must be set across workgroups and organizations.
How Information Architecture can change
It's frightening and sometimes painful to change an architecture. But it happens. People architectures change. Technology Architectures change. Even Capital Architectures change. Most organizations now need to change their Information Architectures. The good new is that it's easier to do than you thin. A simple set of skills and a new way of thinking needs to be provided to people who create information and everyone who uses information will benefit.
Creating Information
Creating information starts with understanding the purposes of information and many writers classifying information according to the readers' needs. It's about using words and language and media to express the information that the reader actually needs to do something or know something. It's about organizing information in logical units and publishing to many different media. It's not about using big words, about sounding smart, or about how much you right.
Using Information
Using information is about finding what people need when they need it. It's not about reading manuals or searching text. Once people get used to a consistent architecture for information retrieval and processing speed to knowledge increases dramatically. And organizational performance improves.
Information challenges for business
A decade from now, information architectures will meet the needs of organizations. Organizations should start where the pain is greatest.
- Maybe you've got a lot of baby boomers retiring over the next decade. Your organization will need to capture what they know in a form so others can use it.
- Maybe your organization's performance needs to improve. You need to organize the best practices from your organization in a form where it can be leveraged.
- Maybe your product knowledge needs to be improved so your sales and marketing people can sell better.
- Your customers might complain about information on your Web Site.
- And, perhaps your compliance with Federal Regulations needs to improve.
Think about the key places where information can be leveraged to meet your business goals. Think about how much better "life" would be if people could find the information they need to do their jobs. And recognize that you'll need an information architecture that supports the needs of your people, technology and capital structure.
The Real Meaning of "System"
A content management system involves people, information and technology. And the goal is information usability. Standards are required. The software system enforces standards on the storage and transfer of information. The organization must develop and enforce standards on the editorial cycle-information development, storage, maintenance and disposal.
In our experience, structuring information content is the key to producing a great ROI on your content management system. Business results are in. Measuring publishing costs is out.
Finding and Eating the Content Management Elephant
One person can't eat an elephant. It takes a plan and a lot of people, but you can quickly eat the elephant, one bite at a time.
Evaluating your Content
Many organizations have focused on using information to improve best practices, compliance, sales force productivity and product usability. These organizations have discovered that information needs to be developed with its usefulness in mind. The use of information varies from task to task and from reader to reader. People need to understand concepts, facts, procedures and processes to produce business results. But they need these types of information in an accessible form, not jumbled together like a stew.
We've seen two primary ways to judge the state of information content in organizations.
Ask your users - Ask people at all levels of the organization if they have the information they need to do their jobs right, the first time
- Do salespeople have the customer, market and product information they need to sell efficiently?
- Do your employees know when to do what? How to do it? When to do it?
- How much time do your managers and executives spend looking for the information they need to do their jobs?
- Are people worried that that valuable knowledge will leave when "the baby boomers" retire?
Measure results - Another way to assess your content usefulness is to perform some benchmark studies.
· What are your error rates and how do they compare to best in class companies?
· Is sales productivity above industry norms?
· Do your people have accidents and get hurt?
· Do products need too much re-work?
· How long does it take a new drug to get through the FDA approval cycle?
The answers to these questions will point to the level of urgency you have regarding your content.
Getting From Here to There
We aren't suggesting that you must mount an effort to immediately re-write everything in your organization. Information velocity is such that time will take care of that. We are suggesting that 5 years from now you'll probably having a content management system that includes software, but, also a content architecture that enables your people and your software to produce superior results. Otherwise, your costs will be out of line and you may even be out of business.
Content management is a major corporate issue. It's an elephant hiding under your bed, standing in your closet and lurking around every comer. Look at any major problem in your company and you will soon see the elephant. And you need to eat the elephant! Ask any 5 year old how to eat an elephant and they'll tell you, "one bite at a time."
You'll need some decent software from a reliable vendor. You'll need a content architecture and systematic standards for managing information objects from cradle to grave.
You'll need to see the elephant. Try looking at the following information and you'll see it:
- Product knowledge
- Quality systems
- Customer support
- Federal, State, Local and company compliance
- Product development
- Globalization
Study the information connected with these problems an you'll see that you must deal with the information elephant to solve the problem
You'll also discover that well-structured content developed for a purpose can be leveraged to solve other problems easily and quickly.
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