When Everyone Writes for the Web
- By David D. DeLorenzo
- 06/29/04
How do you include non-technical staff in the ongoing development of 2,500
Web pages? Believe it or not, you do not have to turn these staff members into
Webmasters. A content management system (CMS) makes it fairly easy for staff
to create and update Web content. At the same time, the system provides the
tools that administrators need to control Web development and protect information.
As the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO)
has found, a CMS is not only a good idea when managing a content-rich Web site,
it is indispensable.
In the redesign of its Web site, NACUBO considered content management to be
one of the most challenging and important parts of the development strategy.
We carefully evaluated several leading content management systems in the association
market and within higher education. Ultimately, we selected the Ingeniux CMS
platform on which to build our new site. We launched the new NACUBO.org site
on March 8, 2004, and appreciate the benefits of using a content management
system.
The Need for Content Management
Like many other organizations, prior to using a CMS, NACUBO realized that its
Web site often contained out-of-date or obsolete information, possibly dissuading
visitors from returning as often as we would like. It is no secret in today’s
virtual world that visitors might be turned off or confused by seeing information
on a site for an event that has already been held, or reading about a discontinued
program, product, or service. NACUBO’s original process for content development
involved 20 to 30 staff members from a variety of areas sending requests to
two technical staff members, without any priorities, workflow, or strategy.
This created a bottleneck effect that frustrated those on both sides of the
process.
Maintaining accurate, relevant, and error-free Web content is critical, because
the site is a direct reflection of the organization. NACUBO decided that the
best strategy for ensuring that members and partners view us at our best was
to implement a content management system, enabling each staff member to maintain
his or her own content.
Selecting a System
The key for NACUBO was to find a content management system that the staff would
find easy to use. We did not want a system that would require the content authors
to do HTML programming or learn complicated new systems. To get total buy-in,
we needed a system that would be understandable and that would incorporate the
tools our staff already worked with.
Some organizations build their own “homegrown” CMS or co-opt an
open source solution. However, building a CMS was not even an option for NACUBO.
From cost, risk, and functionality perspectives, it was clearly better for us
to purchase a commercial CMS. We chose to focus our technical resources on extending
and integrating the CMS, rather than reinventing it. Taking this approach, the
Ingeniux platform enabled us to develop and integrate our member management
system, and still hit our launch date.
Evaluating content management systems can be confusing. There are a lot of
vendors and the range of systems varies greatly. We looked at how the CMS would
help us reuse and reformat content, workflow and user management, and publishing
capabilities. We also studied the vendor’s technology approach: Did the
company adhere to open standards, or were the technology and file formatting
proprietary? We were wary of systems that could lock us in or make it difficult
to migrate content to new systems. Lastly, we evaluated business questions,
such as the vendor’s viability and success in our market. Any product
we chose would have to earn high marks in all of these areas.
Content Management In Practice
How is it working? The staff was trained on the system in January. Within 45
days they had built, edited, organized, and published more than 2,500 pages
of Web content.
The Ingeniux tool provides an HTML editor that enables our staff content authors
to work within a simple word processing template, with the same functions and
buttons that they use in their everyday work. Ingeniux also supports drag-and-drop
importing from MS Office and other applications. Since most content published
on the Web originates from other systems, the ability to easily import information
is extremely important.
One of our key tasks in implementing the CMS was to develop a schedule for
updating and maintaining the site content. To do this, we needed to identify
the sections that frequently require updates: who should edit the content and
approve the updates, and how often each section should be updated. The workflow
system that is built into the CMS enables us to track who each page is assigned
to, the workgroup that they belong to, and the status of the page.
By allowing content authors to make their own changes, NACUBO now has a site
that is robust, frequently updated with fresh content, and fully integrated
with all back-end operations. Using Web services, Ingeniux CMS integrates fully
with our membership database to create database-driven pages for eCommerce and
to deliver products, programs, and services. The CMS also allows NACUBO to password-protect
the site on a page-by-page basis for our membership.
Our staff is working well with the CMS, and we update our site daily. The site
has never had more content or functionality. We have learned from experience
that we could not support the quality of Web site that we currently have without
a content management system.
Mark Olson, NACUBO’s executive vice president and COO, points out a bonus
to the CMS implementation: “With our IT team now free to focus on new
projects rather than on supporting Web authoring, NACUBO can develop a more
ambitious roadmap and better use technology to serve members.”