Each year, CFOs review the costs expended by their companies to verify that the money being spent is worthwhile. If they find that spending cannot be justified with positive results, budgets may be cut for those departments. In that case, you may need to say good-bye to the tools, the support, and the services that you might rely on to do your job if you can’t prove its worth.
We’ve blogged previously with tips about how to get your management team to buy into the idea and fund a content management system (CMS). One of those tips was that one presentation does not fit all. Know your audience and plan an appropriate presentation.
It’s been a great year of tips for selecting, implementing, and using a component content management system(CCMS). After all, CCMS technology is truly transformative for any business, helping organizations ring in the New Year with cost savings, additional operational efficiencies, and increased customer satisfaction.
How do you know if a CMS is right for your organization? Many people struggle to find the answer to this question. Often, these are the questions we hear: Is my content base too small to make it worthwhile? Is the cost of a CMS too expensive for my organization? Is my staff too small to benefit from a CMS? What is the breakeven point for adopting a CMS?
You may be looking in all the wrong places for justification for a CMS. The size of your team, the size of your content base, and the cost of the system may only play a small role in the decision to implement a CMS. The more important factor is: how much will you save in time and costs if you implement a CMS? Here are some criteria to consider:
Technical writers sometimes feel like the ugly step-child. They have too much work, and there’s never enough staff to do everything that must be done. And, the work was needed yesterday! In some organizations, the focus is placed on the engineering and marketing of the product, but the technical documentation is merely perceived as an afterthought. Since technical documentation is a cost of doing business rather than a revenue generator, it tends to get the small end of the budget stick.
Many organizations install a CMS, but then struggle to determine if they are getting a return on their investment. Before installing a CMS, develop a plan for how you will measure its success. Take measurements of the time and costs you are spending using your current process. You can use these numbers to compare against the new measurements you take after you install a CMS. The key: Remember to take the benchmark measurements before you change your processes!
