It’s funny when I’m talking to a mixed audience about the USP’s of our Web Content Management System (CMS). The type of things they love to hear is as diverse as the audience. The fact that our Web CMS is part of a bigger customer engagement story appeals to one person, the fact that you can drag an item straight from your desktop into the Web CMS repository appeals to another.

However, it’s good to remember the real business drivers behind the replacement of an existing Web CMS. No matter how noble the business strategy may be, in the end it boils down to being able to use the tool for what it’s meant to be used for in an efficient manner. And if you think about it, it’s very much about content gathering, processing and outputting for the sake of better customer engagement. A Web CMS should support this from A to Z, eliminating repetitive or error prone tasks.

Therefore, don’t forget the basics when selecting your Web CMS. It should be easy to use. It should help you to copy and paste content from Word or an email without using Notepad, stripping out that nasty HTML for you. It should be accessible through every browser. And most importantly, it should be able to store digital assets regardless of output channel, so that you can repurpose it across multiple websites, email deployments and social media channels, improving consistency of your brand and messaging.

So when you’re in the process of selecting a new Web CMS, ask the vendor about vision, roadmap and strategy to understand the direction of the company. But equally important, ensure you select a tool that does the job well, checking out references and mapping it against common use cases in your organization. Get end users involved, and let them try to carry out day-to-day tasks to see how the system supports them. Because in the end, slick demo-ware scenarios presented by the vendor -which may be cool but not be applicable to your business – do not help you run a successful project. Getting buy-in from your end users that love the new tool and see how it’s going to make their working life easier and more efficient will.

Did you include a representative group of end-users in your latest Web CMS project?

About Arjen van den Akker

Arjen van den Akker has written 6 post in this blog.

With many years of experience in bridging the gap between complex business requirements and the realm of technology, Arjen is a key player in directing and executing Alterian’s Web Content Management strategy. He has a background in offline and online publishing, both from a technical as well as a marketing perspective, and loves to work in the fast paced and constantly evolving world of content management.

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