BPM and Content Management

Business Process Management (BPM) has become the new buzz-o-nym to remind all of us CM vendors that "content management" is a process -- not a technology.

Companies need technology -- and they also need flexibility. Flexibility to accomodate their industry, their content and their process. Many CMS's dictate the business process, and I think this is where many CM systems fail. Businesses need content management systems that can adapt industry specific metadata and business logic.

Instead of engineering the "content management" process in one fell swoop, and then cementing a workflow model into code, CMS vendors should design processes that can be changed on the fly and software that's flexible enough to support those changes.

CMS, Content Management, BPM,

RSS and CMS Workflow?

Hhhmmmm. After visting CMSWatch the other day, I discovered this posting about using RSS feeds to manage content workflow.

While I think a good CMS will support RSS/XML aggregation and publishing of content, it seems a little overkill to push/pull pending content to RSS (for that matter any other XML format) when an adequate CMS administration system should provide the means to notify content approvers of pending content... whether it be email or secured Web. What is the point of pushing it to RSS? What about the security implications? In the end, the CMS should manage the workflow and all aspects -- notification, security, approval, categorization, etc...


CMS, Content Management, RSS, Portals

Why Does a Small Business Need a CMS?

Since most small business owners are completely satisfied with opening and publishing their Websites with Frontpage or Dreamweaver, I thought it time to consider exactly what would motivate a small business to port their adequate Website over to a content management system (CMS)?

You know it's time to get a Web CMS when...

Reason #1: Your Web content has become "unruly"

Your site is only as good as it's content, and when your Website become too large with static (.html) pages, the result is pages that become too long (poor readability), out of date and out of context. Links to other internal pages may be inconsistent. In the end, Web users will find it difficult to pinpoint information on the site.


Since CMS's are designed in a content-centric manner, site navigation, categories and site-mapping logically result. Thus, there is less need for redundant site maintence tasks, and users are able to access and intuitively find information.

Reason #2: You need enhanced or improved functionality

Another motivating factor for moving to a CMS, is that your site lacks required functionality. You may wish the site could easily be extended with features like security controls, discussion forums, keyword searching, a feedback system or the ability to easily syndicate content to and from other sources (ie; news feeds).


Since most CMS's are dynamically driven, features like knowledge management (FAQ lists, customer support, CRM, feedback systems, article management, searching, metadata, archiving) and user management (member login, registration, role-based security) are often inclusive to the CMS features. Some content management systems even offer extended features for collaboration (forums, calendar) and e-commerce (shopping carts, payment gateway) initiatives.

Reason #3: You want the experts to publish their own content

Website content doesn't get updated effectively when their are administrative bottlenecks. Often, the person that understands A, doesn't know about B, but knowledge of A and B may be required to get content up-to-date on the site.


Web Content management systems can eliminate the bottlenecks associated with delivery, formatting, and editing of site's content. Content authors, editors, and Web administrators can all "work" on the site instead of waiting for each other.

Reason #4: You want to more frequently update the site -- anytime, anywhere

Many sites go without basic content updates because there are too many technical obstacles along the way. You may find your content is ready for the site, but the site is not ready for your content. There may be issues with FTP access or scheduling that prevent you from updating the site on a consistent basis. For businesses that have a remote or distributed staff, the site is not updated because the Web authoring software (Frontpage, Dreamweaver, FTP, etc..) is not convenient or accessible. Simple updates to static sites are often time consuming and tedious, so the site goes without updates.


A good CMS will simplify the time and procedure required to post a content update. Rather than having to know HTML code, or duplicate existing pages, a CMS will provide an intuitive means to add and edit content. A CMS will let the content provider (author) easily format content, and define when and where to publish the content on the site. Most Web CMS tools provide Web-based tools to manage and update the site. This makes secure site updates possible without the use of desktop Web authoring and FTP software.

Reason #5: You need more consistent templating or navigation

Another obstacle to Website management can be the site's structure or user interface (UI). There may be multiple menus, sections, images or sub-folders that complicate making changes to one area without breaking another.


Most content management systems separate the "design layer" from the "business logic" layer. This enables you to update site content without creating an entirely new Web page with images, menus and sitewide links. Often CMS navigation (menus) are dynamically driven which means menu labels and related links may get automatically updated when you add new content. Since design and content is separated, future updates to the look-and-feel of the site can be made without having to "redo" or lose all of the content.

Reason #5: You need improved search engine rank (SEO)

Your site's .html pages may be indexed by Yahoo! and Google, but you want to drive traffic based on specific keywords and phrases that are in line with your marketing objectives. The quality and format of your site's content is critical to optimizing your site's placement in the search engines.


Many CMS tools focus on SEO and have search engine friendly tricks "built-in". Some of these SEO tricks include, page titles, meta tags (keywords and description), descriptive hyperlinks, permalinks and optimized filenames that are automatically generated from your site's content. By optimizing each page, search engines can more accurately read and index your site, resulting in better search engine placement.

CMS, Content Management, PortalApp, Portals

On-line Google Sitemap Generator

Heard about Google's new sitemap program?

On June 2, 2005, Google announced the beta of their new service, Google Sitemaps. This provides Webmasters with a method to map site URLs into an XML based format. On some regular interval, Google will read the sitemap .xml file, to better understand the exact content of the site, and what has been recently updated on the site.

Basically, you generate a sitemap in the correct format using, and the update your sitemap when you make changes to your site. The sitemap.xml file you submit to Google must adhere to certain guidelines that Google has established. This "set of rules" is provided in the format of an .XSD file (XML Shema Definition) on the Google site: Google Sitemaps .XSD. Once the sitemap .xml file is built, copy (or FTP) it to your Web server, then go to http://www.google.com/webmasters/sitemaps/ to submit your sitemap to Google.

Try Iatek's new beta sitemap generator:
http://www.portalapp.com/google-sitemap.asp OR
http://www.my-google-sitemap.com/

Google, Google Sitemap

10 Traits of Highly Successful Forums

When you check out big-boards.com you'll find a list of the most popular community (A.K.A forum, bulletin board,BB,etc..) sites and I am sure that knowledge hungry readers like yourself would like to be to lucky as to get this type of traffic to your own Web doms.

So exactly what makes these communities so special? Is it the community software ? Is it the moderators? topics? incentives? activity? quality of the content? cool functionality? design?

Well -- IMO here is what's important. Please help me to complete or re-order this list:

1) Activity - Without recent posts no one will stay.

2) Incentives - Why should you post here? Good communities give members a good reason to take part.

3) Clarity - Forums and descriptions should be clear so there is no confusion as to where to post.

4) Eye Appeal - Being attractive helps.

5) Diversity - Forums and topics should cover a range of subjects with context to your site.

6) Functionality - Good communities also provide PM, member profiles, avatars, sub-forums, etc..

7) Moderation - Expert moderators that stay on top of posts help keep content accurate and relevant.

8) ??

9) ???

10) ???

PhpBB, Forums

Content Management Thoughts for June 2005

I totally disagree with one of Jeff Veen's comments about what a CMS should do and be:

"Users of a public web site should never — never — be presented with a way to log into the CMS. Every organization I have ever worked with has kept the content management interface completely separate from their public-facing Web site, yet almost every open source CMS mixes them together. These systems provide a mechanism for anyone to create an account and login to the CMS directly from the site being managed. Yes, I know I can edit the template and take this out. But the only sites that really require this functionality seem to be open source projects; this is an indication that you’re badly misinterpreting your audience."

Huh? Say what? Who is misinterpreting "audience" here?

Please clarify this for me.

A user of a public Web site is a member of the audience -- and yes -- that same user may also be a content provider (or content administrator, or content editor). Let the CMS authenticate the user accordingly -- But removing login prompts from the UI? I think Jeff is badly misinterpreting usability.

CMS, Content Management, PortalApp, Portals