[Framers] OT: CMS Scope

[Wim Hooghwinkel - idtp]

Hi, you didn’t mention your name,

what you describe is very organization centric. Try to look at it form a client perspective, from the users point of view.
What do your users need? What do your clients need, both new and existing ones? That should be the staring point and, if you do that right, it will give enough ROI arguments to defend the idea of a unified content strategy. And think about content services.

And, by the way, there’s no such thing as an Enterprise CMS that will cover all. Let everyone use their own systems but  govern it centrally.




Kind regards,
 
Wim Hooghwinkel

Information Energy, <http://www.informationenergy.org/program/> 17-18 mei 2017 in Utrecht!

FontoXML <http://www.fontoxml.com/> | DITAToo <http://www.ditatoo.com/> | FrameMaker <http://framemakerspecialist.nl/>

> 
> Hi All,
> 
> What is the typical scope of coverage for an enterprise CMS? I'm trying to establish ROI and just cannot see it for me as a tech writer in the environment I'm in. Should a CMS only attempt to cover tech pubs? I admit that I cannot see how it is possible to bring in all of the content sources from all of the completely disconnected groups into one system and have that facilitate any level of productivity. I do not see any possible return unless all of the content sources feed the same system and support all of the mechanisms (metadata, etc.) that would be required.
> 
> We have several CMS and approaches to managing our IP, and you will easily see that when something like a small accessory piece is discontinued or changes, it is a monumental effort just to identify where that topic may be discussed. The rest of this just illustrates the environment and sources of content.
> 
> SharePoint for the Intranet. IT bought the license, only certain modules, and turned it loose to each department head to manage their own Intranet space. It is an ad-hoc nightmare, not to mention that only about half the departments moved their content into SharePoint so there is a mix.
> 
> TeamSite to SiteCore for the website. This provides a form interface for the person that enters page content and downloadable content. They are fed information off-the-cuff by product marketing managers. There is no mechanism for content reuse at all. It is an equal nightmare.
> 
> The mechanical group has a "vault" that requires SolidWorks to access. There is no file-level access that I can see. There is something similar for the electronic design group. The programmers use a GIT repository. All of the designs (PDF files) and software deliverables (executable/installation code) ultimately gets manually copied to an accessible network folder under and managed by corporate engineering services (CES).
> 
> The production lines and our customer service group use whatever they want, depending on the person, to develop mfg/assembly/test procedures, training programs, etc.  These are archived in department folders and managed by those individual teams and may include videos, podcasts, webinars, PowerPoint, Word, PDF, etc...
> 
> The design engineers write design concepts such as theory of operation, presentations, white papers, and other deeply technical stuff, using whatever they want and keeping wherever (local HDD, random network). The product marketing engineers/product managers write sales guides and application notes, and support all user/marketing content. These teams pass their deliverables directly to the Marketing/Web teams. The project managers are using OneNote to collect project activities and all related documents that may include Excel, Word, PPT, etc. files, or links to network folders and other Intranet locations.
> 
> Marcom uses Adobe creative suite, mostly InDesign and primarily contract the work out. There is also all of the typical marketing stuff like banners, magazine articles, video, webinars, etc...
> The Pubs group uses unstructured FrameMaker and an old-fashioned book paradigm to create user manuals, and they are directly under Marcom. There are only a couple writers and each has their own product lines. Content re-use mostly comes in the form of a document that covers a particular topic or technology. For example, all of the boiler plate type stuff is in a separate guide that is associate with a number of like products.
> 
> Anything requiring revision control is managed in a Unix based ERP system that also manages inventory, BOM structures, order entry, etc. There is a "corporate" element of content as well.
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>