The document provides an overview of content management systems (CMS) including: - What a CMS is and what it does, such as managing website content and enabling distributed publishing. - Standard CMS features like content entry and management, metadata, workflow, and templates. - That certain functionality like e-commerce or digital asset management may require additional solutions beyond the core CMS. - An overview of the CMS selection process including defining requirements, evaluating options based on criteria, and conducting product demonstrations.

1. CMS Overview & Landscape
Briefing for Kripalu Team
April 2012

2. Goals of Briefing
Content Management System Overview
• Educate team about CMS concepts and terminology
• Explore CMS Features and functionality
• Review typical CMS Selection Process.
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3. CMS Overview & Landscape Review
What is a CMS?
• What does a CMS do?
• What’s NOT in the box?
CMS Features
• Content Entry and Management
• Metadata and categorization
• Workflow
• Users, Groups and Permissions
CMS Landscape
Selection Process Overview
• Decision Criteria
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4. What is a CMS?
Content Management System
“A set of business rules and editorial processes
applied to content by people and organizations
to align online publishing efforts with business
objectives.”
– Tony Byrne, CMSWatch
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5. What is a CMS?
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6. What does a CMS do?
• Web site management - assists with management of most aspects of your
web site.
• Distributed Publishing: Enables many people/departments to contribute
to Web site(s)
• Role-based Access: Capabilities in system based on access rights (by
dept, by role, by logical site section, by type of content)
• Content Workflow: Process of moving content through the
editing, approval, publishing, and archiving process
• Promotes Brand Consistency: Consistency of design, message and content
across family of sites and/or types of display
• Helps Separate Elements of Web Management: Design, from
content, from programming
• Content Re-use: Headline, short description used across site, part of single
content asset. Edit in one place, show in many places.
• Creates opportunity to better engage constituents
• Supports Multiple Sites: Leverages templates, functional
elements, workflows, users/groups, and may allow for sharing of content
assets.
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7. What’s NOT “in the Box”?
In a CMS project, certain processes and steps occur
outside of the content management system
• Defining business goals; getting organizational buy-in
• Writing content; (translating or localizing content)
• Defining content creation process – staff roles and
responsibilities for editing, approving, publishing, and
archiving
• Creating design or branding elements;
• Determine site navigation or information architecture;
• Training internal staff to contribute content
• Content Migration from old to new site.
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8. What’s NOT “in the Box”?
In a Web site, certain functionality may be outside the core
functions of the CMS.
These “gaps” between what the CMS can handle and what the site must
do are typically accomplished by “extending” CMS modules, “developing”
custom software, and/or other off the shelf 3rd party solutions.
• CRM – user registration, data collection (
• Communication tools – mailing lists, newsletters, email tools
• Commerce tools – shopping cart, donations
• Ticketing and event systems
• Digital asset management – repository and management of
images, videos etc.
• Document Management – shared file
management, intranet, collaboration tools
• Community tools – Chat, forums, bulletin boards
• Site Search – search for site visitors
• Polls & Surveys
More and more CMSs include at least elements of these items
though are not often the tools’ core features or strengths.
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9. CMS Overview & Landscape Review
What is a CMS?
• What does a CMS do?
• What’s NOT in the box?
CMS Features
• Content Entry and Management
• Metadata and categorization
• Workflow
• Users, Groups and Permissions
CMS Landscape
Selection Process Overview
• Decision Criteria
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10. Standard Features in a CMS
• Create, edit, and publish workflow management
• Content entry and management
• Content Re-use
• Metadata and categorization
‒ Taxonomies and Tagging (Related Content)
‒ Categories & Navigation
• Template and design management
‒ Separation of content from design
• Users, Groups and permissions
• Content scheduling and archiving
• Content publishing
‒ Dynamic or static page assembly and publication
‒ Content repurpose and reuse
• Content delivery in multiple formats (print-friendly, cell
phones, emails, etc.)
• Site Hierarchy / Distributed Content Sharing
• Content aggregation and syndication
• Multi-lingual Support (characters/management)
• Content localization and personalization
• Community Features & Web 2.0 – user
profiles, ratings, comments, blogs
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11. CMS Overview - Workflow
An overview of the process
VIEWS
1
Create / Add
2
Edit / Approve
3
Publish
Web
Content
goes here.
Content Approvers
Content Creators (all online properties)
(all online properties) Multiple
Audience
Email
Automated Email notification
Member
Center
Content Management System
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12. Workflow Questions
• Used for content items that go through approval process
before publishing. Not all content is treated the same.
• Level of workflow complexity needed is a big factor
complexity and likely cost of CMS
• Identify WHO is involved in content approval process
• Consider workflow process notifications (e.g. email to let
approvers know content is in queue) or that content that
can be shared across sites is available
• Consider workflow differences for different properties or
site areas
• Create workflow that supports business process, not one
that inhibits it
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13. Workflow (CrownPeak)
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14. Workflow (Sitecore)
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15. Workflow
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16. Content Entry and Management
Navigation & editing methods vary
• Web Site View
• Folder View
Structured vs. non-structured content
Content entry methods
• Browser based forms
• MS Word
• Rich Editor (thin client)
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17. Content Entry: Site View (Sitecore)
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18. Content Entry: Site View (eZ Publish)
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19. Content Entry: Site View (RedDot)
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20. Content Entry: Folders (eZ Publish)
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21. Content Entry: Folders (Sitecore)
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22. Content Entry: Folders (RedDot)
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23. Structured Content
• Each type of content is a collection of discrete
units of data – “structured data”
• Press Release
• Event
• Job Opening
• Consider how different content types are
created, categorized, and managed
• Enables Reuse and discrete searching
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24. Structured Content: (Sitecore)
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25. Structured Content: (eZ Publish)
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26. Metadata and Categorization
Taxonomies
• Structured vocabularies or hierarchy of
terms.
• May be used to drive navigation as a browse
able list of issues.
Categories
• Often drive content reuse, content
organization and segmentation
Tagging
• unstructured, free form keywords associated
with a content item
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27. Metadata and Categorization (Sitecore)
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28. Metadata and Categorization (eZ Publish)
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29. Templates
Templates include the design elements of a site
• Logo, images, colors, styles (fonts), etc.
• Also describe layouts – 1, 2, 3 column etc.
• Some systems use template to mean content type templates
Content is stored separately from the template and logic
• The combination of content elements, template, and modules create the
view the user sees in their browser
Separation permits:
• Content created once, used many ways
• Templates changed once, change many pages
• Modules changed once, change throughout site
• Managing discrete components is more efficient
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30. Templates: (Sitecore)
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31. Templates: (RedDot)
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32. Standard Features in a CMS
• Create, edit, and publish workflow management
• Content entry and management
• Content Re-use
• Metadata and categorization
‒ Taxonomies and Tagging (Related Content)
‒ Categories & Navigation
• Template and design management
‒ Separation of content from design
• Users, Groups and permissions
• Content scheduling and archiving
• Content publishing
‒ Dynamic or static page assembly and publication
• Content delivery in multiple formats (print-friendly, cell
phones, emails, etc.)
• Site Hierarchy / Distributed Content Sharing
• Content aggregation and syndication (feeds)
• Multi-lingual Support (characters/management)
• Content localization and personalization
• Community Features & Web 2.0 – user
profiles, ratings, comments, blogs
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33. CMS Overview & Landscape Review
What is a CMS?
• What does a CMS do?
• What’s NOT in the box?
CMS Features
• Content Entry and Management
• Metadata and categorization
• Workflow
• Users, Groups and Permissions
CMS Landscape
Selection Process Overview
• Decision Criteria
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34. Thousands of Choices
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35. CMS Landscape Terminology
Buy Rent Open Source
License Lease Download
A software or application A software or A software or application
that you can buy (like a application that you developed and licensed
house). lease monthly or openly by the community
annually (like an (not proprietarily owned)
apartment). You can download the
source code often without
any license fee and
configure it to suit your
needs. Not always FREE.
“Product” means that there is a roadmap (schedule) for future enhancements.
Otherwise it is essentially custom development.
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36. Making Sense of CMS Landscape
Buy Rent Open Source
License Lease Download
CMS
CMS + eCRM CMS + Community
Framework
CMS
CMS Product
Product CMS Product
ASP & Purchase Options
Blog Portal
Portal
Build Custom
CMS
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37. Making Sense of CMS Landscape
Buy Rent Open Source
License Lease Download
CMS Framework CMS + eCRM CMS + Community
InterWoven, FatWire, Convio, Kintera, Drupal, WordPress, TYPO3,
Sitecore, SharePoint Orchid Xoops, Expression
Suites, CitySoft Engine, Scoop, PHP
CMS Product others Nuke, etc
Stellent, RedDot, Day,
CMS ASP
Percussion, Ektron
Atomz, CrownPeak, CMS Product
CommonSpot, Serena,
Clickability Plone, eZ
Ingeniux, CitySoft,
Publish, Midgard, Joomla,,
Hot Banana, Sitefinity,
Open CMS,
Trideon
ASP & Purchased Blog Portal
Portal CitySoft, Ingeniux MovableType, GlueCode
BroadVision, Epicentric HotBanana (common WordPress MamboPortal
now)
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38. CMS Overview & Landscape Review
What is a CMS?
• What does a CMS do?
• What’s NOT in the box?
CMS Features
• Content Entry and Management
• Metadata and categorization
• Workflow
• Users, Groups and Permissions
CMS Landscape
Selection Process Overview
• Decision Criteria
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39. Selection Process Overview
Interviews & Requirements
• CMS Briefing – An educational session on CMS systems and their benefits to ensure that
team members start from a shared understanding
• Stakeholder Interviews – Beaconfire usually conducts 4-6 interviews to get input from
staff.
Decision Criteria
• Identify Key Decision Criteria / Define Priority Features – Beaconfire creates a decision
criteria matrix by combining key features, business, vendor and technical
considerations, used to evaluate CMS products.
Prioritized Features List
• Features Workshop – Beaconfire typically conducts a workshop(s) to inventory, discuss and
prioritize features, as well as business and technical considerations.
Evaluation
• Software Research – Beaconfire will then take approx 6 prospective candidates and narrow
down to 4 based on selection criteria. Together we’ll review the 4 preliminary options and
narrow down to 2 options for demos.
• Demos – Client will typically see demos top 2-3 products and provide
feedback, impressions and opinions on which tools would be best for you.
• Selection Memo – Based on your criteria and impressions, Beaconfire will summarize its
recommendations.
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40. Decision Criteria
The key decision criteria represent those considerations that rise to the
top. If something MUST be in the CMS then it is a key decision criteria.
Some criteria are useful for initial vetting (going from 6-4 products), some
are weighted more in the ultimate decision. This list is typically is pretty
short as these are the “key” decision criteria.
• Priority Features – what distinguishing features will be critical to the
success of the system? What must the system DO?
• Business Considerations – what are the business parameters for
deciding on a system? (timeline, cost, ease of use, staff skills)
• Vendor Considerations – how do we rate this vendor in the
marketplace? (reputation, product
roadmap, support, training, customer service)
• Technical Considerations – what technical requirements do we have
for the product? (platform, licensing model, performance, integration)
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41. CMS Overview & Landscape Review
Questions?
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