More Is Not More

Joe Barrett, CEO of Quantum Art, a leading WCM provider, on the lure of biting off more than you can chew ... or need.

One of the biggest fallacies about web content management (WCM) systems is that ‘more is more’. Most clients currently use less than 50 percent of web content management application features, yet an increasing number of WCM providers are adding more and more functionality to their offerings. Moreover, there is a huge disparity in price point offerings, ranging between $50 a month for the most basic software to several million dollars for major enterprise deployments. Hundreds of WCM companies are vying for market share, with offerings ranging from simple, template SaaS subscriptions to highly evolved enterprise content management systems (ECMS).  

At the same time, WCM demand is growing strongly because of its ability to personalize content delivery, increase the advertising value of web pages and traffic, and improve e-commerce success. Over 72 percent of WCM decision-makers and stakeholders surveyed by Forrester Research in the ‘Web Content Management Investment Continues Despite the Challenging Economic Climate’ report, stated their intent to increase WCM deployments and budgets in 2009. And the fastest growing user segment is the mid market, defined as companies, or corporate divisions, with less than $250 million in annual revenue, and non-profits, governments or NGO’s with multiple websites, hundreds of pages of frequently-updated content and multiple and/or distributed divisions.

Unfortunately, Forrester Research also reports that only 29 percent of organizations surveyed are satisfied with their WCM deployment. So, how does one join the 29 percent? A few simple, and even obvious, truths can be your guide to success.

Content
Highly relevant content, based on deep customer insight and optimized for online delivery, is essential to success for organizations considering or using WCM solutions. Nothing else will have as positive an impact on improving your customer experience. All too often, clients err on the side of over-investing in WCM products that far exceed their specific requirements, while under-investing in the human efforts required to source and produce content that engages and activates their target audience.

The enemy
Elegance often coincides with simplicity. The same is true of successful WCM deployments. Sound objectives, concise business requirements, exceptional content and excellence in execution make all the difference. Keep it simple, innovate rapidly, ignore extraneous features, require short development cycles and A/B test to identify the winning ideas. Finally, don’t allow vendors to entice you into paying for more WCM than you need, or sell you on the benefits of mega-projects based on all the fancy bells and whistles they offer. 

‘Must-have’ features
It all starts with a flexible technical framework that accommodates web application development for cost-effective delivery of robust enterprise solutions and lightweight custom web applications. Empowering the non-technical user is the next key capability. ‘On the fly’ page-building and ‘onscreen editing mode’ enable non-technical users to build, modify and manage websites and new web pages without involving programmers or requiring programming skills. High performance and scalability are important to accommodate future growth. Not exactly product features, but highly recommended vendor capabilities include strong application development resources, excellent project management disciplines and 24x7 customer support.

Final words
Summing it up, WCM demand is growing based on its increasing ability to help organizations create a competitive advantage within a rapidly evolving business landscape. And while there are numerous traps to avoid when choosing and deploying WCM solutions, successful clients demonstrate that the benefits are worth the risk. Beware of ‘feature bloat’: twice the functionality at 10 times the price is no bargain. In other words, don’t bite off more than you can chew or you risk returning to square one: shoot the vendor, fire the innocent, promote the uninvolved, write off the cost and ‘rinse and repeat’.