Taking Care of Business

As business owners extend their business activities beyond traditional business processes to include partners, suppliers and customers, their ability to communicate and share information has highlighted a critical need to manage content effectively.

Your web site started off relatively small - comprising information about your company, products and services, projects, accomplishments, management team, and other various resources. But, with time, like a child who grows out of his shoes, your site has expanded to the point where its current infrastructure is no longer viable.

In particular, it has become increasingly difficult to manage your online content. It is more challenging to update information, keep it current and meet deadlines. There is also confusion with who is responsible for writing content, and posting and presenting it effectively to customers.

On another level, growth of your company has brought with it an increase in the number of employees, and their need to have access to company information that will enable them to be more productive and make better, more informed decisions. Your partners, suppliers and other stakeholders are also using information from your site.

How do you manage a growing content base so your audience receives information that is relevant and personal to them?

Content management is a term used to describe the process of effectively developing, storing, organizing, managing, streamlining and delivering content within a business to help reach its goals and objectives.

Web-Based to Enterprise-Based

In the early growth stages of the Internet, content was primarily a responsibility of IT professionals within a company. Information trickled into them and they updated the web site as required.

Today, content management is no longer applied just to web sites. It has shifted to include development, management and publication of all content from inside and outside an organization such as internal documents, e-mail and supplier records. As a result, content responsibility has extended beyond the IT professional to include non-technical staff such as sales, marketing, and human resources. It has extended from a web-based focus to an enterprise-based focus.

The Market

According to Meta Group, the market for content management solutions is expected to reach $10 billion by 2004, up from approximately $880 million in 2000. This growth will be driven by the use of web content solutions that extend into enterprise content management. Consequently, the pure play web content management segment will become smaller as it consolidates with the growing enterprise content management segment, creating a greater need for vendors that can offer long-term viability and strategy.

Based on a study by Meta Group, at the end of the first quarter of 2002, 60 percent of Global 2000 organizations had purchased a web content management package, of which less than 5 percent were being used strategically. META Group expects that by 2004, 95 percent of Global 2000 organizations will have purchased a web content management package for strategic implementation. (www.metagroup.com/metaspectrum)

Opportunities and Challenges for Small and Medium-Sized Businesses

As business owners extend their business activities beyond traditional business processes to include partners, suppliers and customers, their ability to communicate and share information has highlighted a critical need to manage content effectively. With the advent of E-business, users have come to expect personalized, customized and interactive content that addresses their specific needs.

By focusing on content small and medium-sized business owners are in a prime position to get on equal footing with larger organizations. Their size provides them with an opportunity to implement content management solutions more easily and build flexible solutions that will grow with them.

Other opportunities include:

Technical Skills Not Required – Some content management systems enable owners to update content without use of technical knowledge such as HTML programming, by converting documents into HTML and immediately publishing them online. As a result, content authors and other staff without technical expertise can update and add content in a timely and effective manner without depending on Web masters and other technical professionals.

Improved Operational Efficiencies – Managing content effectively through a content management system can improve operational processes within a company. For instance, content management infrastructures include an ability to store internal and external content, automate routing of content through specific authoring, editing and approval processes, and provide a content library with specific content templates enabling staff to review, revise, add or remove content as required. The infrastructure provides a clear, direct process for all elements in content organization giving businesses better operational efficiencies.

Improved Client and Customer Loyalty – By providing content that is personalized, relevant, consistent and timely, users are in a better position to effectively use it. For instance, customers will want up-to-date product information and prices, and suppliers will need consistent inventory data. If customers and suppliers are satisfied with the data, it will be easier to retain them for long-term profitable relationships.

On the other side, small and medium-sized businesses also face various challenges in their goal to organize their content effectively.

Manufacturers' Focus on Larger Companies – Many content management systems are developed for large multi-level organizations, which makes it difficult for small businesses to find quality and affordable content management solutions.

Difficult to Choose – There is an enormous range of content management solutions available in the market. Because smaller businesses need to be particularly careful with resources, the kind of solution they implement requires thorough evaluation.

Compatibility and Integration – Some content management solutions are built using proprietary software, which limits their ability to integrate with other solutions, such as a customer relationship management systems.

Organizational – Deploying a content management system from an organizational perspective can be a significant challenge, particularly if a business has a number of content owners, consumers and policies across the business.

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While content management is an important consideration for small and medium-sized business success, like with any technology deployment, the proposed solution should be evaluated effectively. In particular, it is important for the business to evaluate the cost of not having a solution in place. What are the risks of not having one? What is the value of having a content management solution in the first place?