Top 10 tips when selecting a web content management system.

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1 Top 10 tips when selecting a web content management system

2 The Top busy 10 tips life when of a translation selecting a project web content manager management system 2 Looking to implement an effective web content management system (WCMS) in the near future? 1 Involve all your stakeholders 2 Get ready to engage 3 Look for ease of use 4 Keep your business processes top of mind 5 Don t be a slave to technology 10 Find like-minded partners 9 Look for early rewards 8 Seek and meet your visitor 7 Treat your visitors (and Google) equally 6 Stick with your stakeholders Take a more in depth look at our handy top 10 tips to ensure you have all your bases covered.

3 3 1 Involve all your stakeholders Having a well-planned set of requirements from the start with input from all stakeholders can make or break your WCMS project. All too often, requirements are written from the perspective of a single business unit, in the hope that the end solution will fit, or can be imposed on the rest of the organization. An early investment in this area prevents delays and ensures a smooth implementation process internally, with business partners and software vendors. It s key to get the contribution of all stakeholder groups early on, representing a cross section of all business areas impacted by the WCMS project. Getting buy-in and adoption from the business at large can help ensure that content is regularly updated and maintained. Who better can describe a business pain or need than the people who ultimately will use the system and whose success rests on the best possible selection? Seeking stakeholder input not only provides critical internal feedback, it also helps you prioritize and strengthens your cause when you need business justification for investment decisions. Beyond the launch of the shiny new website, getting buy-in and adoption from the business at large can help ensure that content is regularly updated and maintained. Stakeholders have an ongoing, vested interest in the success of the project and your customers will benefit with fresh, relevant and engaging content.

4 4 Get ready to engage 2 Engaging with audiences is about creating a personal and relevant experience across multiple channels. While focusing on your current needs, don t forget to anticipate future requirements and trends. Digital communication is always on the move and your checklist needs to reflect your longer-term business plans. Engaging with audiences takes more than simply publishing a website or hosting brochureware on multiple devices. It s about creating a personal and relevant experience across multiple channels and web destinations such as , mobile, tablets and social media often in multiple languages. These business requirements for dynamic, reusable, personalized content that can be easily cross-purposed puts specific technical demands on your WCMS platform. To create relevant experiences, you need to understand your visitor. Your requirements should not only enable engagement, but also give you the capability to gather visitor intelligence as they interact with you online.

5 5 3 Look for ease of use Okay, so everyone has it must be easy to use as a requirement for their WCMS. But, don t underestimate the importance of user adoption. The success of any WCMS implementation is, both now and in the future, wholly dependent on the people using it. Engaging with your visitors in a personal way calls for content that is tailored for them. By empowering your business users with an easy-to-use WCMS, you enable your organization to truly engage with audiences using relevant content. Social media also drives your visitors expectations and levels the playing field when it comes to content. Visitors no longer want to hear only from sales and marketing but also from knowledgeable experts (like them) in your business, and even other users. For this you need easy-to-use WCMS tools that fit your internal content creators and then leverage the tools your contributors already use, such as SharePoint and Word. By empowering your business users with an easy-to-use WCMS, you enable your organization to truly engage with audiences using relevant content.

6 6 Keep business processes top of mind 4 It is important to know just how the WCMS workflow processes and notifications fit the way you already communicate as a business. Do you fit your WCMS, or does your WCMS fit you? Implementing a new WCMS often requires changes to processes and roles. Ideally, you want to use the procurement process as an opportunity to make improvements to your existing processes making them more efficient or suitable for your business. But this isn t always the case, as organizations are forced to implement changes to accommodate the WCMS. An area often overlooked, is the way in which the WCMS stores your content and how this impacts the way people work with the system. It is important to know just how the WCMS workflow processes and notifications fit the way you already communicate as a business.

7 7 5 Don t be a slave to technology The technical delivery behind a compelling web experience is about more than the database, a web scripting language and a few templates. It s about a deeper integration into your back office systems, leveraging content and services from outside the server room in the cloud. It s also about effectively feeding visitor information into customer and marketing systems. The necessary technology integrations are often neglected in the rush to launch the visible return on the WCMS investment the website. But these deeper, often second-phase requirements, can be a significant burden and obstacle to providing a better visitor experience if the underlying WCMS technology is restrictive. The necessary technology integrations are often neglected in the rush to launch the visible return on the WCMS investment. Ensure that the technical requirements of integrating both the legacy systems and any proposed new systems feature in the requirements and that you choose a WCMS with a broad technical footprint and a proven integration track record.

8 8 Stick with your stakeholders 6 For any successful WCMS project, it is incredibly important to stick with your stakeholder community and support them without compromise. By now you ve developed a stakeholder community as you ve worked together to form requirements. For any successful WCMS project, it is incredibly important to stick with your stakeholder community and support them without compromise. For example, many organizations feel obliged to use products such as SharePoint due to its widespread use in IT departments. But, your process may require mandatory business requirements around accessibility, branding, multi-channel/multi-site publishing, social media and integration that may not be met by SharePoint. Support your stakeholders with the best possible tools to support their existing and future endeavors, which you have collectively outlined.

9 9 7 Treat visitors (and Google) equally Beyond the legal requirements to make websites accessible for less able-bodied users, providing equal access to information for all is universally empowering. Aside from the commercial benefits of reaching visually-impaired consumers, people also make investment decisions based on how ethical a company is. The structure of a web page, its adherence to web standards and its metadata are also best practices for Search Engine Optimization (SEO), in which search engines view your website through a text only view.... your requirements must also cover how the website will publish accessible content which technical and legal standards will it support? Why should you take the time to make your site more accessible? In addition to the service you ll be doing for the visually-impaired community, accessible sites are more easily crawled, which is a first step in your site s ability to appear in search results. T.V. Raman Google Research Scientist Official Google Webmaster Central Blog Aside from the commercial benefits of reaching visuallyimpaired consumers, people also make investment decisions based on how ethical a company is.

10 10 Seek and meet your visitor 8 Using your WCMS as the hub for both websites and provides your audience with consistent messages and a view of your brand across a range of channels. Our digital marketing and communications activities are now driven to create an engagement hub fed by publishing relevant content to multiple channels. Digital marketers are now engaging with their customers on many different social media platforms. Being present on these sites presents an opportunity to be visible to your customers in their location of choice. is also part of this omni-channel experience. Using your WCMS as the hub for both websites and provides your audience with consistent messages and a view of your brand across a range of channels. It also provides the opportunity to reuse and coordinate campaigns centrally. This online engagement hub can serve as a single conduit for visitor insight, where you collate and process feedback from campaigns, social media, web analytics, comments and visitor behavior.

11 11 9 Look for early rewards While digital engagement is broader than simply creating websites, your WCMS implementation is no doubt focused on your website. The maturity of the WCMS industry would suggest that we d moved on from starting from scratch with each implementation but that s not always the case. It s important to understand early on what a vendor is offering you in order to get your website up and running quickly. Find out about the widgets, third-party integrations, communities and code samples that are on offer. It s important to understand early on what a vendor is offering you in order to get your website up and running quickly.

12 12 Find like-minded partners 10 Opt for the providers to work on a proof of concept, a pilot or an extended demonstration. Let s be honest, there are bumps in the road in any enterprise software implementation. The impact of this on your business is greatly determined by the quality of the people you have chosen to work with. It s imperative to get to know the people involved in providing the proposal: the implementation team, be it the vendor or a third party and the vendor support team. It s obviously difficult to do this during the sales process. Opt for the providers to work on a proof of concept, a pilot or an extended demonstration of your scenario.

13 13 i Final thoughts By following these guidelines, you can help ensure that your implementation is based on a sound footing, decreasing the possibility of project failure and increasing the likelihood of a successful, fit for purpose WCMS which will evolve as your organization does. To find out more about web content management, visit /web For more information, visit SDL_eb_Top_10_Tips_WCMS SDL (LSE: SDL) allows companies to optimize their customers experience across the entire buyer journey. Through its web content management, analytics, social intelligence, campaign management and translation services, SDL helps organizations leverage data-driven insights to understand what their customers want, orchestrate relevant content and communications, and deliver engaging and contextual experiences across languages, cultures, channels and devices. SDL has over 1,500 enterprise customers, over 400 partners and a global infrastructure of 70 offices in 38 countries. We also work with 72 of the top 100 global brands.