Strategic uses of Web Content Management Systems Sue.Steele@its.monash.edu.au Manager ITS Web Centre

Strategic uses of Web CMS Organisational strategies (and the web) Goals for a CMS Choosing an appropriate CMS Some Monash examples

Strategic uses of Web CMS Organisational strategies (and the web) Goals for a CMS Choosing an appropriate CMS Some Monash examples

Organisational strategies (and the web) Most organisations have an over-arching vision or strategy When it comes to the web, the vision can often be translated in simple terms e.g.: Increase customer base Generate revenue Improve customer service Enhance corporate image Improve staff productivity

Organisational strategies (2) At Monash, for example: Excellence and Diversity (high level strategic vision) Excellence in research and scholarship Excellence in education Excellence in Management Diversity Innovation and Creativity International Focus Fairness Engagement Integrity Self-reliance

Organisational strategies (3) Excellence in education (some goals) foster an environment that attracts the highest quality staff and students continue to enhance teaching and learning by development and application of advances in information technology and apply such advances to increase flexibility in teaching and learning whether on or off-campus

Organisational strategies (4) Information Management Strategy (principles) Corporate Importance: Information is a strategic resource, and will be managed appropriately. In general, university-wide information will be centrally managed to ensure integration and avoid fragmentation. Availability: Information should ideally be accessible (subject to security and acceptable use guidelines) to anybody who needs it, at anytime, anywhere, and anyhow (i.e. on any device).

Organisational strategies (5) Monash Web Strategy The web presence must attract, support and retain the staff, students and partners most likely to help Monash in the attainment of its strategic goals, in the most cost-effective manner Monash brand guidelines Monash web style guide

Strategic uses of Web CMS Organisational strategies (and the web) Goals for a CMS Choosing an appropriate CMS Some Monash examples

Goals for a CMS Enabling web authorship without complex technical knowledge – ease of use Enabling collaborative authoring of web pages, Enabling workflow processes including authorisation processes and audit trails Ensuring consistency of look and feel, Enabling multi channel output – content re-use Enabling simple migration of existing web content into the system, Management of metadata to enable personalisation, searching and syndication, Fitting into an existing IT environment,

Goals for a CMS (2) Not exceeding available budget, Fulfilling legal compliance requirements, Fulfilling archival, retention and disposal schedules, Ensuring timely updating of web content, Enabling raid development and deployment of new sites by non-technical staff, Enforcing centralised control, Enabling devolved administration, Producing accessible web content, Managing a range of content formats, Desktop integration, Supporting a wide range of author environments.

Strategic uses of Web CMS Organisational strategies (and the web) Goals for a CMS Choosing an appropriate CMS Some Monash examples

Choosing an appropriate CMS A CMS should produce web sites that align with organisational goals This sounds easy Develop your web site’s goals Based on site goals, decide the functionality you require from a CMS Evaluate available CMS and choose the best fit

Choosing an appropriate CMS CMS come in all shapes and sizes Some are open source, some cost a great deal of $$$ Some publish stand-alone sites, some are tightly integrated with the published web site Some we don’t even think of as CMS at first

But … Not all web sites have the same goals and needs For example intranets may have very different goals compared to public sites The CMS that delivers on one goal may struggle to deliver on others if the goals are vastly different And we don’t always have a choice

Strategic uses of Web CMS Organisational strategies (and the web) Goals for a CMS Choosing an appropriate CMS Some Monash examples

Victorian College of Pharmacy Goals Eliminate publishing bottleneck Empower content authors to directly publish content Ensure brand compliance and site consistency Approach Template all html content Develop governance model Train authors

Faculty of Information Technology Goals Ensure brand compliance and consistency Centralise content management and delivery Support re-structure Control authorship

Policy Bank Goals Approach Legal compliance Enforce process Ensure regular revision cycle Owning groups to maintain policies Approach Define needs and processes Develop specialised policy and procedure templates Build workflow to support business rules Train staff

Library Intranet Goals Separate public and restricted content Access intranet via my.monash portal Develop scalable university intranet model to support web strategy Allow authorised users to edit portal content via CMS Approach Developed intranet infrastructure and authentication model Integrated portal and CMS Migrated library intranet content Developed portal/intranet components

Finally some different approaches to CMS Archiving web sites Monash events Open web form to submit events Then managed via CMS Arts Faculty news Variation on a Wordpress blog Not part of CMS Seamlessly integrated into Arts web site Monash Cluster Computing Builds on a wiki Good collaboration tool Facilities and Services Uses drupal as a CMS Not following university standards in a number of ways