If your company is thinking about adopting a component content management system (CCMS), it’s likely you’ll come across a few tall tales about its features. While a CCMS improves productivity, reduces costs, and streamlines your content management, it’s essential to understand how it delivers those benefits — or rather, bust the myths about how it does it.
Content management systems for organizations offer substantial benefits. They improve productivity while reducing costs and the amount of time your team dedicates to editing, updating, and publishing internal and external content to different outlets.
Understanding the types of content management systems available, plus the solutions they provide, is an essential step towards choosing a system that solves your company’s unique content challenges.
One of the most frequently asked questions we get is: “Why do I need to use a Component Content Management System (CCMS) if I am already developing and publishing my content in XML?” These teams are often using an XML editor to author their content and publishing through tools like the DITA Open Toolkit. Problem solved, right? Or is it?
During the last three months, we were exceptionally busy because we had one big additional task to deal with: moving to a new office. After more than 25 years in the same location, we spent months purging out old files and office furniture that we had accumulated. Customer needs were always our priority, so we never took the time to clean house. As our moving date came nearer, so did the pressure to complete our purging. Then came the task of updating all the places where we had listed our address.
Where to begin? Sales literature…Update the footers on all marketing pieces…Check. The website contact information page…Check. Business cards…check. Done! Right?
Ah, spring! Our winter weather prognosticator, Punxsutawney Phil, tells us that we now have another six weeks to prepare for that time-honored tradition—spring cleaning. Time to throw open the windows, air out the house, and beat the dusty drapes and rugs into submission! But your house isn’t the only thing that needs a good scrubbing. What better time to perform a content audit in your CCMS to clean up your content. So with only six weeks, it’s time to start planning your audit now.
Data security is a hot topic these days. It seems hardly a day goes by without word of yet another data breach that places consumer privacy at risk. When choosing a content management system for your organization, it is imperative to select a CMS provider that implements the most stringent safety and security measures. CMS security in regulated environments in industries such as healthcare, pharmaceutical, and finance is also essential for ensuring regulatory compliance.
CMS Security Considerations
Is yours one of the many organizations that are considering the use of DITA CMS technology for developing, managing, publishing, and reusing content? Are you concerned that a successful DITA CMS implementation will be difficult, if not impossible to achieve in your unique work environment?
Since the introduction of Apple’s iPhone in 2007, modern Internet-connected mobile devices have become a permanent part of everyday life. The iPad’s introduction in 2010 popularized tablets, and it made mobile devices even more important for most people.
Online collaborative documentation has also risen in the last several years. With the rise in the use of content management systems comes the need for such documentation to be usable across all devices, including mobile ones.
At Vasont Systems, we’re often asked, “Which vertical market uses your component content management system (CCMS)?” The answer is not a single market, but many different industries! The fact is, it doesn’t matter what the market is. What matters is what the content challenges are within a market.
Companies from various types of industries use a CCMS to get their content creation, editorial, translation, and publishing processes under control for their products and services. In this article, we take a look at some of the ways companies are successfully using a CCMS to get control of their content. Sound familiar? If you’re managing one of these types of content, you may want to consider incorporating a CCMS into your content strategy.
Your company’s brand is strengthened — or weakened — with every user guide, training video, instructional graphic, and packaging insert you publish. For this reason, it’s imperative you strive to produce high-quality material at all times. The material you produce must also give a consistent message in order to elevate your brand.
Why is it imperative to produce consistent material? If your company’s internal documents contain critical errors or vary in terms of writing styles and messages, they will cause confusion for customers.
In some cases, errors could even be dangerous to customers. Consider a healthcare company, for instance, which needs to publish medical information detailing proper usage for a particular product. If a critical change is made in how a product is administered or used, that change needs to reach consumers. There can be no outdated instructions in this regard.
This is especially challenging for larger companies, which are often tasked with creating an enormous amount of resources — and often in a very short amount of time. Heavy content production at the enterprise level therefore needs to be extremely well-organized.