DoingMedia

(The following is derived from conference proposal I submitted.)

Implementing a web content management system can be a long and painful process. By the time you send an RFP, review vendors, make a selection, refine requirements and specs, configure the tool, develop custom functionality and, well, everything else, you’re done. You’re really finished! When you hear “WCM” in the hallways you flinch. The last thing you want to do is “operate” the damn thing.

But who knows more about how the system works, where the ghosts are, who has th best grease to get the wheels turning? Face it; people will turn to you.

The “last thing” you will want to do is not just operate but plan how you will operate. Unless you want to be the eternal go-to person for all things WCM you have to have a plan for day-to-day operations. Creating an operations plan will take weeks, maybe months, of work but it will save you countless headaches and not a few gray hairs.

Your operations plan will boil down to three key components:

• Services
• Staffing
• Setting Expectations

Services are the WIIFM

The services component is like it sounds: what services will you provide to your WCM community (business and IT). What’s in it for them (WIIFM)? That service set is birthed from clearly defining the processes around your web content management implementation. These will likely include:

• The process for the content you manage (author, edit, review, approve, publish)
• Processes to maintain, modify and upgrade the WCM system
• Processes around users, groups and security

There may be other processes specific to your environment like translation or workflow to print.

Staffing is people.

Who, besides you, will do what needs to be done? What business roles will they play? Who will these people report to? What skills do they have or need? How many are needed today and in the next 12-24 months?

Setting expectations is crucial.

Communication about your operations plan, at all its stages, will set the stage for how things will play out down the road. Buy in from all levels will work in your favor.

• At the worker bee level they will know that someone will be there to help them through this significant change in how they do business.
• At your immediate manager level they will get the correct impression that you actually know what you’re doing. That works for them (to report up) and for you (at review time.)
• At management levels above your immediate unit the perception will (or should be) that you are managing a new, critical business function.
• And laterally, IT (or business) units; depending on your situation; will understand their role and importance in this new business function.

The way you establish your “cube cred” is to execute the plan. When someone requests a new authoring template you fire off the processes to deliver that service:

• Request Intake/Triage Process
• Authoring Template Creation/Modification Process
• New Functionality Training Process
• Operational Reporting Process

Not that you want to become the McDonalds of WCM but it’s the same formula:

• Take the order
• Drop the order in the bag
• Pass the bag through the window (Have a nice day!)
• Close out the register at night to see how sales went

It has be a simple formula to be successful. If your operations are bureaucratic, form laden and sluggish then WCM stinks, or at least it will acquire that odor in a short time.

Enough is enough.

Create enough process, provide enough service, staff enough people and provide enough reports so that your operations are “enough” for your business. Most WCM users do not work where content is the core of the business. They’re bankers or lawyers or scholars or doctors or manufacturers. So, you’ll want lightweight, agile operations so the rest if the business doesn’t get distracted by the everyday operations of WCM.

Establishing a strong operations function for web content management makes the post-implementation job easier and quickly demonstrates the business value of this significant investment.