Realizing the ROI of Today s WCM Systems

Transcription

1 Whitepaper Realizing the ROI of Today s WCM Systems The business case for upgrading to today s more sophisticated WCMS Marketing and communications are taking more and more control over Web content. And, as they do, it s no secret that the amounts of web content in the organization, along with the tools producing it, have increased like never before. The explosiveness of social and mobile content alone has more than doubled the number of properties that the average marketing organization is now producing. Author: Robert Rose Get in touch with Hippo: info@onehippo.com North America: (toll free) Europe:

2 As the content on the web becomes more mobile (including both smartphones, tablets and other devices) and more social, the need for web sites to expand in other languages also expands. More content than ever is being added to the global content strategy. As translation vendor Lionbridge has said 15 years ago localization needs centered on product and documentation. Today it extends into mobile advertising, customer care, support documents, educational materials, ecommerce, social media, community-generated content and beyond. It s just no longer productive to publish content out in some static way. Whether it s web sites, mobile content, wikis, blogs, RSS feeds, social media or any type of enterprise collaboration, the key is that content (in many cases) moves IN to the organization just as fast as it moves out. It s the same level of flexibility that has made publishing to the web so easy for consumers that has created its own set of challenges. Organizations now have to both stand out among all the noise being created and also have the ability to respond quickly. All of the digital content channels need to be monitored and constantly updated as the web has become a social conversation. Additionally, in most cases, they also need to be optimized, targeted and personalized so that the content is fresh, relevant and contextual to the user accessing it. Today s WCM - delivering and serving personalized content Many Web content management systems have matured to meet many of these requirements. Terms like Web Engagement Management, and Customer Experience Management are popular among both content marketing practitioners and CMS vendors. In fact, the latest Forrester Wave Report for Web Content Management is focused exclusively on vendors providing Online Customer Experience using content. Report author Stephen Powers states functionality to enable publishing to the Web whether internally or externally has become commoditized. Yet, now, the WCM market is growing based on customer experience management. WCM software solutions are increasingly differentiating themselves on a scale of how well their solution can help a customer DELIVER a personalized web experience to the client s consumers through multiple channels such as web, mobile and social. But the idea of WEM (or CXM) itself is a marketing concept defined by analysts and vendors as a method to create more relevant experiences for consumers using a combination of process and tools. This is the key. The value presented by WEM/CXM is that this process is, at its heart, about managing the audience s experience in such a way that they ultimately do what the marketer wants them to do. In short software vendors are going down the same road they went down before. The business case for WCM being made by many vendors today isn t making it easier to manage Web content. Rather, vendors are now claiming that it s easier to manage experiences.. But despite the new marketing messages, the benefits of a WCMS go well beyond just making it easier for users to publish content or deliver relevant experiences. Today, it is no longer a question of IF you will achieve ROI with a WCMS but WHAT and WHERE are the areas for the biggest return. For example: A unified source of multi-channel management A WCMS can help create one, unified source for managing multiple digital channels of content in different languages. With one system controlling channels, languages and versions of content a global brand management strategy becomes much less prone to errors and more cost-effective. For example The Government of The Netherlands has substantially decreased their management and web content software costs by unifying more than half a dozen WCM systems down to one (see case study later in this paper). Single user interface for disparate teams A single UI for ever-more dispersed teams creates one unified set of users all using the same toolset. This saves costs in training for remote users and makes it much easier and cost-effective to support an application across multiple offices and high creativity standards. Businesses units can focus on their core without getting lost in the CMS User Experience. 2

3 For example Dolce & Gabbana now saves a substantial cost and time with one unified interface for their content authors and editors with no sacrifice on their extraordinarily high design standards across their web content. Managing growing marketing messages Marketers can focus on their message and conversation across all of the different content marketing channels. They can use a capable WCMS system to automatically target and convert users using contextually relevant content delivered in real-time. Additionally, marketers can use a WCMS to optimize SEO (search engine results) and A/B tests to continually improve the message. For example, Autodesk is using Hippo CMS to power its entire online App Store using dynamically generated content. Manage quality and compliance Compliance and workflow engines now make content management much more capable of complying with regulations and standards. Features such as workflow, versioning, roll back, audit trails and others create cost efficiencies and less room for error. For example FindLaw.com one of the most popular legal Web sites on the Internet now has workflow to manage the publication of more than 50 new pieces of content per day. Content-as-a-Service Platforms With the multitude of interfaces now threatenting to bury oganizations in a constant design, deploy, iterate cycle businesses must stop focusing on how to force content into different types of containers. Rather, savvy businesses are deploying content-as-a-service strategies where they are making their entire repositories available over a REST based (or other standards based) API. Then, it becomes easier to simply build a skin to which standardized content can be managed. This fully takes advantage of the re-use of content, components and other elements that a web content management system can deliver. So, it is not a question of IF but WHAT ROI will be achieved with an upgraded WCMS system the question then becomes choosing the best WCMS that will match tomorrow s investment needs. It can be quite difficult these days especially because of the large number of options available. And choosing the one for the best return will be about dealing with a WCMS company that will support your needs throughout the lifetime of the application. This whitepaper will attempt to show HOW the business case for today s more powerful WCMS is made and what considerations should be taken into account for selecting the right-size CMS for your organization. We will first look at the ROI of today s more sophisticated Web content management systems, and then outline some best practices as they pertain to choosing the right CMS for your ROI needs. The business case for today s WCMS Today it s very easy to over-purchase web content technology. Given the feature wars especially among proprietary closed-source vendors today s digital content platforms can be oversaturated with features that already exist within other solutions already present in the Marketing department. This can make Web communications extremely expensive. But from Web sites to intranets, product catalogs, landing pages, mobile devices, global campaign microsites and all of them in different languages the key is that your content is simply everywhere, all the time. To get a handle on all of your Web content communications you must deploy tools that decrease the time and complexity for managing a unified communications strategy. Today s more powerful Web content management systems can accomplish this by tackling some of the basics namely making it easy to create, edit, publish and re-use content across these channels. 3

4 But ROI is also achieved by the time and cost savings that a powerful Web content management system provides in terms of delivering a more relevant, personalized and dynamic experience to all of the different audiences that are consuming content on those channels. Historically, the business case for a content management solution started with the cost savings generated by improved Web development and publishing processes. These efficiencies are still true today and will be the first piece of the ROI target that any business will want to target. Some of the most common business challenges that have been solved by web content management are: Manual publishing processes that result in slow, inefficient or duplicative content creation and publishing bottlenecks. Inconsistent look and feel across web channels Manual processes for link management is prone for error causing sites to break. Inadequate security for Web content meaning it s very easy for unauthorized editors to break the entire Web site. So, clearly, a WCMS is necessary to address these issues. The projected benefits of CMS implementation are easy to see and have been written about before. But today s more powerful WCMS solutions have adapted and provide even a stronger case for the business. There are a number of benefits across a number of areas: Create cost efficiencies by simultaneously managing multiple channels. Today s organization must manage multiple, and global web properties. A sophisticated WCMS provides the power to manage as many web sites as you need using one content repository, and one implementation of the software. It should empower the organization to share global resources such as images, documents, web content and template designs under one unified repository. Complete Marketing management under a unified suite enables more consumer engagement, contextual delivery and ultimately more sales. A well implemented WCMS today should automatically deliver relevant content based on site behavior. Hippo, for example, is delivering contextually aware behavioral targeting to allow audiences to consume content on any device, anywhere in the format they choose. This includes full integration with Social Publishing meaning that marketers can save money by integrating social content with web content. Workflow and Approval Capabilities reduce errors and save money. Today s sophisticated Web content management systems can save versions of all of the web content being managed and different types of content under separate workflows. Dynamic and Faceted Search capabilities scale Web site design much more efficiently. A capable WCMS system can enable faceted navigation that empowers users to navigate, search & find content in a dynamic way that will make sense to them. 4 Save time and cost, by automatically publishing to multiple mobile platforms. Today s WCMS systems have the capability to publish to iphone, Android or really any other mobile device format. They also have the ability to publish specific mobile channels or in Responsive Design or even in a hybrid mode. We invite you to read Hippo s white paper on mobile publishing called: Mobile Content Optimization - Content Marketing On The Go.1 With Open Source CMS solutions you can avoid vendor lock. It used to be that Open Source tools were limited in their enterprise functionality and scalability. This is no longer the case. Today s Open Source Web Content Management Systems provide enterprise scalability, combined with support for open source and open standards. This means the customers can avoid a single vendor lock and have the flexibility to always adapt & innovate. 1 whitepapers/subjects/mobile

5 Open Innovation & Interoperability: The key to creating a content-as-a-service platform that actually works is, of course, interoperability. This means that the delivery of content must conform to standards that can be rolled out globally. In most cases, this means conforming to already-existing standards. By doing this the organization is completely flexible to create new interfaces, new content feeds and integrations with other back-office applications. For more on this you should read the Hippo Whitepaper The Benefits Of Commercial Open Source for the Enterprise. 2 ROI Achieved by Upgrading CMS Solutions - One United CMS Solution In 2009, the Dutch central government chose Hippo CMS to power its Web content platform. Thirteen departments (or ministries as they re called in The Netherlands) all maintained and hosted their own Web sites. These sites had grown organically over the years, and the governmental infrastructure spanned a number of technologies, including different Web content management systems. Similar, if not identical, content was maintained in different places and editors were often unaware of work which had already been done in other departments. The project set out to improve the usability as well as the content creation process for the Web sites and to simultaneously reduce the number of servers and Web sites being managed by the Government. it on a daily basis adding hundreds of content objects every week. Additionally, integrations with third party external sources add hundreds of new content objects every single day. Figure 1: Results website Dutch Government after changing to Hippo CMS Websites CMS Search Hosting Editorial staff With Hippo as its foundation, a central access point for governmental content was created. Existing content from the 13 departments was migrated into one central repository. This allowed for the introduction of a consistent navigation across all available content, allowing citizens to navigate content that had been spread across the dozen web sites previously. In the new implementation of Hippo CMS the Dutch government maintains more than 300,000 content objects stored and managed centrally in the Web content management system. More than 250 editors work with 2 whitepapers/subjects/opensource

6 The results have been amazing. The Dutch government went from 9 CMS Systems and 5 Search Systems, 16 Hosting locations all down to 1 CMS, delivering one experience, in one hosting location. Ultimately, by upgrading to the new WCMS the Dutch Government was able to save hundreds of thousands of Euros per year in the time, effort and hard costs of delivering 16 separate Web sites as opposed to one. And, by switching to Hippo CMS they are able to take advantage of new opportunities at a much decreased cost. Adding mobile and other digital content channels takes much less effort and ultimately provides much greater business benefit. Choosing the right solution for today s WCMS Like any other software project, upgrading to a new WCMS requires a detailed analysis of the business and functional requirements of the system. This also includes the areas of investment that require the highest return. Organizations should evaluate their needs first, and then map them to a short list of WCMS candidates. Without a clear vision of business goals, CMS implementations can overshoot budgets, and in the long run, fail to deliver returns that justify the investment. There are many costs involved in building and maintaining a Web site, and these costs can increase exponentially as the size, complexity, and audience grows. ROI from today s WCM systems are realized when you don t over-purchase suites of technology that lock the enterprise into other functions that the organization may already have. Rather, the key is to match Web Content Management needs across one platform that can deliver against everything you need and integrate seamlessly with those other functions. Upgrading to the right CMS solution will produce results in several ways: Quantifiable benefits 1. Reduced resource requirements, reduced site maintenance costs With the right CMS solution in place, the resources needed for on-going site maintenance are substantially reduced and team skills can be redirected into developing more business applications. In addition to these savings, there are benefits like people productivity improvements, document production and distribution cost savings, increased market exposure, faster time-to-market of new site development to maintain competitive advantage, and improved quality of customer service. 2. The WCMS as the main Content Marketing tool Web content is now at the heart of your marketing. Marketers need the ability to manage content as conversation and so the CMS system must be flexible, easily adaptable to change and most importantly effective. Whatever marketing metrics are important lead generation, site traffic, brand loyalty, conversion rates, customer service or revenue - they can and should all be tied to your WCMS. 3. Social publishing The Web is now bidirectional. Marketers are no longer just posting static, persuasive content online. It s an expectation for your end users to be able to comment and even contribute content on your sites using blogs, RSS, wikis and polling. 4. Separating content from design Separation of content from design reduces costs of site re-branding. Content managed through open API s (REST) will become the way that organizations can re-skin new Web properties and launch new channels most effectively. Today s sophisticated WCMS should have the ability to integrate and publish content as a service. 6

7 Conclusion New content delivery channels emerge every day. And, as you might expect we believe that Hippo s powerful yet completely open content repository means every bit of your content is available via open standards. This futureproofs your content for whatever new interface may come along and is a powerful tool for organizations to create, deliver and optimize content to create business value. Hippo provides a truly enterprise-class Web content platform. We believe in interfaces built for marketers and technology built for enterprise strength. Hippo is built on rock solid Open Source and Open Standards technologies in order to power performance and ensure scalability. The biggest benefit and ROI equation for open-source software is not the reduced licensing costs. Rather, it is the flexibility it brings to keep on innovating. Interoperability and connectivity with existing infrastructure and platforms is simply easier and less expensive to achieve with commercial open source solutions. Ask yourself at each step if you re ready to move on to the next step. For example, if after developing your requirements you see that you have not adequately staffed the project for technical coding needed to replace site functionality don t move forward until you have that key resource in place. Or, you may determine based on the initial pilot program that you need to go back to the project definition and re-prioritize the sections or sites that will be migrated. Continually defining your goals and taking small, iterative steps is the way to ensure any CMS migration goes well. Hippo CMS will provide special tools that will aid this process but much will depend on your unique content requirements. To find out more we invite you to ask us. We ll help you identify areas of ROI in your business and where a new WCM might help. Recources 7 The Commercial Open Source model provides enterprises the best of both worlds: the quality-of-service and security of professional support and the flexibility and freedom of open-source. Business that are looking for guaranteed support and services and advance notice of new features and a quality assurance program can benefit greatly from Commercial Open Source. Hippo s Commercial Support with guaranteed SLA response times and 24/7/365 availability for critical production systems provide that level of professional support. CmPros Gilbane Presentation by Gerrit Berkouwer rijksoverheidnl-content-migration-cmprosgilbane-boston-1-december-2009 Hippo Whitepapers: whitepapers As an organization if you re considering an upgrade to your existing CMS solution and you re looking to migrate into something more sophisticated make sure to identify the areas of ROI that you re looking to achieve. Much of it, frankly, will depend on the technology you are migrating from. One of the keys of a successful CMS migration is a continual self-assessment. Keep looking at the facts and situation on the ground.

8 About Hippo At Hippo, we believe, digital is here to make our lives a little bit better. Hippo sets the standard for how organizations can bring real-time relevance to their audience and is the foundation for personalized communication across all channels: mobile, social and web. Our purpose is to facilitate innovation so our customers can create digital miracles. We serve our customers, by creating a platform that is fun to use, easy to implement and open for innovation. Hippo CMS is a powerful, enterprise-class foundation to deliver outstanding Customer Experiences based on Enterprise Agility and Innovation Power. Hippo CMS is open source, 100% Java and convinces with its lean product architecture that is built for uptime, security and performance. Our dedicated, Certified Partner Network delivers Hippo Awesomeness around the globe to our valued customers. Hippo is proud to serve organizations such as Disney, British Telecom, Dolce & Gabbana, Max Bahr, the Dutch Police, Thomson Reuters and Crédit Agricole. Hippo is headquartered in Amsterdam, The Netherlands and Boston, USA. Curious for more? Visit 8