In this session attendees will learn: How to avoid common pitfalls of CMS projects? Why just selecting the right CMS isn’t enough? Key work streams and skill sets needed to succeed? What a Project Managers say is critical to every implementation plan?

1. Guide to CCMS Implementation Success
Scott Youngblom and Joe Jenkins Oberon Technologies

2. Top Reasons CCMS Projects Fail
 Lack of Management Sponsorship
 Lack of perceived/delivered value by organization
 Resistance to change – major paradigm shift
 Skills misalignment
 Myopic view - disparate CCMS silos across the org
 Unrealistic expectations
 Authors don’t anticipate all downstream need upfront

3. Goals of a Well-Implemented CCMS
 Savings in time and effort
 Documentation efficiencies
 Increased access to intelligent information
 Opportunity to improve current processes
 Take inventory – don’t just automate/implement existing processes
 Leverage OOB functionality instead of custom solutions
 Address key business drivers
 Position your organization for the future
 It’s Not one size fits all
 Know your needs for fit, form and function
 Don’t just do what others are doing

4. Have a ‘Holistic’ Plan
 Understand how the CCMS fits into a complete content lifecycle
 Include all stakeholder perspectives
 Support corporate initiatives
 Recognize key integration points
 Address any IT or technology
adoption rules or requirements
PLAN

5. Understand CCMS Fit in the Content Lifecycle
Create
Manage
PublishTranslate
Deliver
Translation Mgt.
Taxonomy
Conversion
Project Management
Analysis
Who
- is the owner
Where
- is the source of truth
When
- is integration needed
How
- does the info flow
What
- is the feedback process

6. Assess Your Organization’s Unique Needs
 Current tools usage and environment
 Process requirements
 Compliance or standards necessities
 Corporate initiatives
 Plans for the future
 Emerging technologies (video, AI, AR/VR)
 Localization of content
 New devices and outputs

7. Gather all the Requirements
 Global and disparate documentation teams
 Upstream and downstream content and data uses
 Users: Customer Support, Sales, Marketing, Training, field service, etc.
 Applications: BI, mobilization, self-serve, user-profiled content delivery
 Competing or dependent corporate initiatives
 Legacy content needs
 Key collaboration areas
 Translations
 Taxonomies
 Technology - video, AI, AR/VR
All Requirements

8. Assemble a Winning Team
 Management/Executive Sponsor
 Business technology and IT
 Project Manager to track and communicate regularly
 Cross-functional participation
 Identify Skills Gaps
 Experienced “go-to” person
 May have new roles and responsibilities
 Stylesheet developer
 Information architect
 Application administrator
 Others

9. Key Roles in a CCMS Implementation Team
Role Responsibilities
Application Administrator Configures the system, performs user administration and
support for use of system.
Content Architect Maintains content model, information reuse strategy and
user templates.
Conversion Specialist Runs conversions if skills required are beyond what users
can do. (If needed, based on conversion approach).
Project Manager Acts as liaison across the teams, organizes and tracks
activities, reports and communicates status.
Stylesheet Developer Maintains and updates stylesheet code. Understands
publishing tools and content development best practices.
Trainer Learns to teach the new system to future groups

10. Roadmap Your Path to Success
 Develop a detailed project plan
 Define success criteria and measure
 Set milestones
 Identify key workstreams
 Take a Phased approach
 Start with a Pilot

11. Taking a Phased Approach
 30-90 day intervals (effort, not elapsed time)
 Deliver incremental value to the organization
 Build on processes and technology adoption of prior
phases
 Phases can overlap and/or run concurrently as part of
overall project implementation
 Apply Industry Best Practices across all areas

12. Sample: Implementation Phases
 Technical Publications process planning
 Content analysis & modeling
 System infrastructure
 CCMS configuration
 Online portal configuration
 Content conversion strategy
 Metadata and system integrations
 Training
 Pilot deployment
 System refinement
 Production deployment

13. Example: Project Plan
Phases are combined into
Projects that align with
relevance, timing, budget
and resource targets
Projects can vary in size
from one to multiple
phases
Task Name
Project 1 - CCMS Infrastructure and Analysis
Project Management
Detailed Project Plan
System Infrastructure
Content Analysis
CMS Requirements
Stylesheet Requirements
System Integrations Analysis
Project 2 - Deploy Core CCMS Pilot
CMS Configuration
Stylesheet Development
Authoring enhancements
Content Conversion Utility
Training

14. Example: Project Plan cont.
Task Name
Project 3 - CCMS Extensions as needed
System Integrations
Online delivery portals
Project 4 - System Refinement
QA & Testing
Project 5 - Full Deployment
Deploy to Production
Smoke test Production
Go Live Support
Phases are combined into
Projects that align with
relevance, timing, budget
and resource targets
Projects can vary in size
from one to multiple
phases

15. Example: High Level Timeline
Month
1
Month
2
Month
3
Month
4
Month
5
Month
6
Month
7
Month
8
Month
9
Month
10
Month
11
Month
12
Project 1
Project 2
Project 3
Project 4
Analysis and Infrastructure Setup
Deploy Core Solution - Pilot
Extensions and Integrations
System Refinement
Training (as needed)
Project 5 Full Deployment
Project 6+ Based on Client Priorities
Projects can be executed concurrently, or spaced out if needed to
accommodate desired timing or resource dependencies.

16. Benefits of a Pilot Approach
 Engage a small team covering various roles
 Focus on primary pain points/business drivers
 Minimize impact to overall organization
 Refine processes and configurations
 Develop change agents/champions
 Identify supplementary training areas
 Success driven from both directions – top down and bottom up
 Communicate the overall goals, plans and iterative wins

17. Critical Technical Publications Process Plan
 Establish cross functional team
 Understand information flow, dependencies, gaps
 Gather input on tech content across organization
 Create a Tech Pubs Release Planning process
 Source of inputs (internal and consumer)
 Frequency of publication updates
 How to handle special or out-of-cycle updates
 Determine best use of resources
 Define consistent writing styles and output formats
 Independent from new system and tools
 Standard terminology, tagging, naming, and graphics guidelines
 Provide ongoing input and direction regarding the processes

18. Tools Selection
 Ensure a vendor agnostic perspective
– let your needs drive to the right product/solution
 Understand the differences in solutions
– e.g. Best-of-breed vs single vendor solutions
 Test your options – e.g. bakeoff/POCs
– use your content when possible

19. Lessons Learned for Successful Adoption
 Understand and communicate benefits and objectives
- before, during and after implementation and training
 Ensure support of management to show commitment
 Schedule user training in close proximity to system deployment
 Provide a system to collect feedback (bugs, enhancements)
 Track metrics to measure the success of system adoption
 Form a cross functional team to identify and improve processes

20. Leverage Proven Sources of Info
 Industry conferences
 Peer groups
 Online resources (webinars, white papers, etc.)

21. Input from CCMS PMs
 Start with Realistic Business expectations
 Good plan and great execution
 Great people
 Quality system to keep everyone in sync on defect tracking
 Constant communication between Business, IS/IT, and vendors throughout the project
 Clear and detailed requirements
 Acknowledgement of risks, constraints, limitations, assumptions, and mitigation plan
 Traceability from requirement to design and to test cases
 Business commitment and dedication to training and learning the system even at the early stage of the project
 Extensive testing with complete coverage, including system end-to-end testing, performance testing and early
user testing
 Extensive UAT by Business and Business Analysts
 Management, Project Team, Business and the Vendor in sync at all times

22. Input from CCMS PMs
 Start Small with one document or product class to get familiar with the system and seek a quick win
 Keep it simple, do not try to build the perfect system to start, your views will change over time
 Start with a small group, provide practical training on how to use the system, have a user support person
available to reduce our writers frustrations when things did not go according to plan
 Have a plan on how you want the users to interact with the system and be prepared to change your approach
as you get experience
 A CCMS is designed to manage modules and assemblies so make sure your data is arranged in usable modules
with descriptive meta-data. Even though our data model was modular our data was not written in concise
modules. Redefining how our modules were constructed made real reuse and distribution possible..
 A consultant or integrator helped us evaluate our data and preconceived ideas critically and helped us refine
our thinking
 We kept our IT group out of our implementation where possible, they tend to make the simple complex
 We should have looked at the on-line delivery process as part of the complete system, not doing this has
limited some of the benefits we are now trying to gain.

23. Scott.Youngblom@oberontech.com
Joe.Jenkins@oberontech.com
Thank You
Q & A