The Content Management HandbookMartin White The best thing about the Content Management Handbook is that it provides something that has been missing for some time: a simple and clear overview of the whole field of content management. While other books have delved in-depth into specific aspects of content management, Martin White's book aims to provide a 10,000 foot view of everything that goes into a successful content management implementation. Martin is one of the leading vendor-neutral intranet and CMS consultants in the UK, and his experience shines through in this book. This is not just the "sales pitch" for all

The second CM Briefing for February asks the question: is workflow the wrong metaphor? To quote: While workflow is a key component of content management systems (CMS), the unspoken truth is that workflow often fails (or is only moderately successful) in most organisations. This briefing explores the reality of workflow in organisations, identifies a number of problems and issues, and asks the question: is workflow the wrong metaphor?

The first of February's CM Briefings explores how staff look for documents. To quote: In the earlier article Rolling out a records management system, three critical success factors were identified: the software, classification scheme and message. This briefing focuses on a specific aspect of document management, records management and intranet projects: how staff look for documents. Understanding that there are a number of distinct situations in which staff look for documents sheds light on how to develop suitable software, and design useful classification schemes.

My KM Column article for February (released a day early) covers implementing online forms, in the context of a corporate intranet. To quote: Online forms should be a key component of all corporate intranets, as they deliver clear productivity benefits and cost savings. Few organisations, however, have taken the next steps beyond simply publishing forms in PDF format. This article discusses some of the reasons why online forms have not been more widely deployed. An incremental approach is then outlined for implementing online forms. This is designed to minimise the cost and effort required at each step, while maximising the

My CM Briefing for this month discusses who should own the intranet. To quote: One of the first challenges when establishing an intranet is to determine who should have overall ownership of the site, and where the intranet team should be located. While the responsibility for driving the intranet must be given to a single business area, this group must be located within the right area of the organisation if the intranet is to succeed. This briefing explores a number of common intranet owners, and discusses the pros and cons of each group. It then presents some general guidelines and

Our KM Column article for December has been written by both Donna Maurer and Tina Calabria, and it explores how to continuously improve your intranet. To quote: The amount of work involved in designing a new intranet or redesigning an existing intranet is minor compared to the time needed to maintain an effective intranet over the longer term. In fact, it is common for the initial excitement of a new intranet to fade away as the reality of day-to-day maintenance and the challenges of improving the intranet become apparent. This article outlines 10 practical ways that an intranet can be

The issue Tenders are a life-or-death process for most vendors. Either you win jobs, or you don't. Now, I've been spending a lot of time reading tender responses and sitting in on vendor demos recently, and I've seen a lot of the same problems arise. They include: Written tender responses from vendors that are confusing, or don't provide the information that is being looked for. Written responses that are too long, or too short. Pricing information that is incomplete or confusing. Demonstrations that are too complex or technical, leaving the audience feeling drained and overwhelmed. Vendors who rush through demos,

My second CM Briefing for this month is on scoping an intranet release. To quote: The most crucial release is often the initial 'go-live' of the intranet. This must demonstrate the value of the intranet, and build sufficient interest to ensure the site develops further and grows. When developing intranet releases, however, intranet teams often find themselves very constrained by both time and resources. The challenge then becomes delivering sufficient content and capabilities to meet business and user expectations, within the project constraints. This briefing introduces a simple approach to scoping a release that takes all of these factors into

Donna Maurer has written our KM Column article this month, answering the question: what is usability? To quote: 'Usability' is widely seen as the answer to many of these frustrating interactions with technology. There are usability books, websites, guidelines and checklists, so why are products and systems getting harder to use instead of easier? There is some confusion about what usability is and whether businesses are 'doing usability' or not. There are many aspects to usability - more than just running a usability test at the end of a project. This article provides an overview of what usability is (and

I'm really pleased when I come across a new idea that can help people select a content management system more effectively. Now, the key challenge when choosing a CMS is building sufficient confidence that it's the right tool for the job. In most cases, you would use approaches such as: written vendor responses to tender, RFI documents, etc vendor demonstrations visits to reference sites trial periods demo copies Often though, what you are most interested in is not the functionality of the product, but its usability, particularly for novice users. One very interesting way of assessing this is to get