Avoiding the Software Marketing Trap:
Understanding Lies and Near-Truths When Vendors Try
To Sell You Content Management Software
Steve Manning
Principal Consultant, The Rockley Group Inc.
manning@rockley.com

The Rockley Group Inc.
Summer
2007
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

The Rockley Group sample clients
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Are you looking for an XML Editor??
I’ve got a great one:
Light-weight editor (not complex)
Low cost
Supports DITA (maps, conrefs and specialization)
Supports any kind of XML markup
Easy to learn
….
It’s Notepad!!
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

The need for content management

A scenario – Insurance bureau
Maintain 5 manuals in ~1000 individual Word files
Files are assembled into manuals
One individual (not a trained writer) who updates
occasionally
Headers/footers/TOCs generated manually
Can’t find older versions of files (need to roll back
changes)
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

A scenario – Medical Devices Company
Large volume of repeated information for similar
products
Related information for patient’s and physician’s
manuals, but different language/detail
No reuse, but plenty of opportunity
Frequent updates to existing manuals for regulatory
changes – changes not being propagated to all affected
manuals
Small tightly-knit staff of writers
Short turn-around times
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

A scenario – Telecom company
Increasing dependence on web site for a communicating
information, including streaming video
Wide range of contributors (not trained writers)
Some contributors my go two years between
contributions
Corporate branding very, very important
Primary content: short news blurbs
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

A scenario – Printer company
Large number of products – short turnaround cycle
Frequent format changes – FrameMaker
Professional writing staff
Heavy translation load – up to 28 languages
Long turnaround times for translation – jeopardize ship
dates
Ship to translation dates fall before software freeze
dates
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

The common problems
“Can’t find information”
“Takes too long to create content”
“Too many errors, inconsistencies, and gaps”
“Too many people contributing”
“Too many different formats”
“Difficult to share/reuse information”
“Too much duplication”
“Can’t be sure I’ve got the right version”
“Translation is too expensive”
…
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Choosing a CM

Success is in analysis
Know what your needs are
Understand your content lifecycle
Know you content and content needs
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Know your content life cycle
Content creation
Review
Content management
Publication and delivery
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Know your users
Content authors
Reviewers
Publication staff
Information technology
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Know your content
A content audit is an accounting of the information in
your organization
A how content is used, reused, and delivered to its
various audiences
Understand how can be reused
Create information models
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Understand the problems to be solved
What is CM a solution to?
If you can’t clearly identify what the problem is, you will
not be able to pick the right solution
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Writing requirements
Most RFP’s include a detailed list of requirements
Vendors walk through this list and “tick” off what they
can do
Very difficult to understand how they can address the
requirements (out-of-box, easy-to-use interface)
What do the requirements mean in your context?
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Requirements are good but…
Scenarios/use cases are better
A scenario/use case is an expression of your desired
goals and objectives and how you envision working in
the future
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Solving the problem with CM
Choosing a CM means matching the problem to the CM
functionality that will eliminate the problem
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Types of CM
Component CM
Document Management
Web Content Management
Learning Content Management
…
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

CM Key features
DITA, XML or Other?
Granularity of access (files, elements)
Segmentation/Bursting (level/flexibility of granularity)
Module management (relationships, links)
Metadata (customization, manipulation, application,
inheritance)
Access control (check-in/check-out)
Version control
Version linking (specific versions/current versions)
Repository (data format, scalability)
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

CM Key features, cont'd
Search and retrieval
Archival
Translation management
Staging and deployment
BLOB management
Workflow
Audit trail
Offline management
Certification (by regulatory bodies)
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

CM Key features, cont'd
Integration with authoring tools and publishing tools
(and a clear statement on what “integration” means)
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Now consider this advice

Understand the vendors motivation
Their job is to sell software
They sell it by positioning it as a solution to your
problems
Good vendors will walk away when they are not a good
fit
Vendors will rarely tell you if they are not the best fit.
And your job is to find the BEST fit!!
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

The answer will follow the question
Ask your teenage son or daughter this question:
How was school today?
Ask a vendor:
Do you support DITA?
So ask specific questions:
How does your system support DITA conrefs?
And get a demo
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Understand the value of the generic demo
Generic demos are good when you want to learn about
content management
But the generic demos usually focus on product
strengths and hide product weaknesses
It may look cool, but it won’t necessarily solve your
problems
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Get a customized demo
Describe your business process
Provide samples of your content
Ask for a custom demo that will demonstrate the
specific support you need.
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Get real users in the demo
Get the people who will use the system in on the
demos
Get them to ask their questions
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Understand what “we support”
Does it mean “we can handle it”
Or does it mean “we’ve created specific functionality
for it”
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Understand what the tool was created to do
Word (memos and letters)
Vs.
Frame (long documents)
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Get references
Talk to people who use the software
Ask about the implementation process
On time?
Painful?
Unexpected issues??
Ask about support
Timely?
Effective?
And what about training and documentation
Effective?
In existence???
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Ask about the less successful projects
When you ask vendors for references, they give you the
good ones.
Go ahead, put them on the spot and ask about the
failures
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Consider the intangibles
Support and maintenance
Partners
Vision
Stability
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Know what your organization can support
What can you or your IT group reasonably support!!
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Be realistic with your demands
I need a full POC in 1 week !!!
Be realistic with what you ask for
Give vendors time to prepare
But push them to show how they will support your
business processes
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Consider getting some professional help
IT might be able to help you out
Consider consultants
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Best practices
Identify your goals and objectives.
Determine your pain points
Develop a series of use cases to illustrate your
requirements.
Identifier your requirements
Identify your differentiators for selection.
Develop a weighting system for your requirements.
Develop a list of vendors to investigate.
Send out an RFI/RFP to selected vendors that includes
your detailed criteria and ask them to respond to your
questions.
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Cont.
Evaluate the responses
Pick three vendors that most effectively meet your
requirements (best ranking).
Ask vendors to use a sample of your content and create
a content-specific demonstration for you.
Narrow your selection further to one or two vendors.
Conduct a proof-of-concept to test the required
functionality and determine if the product meets your
needs
Purchase the product if it performs well in the proof-of-
concept.
©2007, The Rockley Group Inc.

Questions?
Steve Manning
The Rockley Group Inc.
www.rockley.com
manning@rockley.com