A content management system (CMS) can help make sense of your organization's various documents, Web pages, blogs and other resources. Take a look at these articles, tips, podcasts and white papers to learn how to make the most of your CMS.
This guide is part of the SearchCIO.com CIO Briefing series, which is designed to give IT leaders strategic guidance and advice that addresses the management and decision-making aspects of timely topics. For a complete list of topics covered to date, visit the CIO Briefing section.
Table of contents
Expert's corner
CMS glossary and basics
Recent developments in CMS technology
ROI of CMS
Open source CMS
More resources
CMS proves its ROI mettle
[Cindy Atoji, Contributor]
The case can be made that a content management system (CMS) is an ROI success story. Just listen to the CMS accolades from vendor land: "GE Healthcare achieved a reduction in annual translation costs from $3 million to $300,000."
But on the flip side are cautionary voices, like that of Mary Laplante, an analyst and vice president of consulting services at Gilbane Group Inc. in Cambridge, Mass. "ROI is important, but it cannot be the sole basis of a CMS investment because there are ways to make a business case not tied to numbers," Laplante said.
CMS no longer optional
One thing is indisputable: In a complex global business world governed by regulatory compliance, it is no longer safe nor smart to have your information fly about "willy-nilly," said Tony Byrne, an analyst at CMS Watch, a CMS research and analysis firm based in Olney Md.
This is where content management comes in. Whether it's a collaborative Web tool or a records management solution, CMS allows content to be stored, retrieved, edited, controlled, updated and output in ways that can reduce incremental costs of each update cycle and shrink output production dramatically over time. A CMS takes the power out of the IT department's grip and puts it into the hands of everyday nontechnical users -- a cost-saving step in itself.
CMS success and ROI results
Take Autodesk Inc., for example. The San Rafael, Calif.-based software company had a product documentation base of more than 8 million words being translated into up to 18 languages. But manual processes were time-consuming and costly, said Minette Norman, Autodesk software systems manager. By implementing CMS Idiom WorldServer, together with Adobe FrameMaker for structured authoring in XML, Autodesk streamlined documentation and reduced redundancies using a centralized workflow system. Although quantifiable numbers can't be crunched, the result has been "more languages, more content, shorter time frames," according to Norman.
Like Autodesk, which began seeing results in a year, companies can expect to achieve ROI quickly, with noticeable results typically coming within a year to 18 months, said Alan Pelz-Sharpe, also an analyst at CMS Watch. But achieving ROI has as much to do with how the technology is implemented as with the technology itself. A CMS simply has to work within existing business processes.
>> Learn more in "CMS proves its ROI mettle."
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- Article: What SharePoint 2007 means for content management (Source: SearchVB.com, 1/21/2007)
- Podcast: File area network (FAN) podcast -- trends in content management and delivery (Source: SearchStorageChannel.com, 01/19/2007)
- News: BI and content management merging, IDC says (Source: Enterprise Systems, 10/04/2006)
- Tip: DB2 and content management: Who will leverage semi-structured and unstructured data? (Source: SearchDataManagement.com, 9/07/2006)
- News: Content management and risk discovery help compliance (Source: CRM Daily, 9/05/2006)
- Article: IBM to acquire FileNet, merge content management and BPM (Source: SearchDataManagement.com, 8/10/2006)
- Expert advice: Custom messaging with CCMS (Source: SearchSAP.com, 8/08/2006)
- News: Ajax gets content management framework (Source: SYS-CON Media, 7/11/2006)
- News: Oracle unveils new databases for content management (Source: Internet News, 6/15/2006)
- Article: Blog, analytic, multimedia controls new to Ektron CMS400.NET 6.0 (Source: SearchVB.com, 4/26/2006)
- Expert advice: Content management solution for NetWeaver 04 Enterprise Portal (Source: SearchSAP.com, 4/22/2006)
