Posts Tagged ‘CMS implementation’
Vamosa Tools for Fixing the Enterprise Content Governance Mess
This is what I mean when I say some topics are better delivered in Scottish accents. Thanks to Nic Archer, Sr. VP at Vamosa, for sharing the latest Vamosa news, as well as providing a good convo around general enterprise content governance topics.
The notions of web and enterprise content governance are gaining more and more attention — partially, due to growing concerns around eDiscovery and other compliance challenges. Everyone has some sort of content (and its volumes are growing at the speed of light), but do you have standards, policies and procedures around it? How do you enforce them?
According to Archer, Vamosa started to recognize the overall state of unhappiness with content while they were doing what they are traditionally know for – content migrations and content analysis. While enterprise content tends to be driven by content quality and governance principles, many organizations often end up with content that is not accessible, not cost-controlled and not findable.
The challenge many organizations face is compliance (or lack of it) with internal and external policies and regulatory standards. This is exactly the challenge Vamosa is trying to address with its new product called Check & Fix.
More on CMSWire: Vamosa Tools for Fixing the Enterprise Content Governance Mess
Implementing a CMS Costs More Than Buying a CMS
A recent report entitled “CMS Survey Report 2009“ by Econsultancy.com and Squiz.net didn’t really shock me. It was a “Doh!” moment, really.
Why CMS Licensing Costs Are Only The Beginning
Perhaps, it is not always the case, but buying a CMS is only the beginning of your investment. You think that after spending all that time and money during the CMS selection process and sales demos, you’re done? Far from it.
Often, it costs a lot more to actually implement the damn thing and make it useful to the organization.Think of all the implementation work: from defining (the often, non-existent and ever-changing) business requirements and translating them into the CMS-of-your-choice language to building out your numerous websites, templating, programming, security and governance models, workflows, etc. I am being very simplistic in describing the scope here. Am not even gonna talk about ECM scenarios.
Add to that training, support, maintenance, customizations, add-ons, integrations with third-party tools, more training, content migrations, testing, QA, deployments. I could keep going.
Organizational change that comes with implementing every new solution may cost you another dime or two.
There is nothing more difficult to carry out, nor more doubtful of success, nor more dangerous to handle, than to initiate a new order of things.
//Unknown
Half-a-million or so implementation dollars later, the end-users cannot stand the CMS and refuse to use it. In fact, they hate it (see the 18% number below).
Pains of Implementing a CMS
Right, back to the report. There are some interesting findings in the survey. The report is based on an online survey of more than 800 respondents (decent size sample) dating back to March and April 2009.
Highlights include:
- A bit over 25% of companies surveyed use their CMS primarily for publishing
- 53% are spending less than £5,000 on their CMS license annually
- 18% of respondents rate their CMS as ‘excellent’ for ease of use
- 60% use commercial CMS vendors
- 31% use either open source CMS (24%) or ’supported open source’ (7%)
- The difficulty in using a CMS is deemed to be the biggest reason for an unsuccessful CMS implementation
On Selecting a CMS
- 49% consider ease of use as the most important factor in selecting a CMS
- Cost is deemed to be a priority factor for 37%
- SEO friendliness is important to 30% when selecting a CMS
- Ease of integration with other parts of the business and configurability with workflows is a more significant factor for larger companies than for smaller organisations when selecting a CMS
- 75% believe that personalisation is important for a web content management strategy
- 61% vote for blogging as being important (with social networking at 48%, viral marketing at 32%, micro-blogging at 27%)
The lack of support for Web 2.0 is thought to be the most negative aspect of current content management systems, with nearly half of organisations (47%) surveyed regarding this as a “downside” of their CMS.
I realize some of the numbers above may look slightly funny, but you get the idea.
For those of you in the midst of a CMS, WCM, ECM implementation, I’d recommend checking out AIIM’s preso “How to implement ECM?“
[updated] Mandarin Hotels Join the SDL Tridion Family
[updated] Heard back from Siteworx with more implementation details.
Signing a contract doesn’t necessarily grant you a seat at Tridion’s family dining table 
Getting fully tridionized, however, is a totally different story.
Last week, yet another biggie joined the big (more than 500 customers) and happy Tridion family via a partner-led implementation. Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group can now properly enjoy the magical beauties of SDL Tridion Web CMS.
Siteworx, an SDL Tridion partner based in Reston, VA, was leading this implementation. I had a chance to chat with Siteworx’s president, Tim McLaughlin, (thanks, Patricia!) to get the scoop on this implementation. Which, by the way, seems to be the second Tridion implementation under Siteworx’s belt, as far as McLaughlin can recall. Note that I am still waiting on Tim to get clarification on some points of this implementation, so this post may get updated as soon as I hear back from him (nudge, nudge
The first Tridion baby delivered by Siteworx was the American Psychological Association with a total of 23 subsidiary Web sites — partially done, partially still in the worx with a goal of going live at the end of 2008.
Tridion CMS Implementation Details
A total of Mandarin Oriental’s 26 (or was it 40?) Web sites were tridionized. Most of MO Web properties are managed from various, geo-dispersed locations and have different content. The underlying code was inherited. Some of it was recoded to enhance SEO. New AJAX features were added. The inherited design didn’t change much, aka no full redesign of the sites.
- Project length: about 6 (or 8 – Tim?) 8 months, originally was planned to be completed in 4-5 months.
- Project resources: Anywhere from 4 to 6 developers at different points in time
- Product version: Started implementing in R5.2 and upgraded to R5.3
- Modules implemented: BluePrint – check, SiteEdit – check, Outbound E-mail – later, Personalization & Profiling - in the worx, Stats – check in the worx, WebForms - ? check, Workflow- ? in the worx
- Tech stuff: Java- and Microsoft-based implementation
Tridion CMS Implementation Challenges
As with many other Tridion implementations — and Web CMS implementations in general — getting the content in place on time can be tricky.
Close-to-heart understanding of Tridion and its functionality, limitations and capabilities is key.
BluePrint design can be a toughie. BP with all its parent-child dependencies is also not the easiest thing to change, once the implementation has started. Rightfully so, CMS Watch in its 2009Web CMS Report notes that SDL Tridion PS started offering a “BluePrint and Security” workshop. BluePrint Design is also on the price list as one of the more sophisticated, creme de la creme PS offerings.
As McLaughlin notes, Tridion can be very flexible with BP and workflow, as it can be complicated and not necessarily easy to get right the first time around — which is true with any CMS and honing its functionality into a good, workable solution. With the exceptionally unique Tridion BP, it may not be obvious as to how to use it best, and the the first take at it may not necessarily be the last one.
Why Tridion?
Aside from the superb skills of Tridion Sales team, why did Mandarin Oriental choose Tridion CMS? Tridion’s BluePrint is clearly something very attractive to customers with a globalization flair. Managing global content, delivering that content across multiple channels in multiple languages, and protecting the integrity of a global brand is something Tridion CMS is defo a good fit for.
SiteEdit is another way to enamor customers and they love it — especially, those falling into the category of non-techies.
More Tridion to Come to Mandarin Hotels
Siteworx plans to continue fine-tuning the MO implementation by adding new Tridion modules and stand-alone features like mobile-friendly gadgets.
In Lieu of a P.S.
Not the Professional Services PS, but the Post Scriptum kind of a P.S. As I mentioned earlier, am still waiting to get more info from Siteworx on things like how the main home page is being managed and delivered, as not all of it (to my unskilled eye) seems to be done through Tridion. Are images and Flash (/images/corp_homepage_movie.swf) being stored in Tridion CM? Where’re the tcm id’s? If not, why are they stored elsewhere? Doesn’t look like this page is available for editing in SiteEdit either. Just curious…
[updated] The home page is assembled with a page template. Page is being published from Tridion and all assets for the page are managed in the Tridion CMS. Tridion id’s are not part of binary assets because they are removed at publish time to make it more SEO.
Originally, 25 English site were migrated into the initial Tridion CMS implementation. Currently, there are 28 English plus 3 localized sites managed in the Tridion CMS. The original look and feel of the site did not change much. However, the html and css was rebuilt for SEO and 508 compliancy. Some sections were given a more updated look with the addition of some AJAX features.
There’s also an official, press-released version of this announcement here and here. Quoting one of them (although, they’re identical): “We are proud that Mandarin Oriental Hotel Group decided to partner with SDL Tridion and Siteworx for its new global web presence,” said Erik Aeyelts Averink, president of SDL Tridion.
I am proud, too, Erik.
In the Vignette State of Mind
OK, I hope this Vignette phase is coming to an end soon Just a quick post about QuickSite – a new offering from Vignette PS. It comes packaged with lotsa training, some pre-packaged common code, workflows and templates and an install of VCM.
PS has gotta do what PS has gotta do. QuickStart should be a nice addition to the Q4 bottom line. I am not even gonna mention V’s previous Q’s financial results.
All in all, QuickStart looks like a helpful PS solution for those horrified by the complexities of implementing this ECM beast. It surely will be promoted more at the upcoming Vignette Village 2008.
Full article on CMSWire:
Lima is the New Chennai for CMS Implementations?
I was talking to a client of mine whom I consulted on CMS vendors and vendor selection process and discovered an interesting trend of offshoring CMS implementations to Peru instead of India.
Outsourcing to India, China and Ukraine doesn’t surprise us anymore. What we found interesting, however, is an emerging trend in the world of offshoring that doesn’t revolve around India and Chennai, in particular.
Chennai may be losing its top placement on the list of offshore capitals of the world, as Lima, capital of Peru, comes in. Peru is starting to be seen as the new destination for general web development, as well as more specialized projects such as CMS implementations.
What are the implications?
Full article:
Irina Guseva
