December 2006

Editorial It's All About the Customer Organizations create content and lots of it. Much of the content we create is for customers. Typically, content management projects are focused on process improvement and reduced costs, all good reasons for content management, but savings will only be sustainable over the long term if we focus on the customer. This issue of The Rockley Report focuses on customer-centric content management. Ann Rockley begins by defining customer-centric content management and later goes on to describe the components of a content framework that underlies a successful customer-centric content management strategy. Bob Boiko discusses how you address the needs of your customers and in a second article outlines how you can manage the customer relationship through content management. Emma Hamer illustrates how Six Sigma can provide powerful reasons for viewing enterprise content management as a strategic business initiative.
What is Customer-Centric Content Management? Customer-centric content management addresses customer needs at every touchpoint, while driving down content costs and improving processes. This article identifies why we need to move to a customer-centric content management focus and provides an outline of its components. More...
Who Wants What Your CM Puts Out? As any good writer or speaker will confirm, if you do not live by the code of your audiences you will die by the sword of their neglect. Audiences consume your information. It is not so hard to begin to understand what they want and how to provide it for them. From this understanding you can begin to craft a deal whereby you give your audiences what they want and in return they help your organization meet its own goals. More... Six (Sigma) Reasons to Embrace Enterprise Content Management Six Sigma is the formal discipline used to rethink and, if necessary, redesign business operations from a customer-centric position to improve business performance and maximize customer satisfaction. Customer-centric Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is all about customer-facing content, regardless of how the content reaches the customer, be it in print, on the Web, via interactive customer support systems, or over the telephone, where "customer" designates both internal and external recipients of content. The commonality between the two fields of practice is, of course, the customer. Often, however, the perception of Content Management is limited in the corporate consciousness to "managing Web content." Six Sigma provides us with plenty of reasons to seriously consider ECM from a much broader perspective. ECM is no longer primarily a tool to manage Web content or technical documentation, but a key business strategy to enhance and improve the customer experience. This article explores six reasons to implement ECM as a strategic business initiative. More...	CM And Customers, Managing Relationships The typical Web redesign results in a better looking more usable site where your information resources are easier to find. But so what? The typical Content Management System (CMS) implementation results in a more efficient process and better organized information. But so what? What does all that really get you? The sad fact is that very few people who install a CMS or redesign a site look beyond these simple justifications to the real reasons why they should organize information and create publications. It's not that these justifications are not important; it's that they are enablers of the more important justifications for managing and delivering content. The ultimate reason your organization manages information is the same reason your organization does any activity-to advance toward its goals. As obvious as this conclusion is, it amazes me how few CM and Web initiatives really address it. In this article, I'll outline one simple, powerful way you can go beyond the immediate efficiency and usability justifications to tie your CM inextricably to the foundations of your organization. More... Building a Content Framework A content framework is a library of content types and metadata along with detailed guidelines for how to use the framework to create specific customer experiences. A content framework provides the underlying concepts, best practices, guidelines and structure to enable you to rapidly design, build, test and deliver an effective customer-centric content experience. This article provides an overview of the components of a content framework. More...