Streamlining Web Publishing
The Web publishing process at Rivier College in Nashua, New Hampshire, prior
to September 2003 resembled a funnel: two dozen or more content contributors
from our academic and administrative departments funneled documents to the Webmaster’s
office for posting. The process was a time-consuming and inefficient approach
to managing what has become our primary information and communications channel.
Rivier’s Web site stakeholders include students, prospective students,
faculty, staff, parents, and alumni, all of whom expect us to provide timely,
relevant information, calendars of events, and services in order to interact
with Rivier—a challenging proposition without the right system in place.
We adopted Ektron CMS200 to enable any faculty or staff member—regardless
of their technical ability—to create, manage, and publish Web content.
As the Webmaster, I can still control the look and feel of the site and ensure
that content is properly reviewed before it gets posted live.
Content no longer faces a “bottleneck” on its way to the Web. Both
our internal Rivier users and our site visitors benefit from the change. Internal
stakeholders can easily publish timely information, such as academic department
course offerings and programs, right from their browsers. Meanwhile, site visitors
are assured of finding the most up-to-date information on Rivier’s areas
of study, contact names and numbers, or calendars of campus events.
Managing an Increasing Site
Managing the Web site hasn’t always been this easy at Rivier College,
which serves 1,500 undergraduate and 907 graduate students. Our Web site has
always been information-driven. However, the challenges of managing the growing
site, combined with the high expectation level of our visitors, led me to search
for a content management solution that would simplify this process and allow
us to produce a relevant, timely Web site.
Any system had to fit within our modest budget and had to integrate quickly
and easily into the existing site, because we have neither the time nor the
budget for a lengthy integration cycle. The system had to be easy-to-use and
intuitive for non-technical staff, since we cannot regularly support 20 users
every time they edit or publish content on our Web site.
The new software offers a high level of content management functionality that
has simplified our Web content processes and relieved the content bottleneck.
Users easily adopted the software and can use it daily if necessary without
interrupting their schedule or making major training investments.
Managing Web content on www.rivier.edu is far easier than it was a few months
ago, and the site is more robust and up-to-date. Users are assigned permission
to edit and contribute to specific sections of the site. Ektron CMS200’s
WYSIWYG (“What You See Is What You Get”) HTML editor lets users
create Web-ready content. The check-in/check-out feature monitors the status
of a content block, and I can track content history (who changed content and
when). To prevent any accidental errors, content is routed through a flexible,
customizable approval chain—with e-mail notifications—for review
before it reaches the Web.
Approximately 20 users manage content on Rivier’s Web site. Individual
departments are now preparing, editing, and formatting their own content and
submitting it for approval (and I can easily add more users if I need to). Because
my users are doing the publishing tasks themselves, I can focus on core IT and
administrative tasks associated with the Web site.
Rivier’s Web site is a powerful recruiting tool. Prospective students
find the information they are looking for. For current students, the Web site
is a one-stop-shop for reading about academic programs, faculty information,
and other on-campus information. Beyond academics, our Web site delivers information
about athletics, campus life, college services, job listings, and faculty policies
to a wide audience.
Adopting a Web content management system has eliminated an immense amount of
hassle and saved administration time at Rivier College.