CMS for Intranets

Following up on my last blog about CMS Woes.  Here are some thoughts about Intranets

Don’t get hung up and branding an internal site.  If you doing more than picking the best background color and then adding your logo, you are doing too much.  Your Intranet is there to help share knowledge, not as a branding exercise.

Keep it, “In the Box” first. Then look to open it up to custom development.  By doing this, you need to be flexible.  For example, you need to let the system do what the system does.

If you are using a 3rd party platform, learn what the nice to haves are.  For example, the people that like to wirer frame out an Internet, never seem to know about some of the nice features that MOSS has to offer.  Case in point if the MOSS MySite functionality.  Like or Hate Microsoft, they have spent more money trying to figure out some nice things an Intranet should have.  Make sure the person that is helping you build your site knows to include what you get out of the box basically for free.

Do give the users control.  Do not let the IT department choose to lock everything down.  All to often we will see things get locked down because a user a year or so ago did something that caused a support person to have to work late one day to resolve.  As as result, a bad decision is made to make sure that person never has to work late again at the cost of removing rights from users.  For users to use the system, they need to be allowed to make mistakes.

Do not get caught up in Analysis Paralysis.  It is better to get something out the door quickly and manage it versus design it on paper for a year and never roll it out.

Prototype early.  This plays into the above point.  Err on the site of time to market. 

Give the user value.  If users are not getting what they want, they will not use the Intranet.  Most Intranet fail becuase users do not see the value.  Publishing Stories about one high level manager getting a promotion does not provide interest to anyone other than the manager getting the promotion and the person asked to write about it.

Know your Numbers.  Know who is looking at your site and why.  Know the trend..its is growing or shrinking.

Know what people are searching for.  Know what they are finding and know what they are not finding.  Then take action to make sure what they find gets better and what they are not finding gets satisfied.

CMS Woes

After being in the world of web based software development for the last 10 years or so, I have developed a negative view on CMS (Content Management Systems).  Now before I get started, I know there are some good uses for CMS.  And there are several sites and blogs dedicated to the pros and cons of each.  My experience is mostly in the world of marketing.  It is a mixture of both public facing home pages and micro sites to Intranets.  For this blog, I’ll discuss some of the client facing issues.

Public Facing Sites Running a CMS
On of the major obstacles of any CMS is that they are sold as a be all things to all people. Therefore there is a lot of functionality that you will need to buy that you are not going to use. Now some vendors will split their offering up into many different options. Problem with this is it just comes more confusing. Plus the add-ons often dont fit very well back into the main system that you are buying. I have compiled a list of things to watch out for when buying a CMS

Workflow – Do not get caught up on workflow.  All too often companies will have had some pain in the past that could have been fixed by better communications.  Don’t let the sales person sell you on your communications issues will be fixed with workflow.  Once you go down this path, you then get pulled into the, “what if so and so in on vacation and they are in the workflow to approve something?”  This then leads to multiple approves and auto escalations based on non-activity.  Before too long, just setting up the workflows will take an analyst months.  Bottom line.  If you need workflow, try to keep it simple.  And when I say simple, I mean one person publishes it and one person or persons approves it.  That will take care of 99% of what most workflows.  Anything more complex than that, you will need a workflow to manage the workflow.  Keep in mind that one of the best workflows that I’ve seen yet is the Preview – Publish – React method.  In other words, proofread what you publish and then if there is a problem, fix it quickly.

Publishing Method is too complex for non-technical users.  Know who is going to be updating your site.  In many cases, a development team will be updating.  But if you plan to have non-technical staff update your site via your CMS, be very careful.  In many cases, the update process will be too complex for them to grasp even after training.  And set your expectation low on what the will and will not be able to do.  Any more than just text entry and you are not going to be happy with the results.

Costs – Enterprises content management systems are expensive to buy, run and maintain.  Be ready to write big checks and keep writing them

Upgrade Issues – Expect major development time to be invested if you wish to upgrade.  Especially if you had any custom code that went into the system.  Also watch out for any 3rd party add-ons that you purchased that may or may not work with the new system.