Up for Scrutiny - Content Management Systems

Amongst the myriad technologies and ideas that may potentially alter the way we work, Content Management System (CMS) promises to create the biggest waves. By facilitating collaborative creation and organization of documents, CMS will bring in a massive change in the way people work. Like all new technologies CMS too will have to undergo the litmus test of public approval before it truly arrives. Read on to know what people in the industry think about CMS.

Here are the views expressed by some people who are familiar with the content management systems.

Varied views come from:

Merlyn Jyothi
Sankara Rajanala & Katriina Valli
Siddharth Naidu
Sita Bhatt

If you want to participate in any future debates, please contact the column editor, Avinash Akshay.

Seeking New Horizons with a CMS

By Merlyn Jyothi

“It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new.” –Alan Cohen

A Content Management System (CMS) is yet another phenomenon that is all set to sweep the technical communications industry. A CMS stores, manages, and serves the information assets of an enterprise. An information asset contains data that is sourced and presented by various groups of an enterprise. By centrally managing information assets, publishing bottlenecks are removed, workflow lifecycles are automated, and information asset standards are established.

For example, a writer may be oblivious to the existence of data in an information asset created by another team. Enabling the writer to search a repository, modify, and then reuse the data would eliminate redundancy and duplication of effort. A CMS fits this requirement of a centrally managed repository of information assets.

Implementing and working off a CMS creates roles that demand a technical communicator to:

Analyze the existing processes, assess requirements, and formulate specifications for an enterprise CMS tool.
Calculate the Return on Investment and build a case for a CMS.
Campaign towards management commitment to implement a system that will produce results after a long period, say eighteen months.
Research tools and technologies that fit the enterprise requirements.
Research and test information development tools for integration with the CMS.
Scout, shortlist, and interview CMS vendors and/or customizers.
Liaise with the service provider for development or customization of a CMS.
Develop skills that will aid in the administration of the CMS.
Participate in the knowledge transfer activity to manage the CMS.
Formulate processes and practices in the new system.
Establish standards and styles for information assets.
Train users on utilizing the CMS.
Acquire the knowledge to support the CMS.
Review knowledge assets for adherence to standards.
Enable requisition enhancements.

So, when a technical communications team has its processes in place and delivers documents on time; when the members on the team are adept at the existing processes, tools, and technologies; when the team enhances and outdoes itself for every successive cycle, to CMS or not to CMS that is the question!

Merlyn Jyothi is a Lead writer with Pivotal Corporation.

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