Ever been invited to a party at a friend’s home? Food, drinks and music is all that is there. However, a good host knows how to make guests feel at home, foresees their preferences, and helps break the ice between the guests. Everything looks effortless.
It’s the same with Content Management System (CMS). At the face of it, they are nothing more than computer applications that help you upload and manage the content for your website. Yet, they can be so much more with apt content governance.
Defined as the day-to-day management of content delivery and style, as well as the long-term execution of content strategy tactics, content governance is a rather dynamic concept. It can help create more opportunities for enterprises to connect with customers looking for information, entertainment, or opportunity. However, for that to happen, good content needs to meet intuitive design.
Choosing the right CMS
Whether you are a bootstrapping startup or an established global enterprise, a well-designed and user-friendly CMS is a non-negotiable asset. Today every business needs a content strategy that aims to create a consistent customer experience across channels. Enterprises need to be clear about how their content should look, behave and interact with customers. At the same time, people within the organization need to be empowered to make strategic content-related decisions.
The first step – and perhaps, the most important one is to choose a CMS that complements your organization’s needs and resources. From editorial guidelines and style guides, to content workflows and archiving standards, you need to consider not just the functionality of the CMS, but also its usability. Can the number of clicks to complete common tasks be reduced? How about cutting down on the number of pages and tabs? Is there any way to increase the overall speed and responsiveness of the CMS? Because if the average employee cannot use the system with ease, there’s little to be gained from the investment.
Not everybody can work with HTML or web design. Naturally, the IT department is often inundated with requests for changes to be made to the company website. Imagine if website management didn’t call for any technical knowledge. Not only would it help enterprises get the content online faster but also make administration stress-free, sans behind-the-scenes technical details.
Take Episerver CMS, for instance. Enterprises across 30 countries have found that administration becomes as easy as using a word-processing program with this user-friendly CMS. In other words, everyday tasks such as publishing new content, managing the site, adding users, creating workflows, and updating security settings can be done with simple point-and-click interfaces.
Related Whitepaper
https://suyati.com/whitepaper/episerver-cms-right-choice-business/
Anywhere, anytime
In the era of digital business, accessibility is as critical as efficiency. Even though technological advances lead to richer interfaces, enterprises stand to gain only if the CMS can ensure that the right content reaches the right target audience, at the right time, through the right delivery channels.
In order to meet this new-age challenge, Episerver brought together digital commerce, content and marketing on a single platform. Unlike the traditional on-premises CMS, it runs on the cloud, making it effortless for on-the-move authors, editors, content curators, marketers and other stakeholders to upload and curate content.
Personal touch
When it comes to content management, one size cannot fit all. Customization is the name of the game as enterprises need to cater to individual customer needs. Now, that’s easier said than done! The solution lies in a responsive web design that allows for responsive content, and corresponds with specific customer behaviors.
Thanks to machine learning, an ‘intelligent’ CMS can pick up behavioral patterns of each website visitor and offer real-time, relevant content and recommendations. Leveraging the power of Microsoft Azure, Episerver has been paving the way in delivering dynamic digital experiences to customers.
The big picture
For any CMS to work effectively, all team members need to have a clear understanding of the organization’s content ecosystem. No matter what the channels and content types, everyone needs to be heading in the same direction.
With time, an enterprise’s goals can change. It’s important to work with a CMS that lets you review and rebuild your content strategy to meet the new realities of business. Say, you want to roll out multilingual websites to tap into the regional markets. Using a system like Episerver gives you the option of advanced language capabilities, making it possible to compare languages, copy content between languages, as well as look at translation services.
Content governance works best when the system is flexible enough to facilitate new modules in the existing repertoire. Enterprises should be able to pick and choose a given functionality as and when the need arises. An intelligently-designed CMS makes room for such flexibility, assisting enterprises to stay in tune with the big picture.
In conclusion
The biggest differentiator between a good CMS and a not-so-good one is the design. Sloppy content maintenance, errors in published pages, and delay in completion of tasks, are all signs of faulty design.
What enterprises need today is a responsive CMS design, which can help save time and money. The focus is as much on a stress-free experience for CMS users within the enterprise as it is on customer satisfaction.
Talk to us about your CMS’s performance, or if you have any questions on choosing the right CMS for your business.
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