This document provides guidance on selecting a content management system (CMS). It begins with introducing the speaker and their experience. It then outlines the session goals of understanding content considerations and translating them into CMS requirements. The document discusses a basic approach to vendor evaluation, including defining requirements, creating a vendor shortlist, and evaluating vendors. It provides tips for defining content requirements such as documenting processes, organizing needs into categories, and formulating questions. Several categories of common requirements are outlined like content management, publishing, and localization. Example questions are also provided to evaluate how well CMSs meet those requirements.

1. CMS Selection: The “C” is for Content!
Figuring out what you need the CMS to do, and then figuring out if it does.

2. © 2015 SAPIENT CORPORATION
Hi!
I’m Anne Casson. I have 18+ years of experience
strategizing, planning, designing, creating, and
structuring content to function effectively for brands and
consumers.
• Director, Content Strategy, SapientNitro
• Editorial > UX > CMS Practice > Content Strategy
• CMSs, eCommerce platforms, PIMs
• Financial Services, Insurance, Pharma, Retail
• Confab newbie!
@annecasson
© 2015 SAPIENT CORPORATION

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Today’s Session
• Goal & Caveats
• A Basic Approach to Vendor Evaluation
• Defining Requirements
• Typical Categories of Content Considerations
• How They Translate to Requirements
• Q&A

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Goal
• You head for lunch with a better
understanding of content considerations for
your business, and the confidence to
prioritize and then translate those
considerations into CMS requirements
Image source: http://www.quickmeme.com/meme/3tldhx

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Caveats
• This session will be platform agnostic
• It is not meant to replicate a comprehensive
vendor evaluation
• We will not cover all the categories of
requirements that require definition as part of an
evaluation
• We will cover common categories of content
requirements
Image source: h"ps://bymagazinetravel.wordpress.com9

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Let’s dive right in.

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A basic approach to vendor evaluation
1. Define Requirements
Either solo or facilitated by an agency partner, define and document CMS requirements (as well as
outstanding questions). Then prioritize.
2. Vendor Shortlist
Use research reports (E.g.; Forrester or Gartner) to identify 2-3 key vendors that provide a CMS as
part of their portfolio.
3. Vendor Evaluation
Thoroughly analyze each vendor on the shortlist against detailed requirements across specified focus
areas such content management features, workflow capabilities, ability to integrate with external
systems, vendor-provided training and support, etc. Then select one!

8. © 2015 SAPIENT CORPORATION
A basic approach to vendor evaluation
1. Define Requirements
Either solo or facilitated by an agency partner, define and document CMS requirements (as well as
outstanding questions). Then prioritize.
2. Vendor Shortlist
Use research reports (E.g.; Forrester or Gartner) to identify 2-3 key vendors that provide a CMS as
part of their portfolio.
3. Vendor Evaluation
Thoroughly analyze each vendor on the shortlist against detailed requirements across specified focus
areas such content management features, workflow capabilities, ability to integrate with external
systems, vendor-provided training and support, etc. Then select one!

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Where do I start?

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Defining Content Requirements for CMS
1. I require a CMS.
2. It should hold content.
3. It must do templates! Or something.

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Defining Content Requirements for CMS
1. I require a CMS.
2. It should hold content.
3. It must do templates! Or something.

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Defining Content Requirements for CMS
1. Define and document your content needs into a
process flow

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Defining Content Requirements for CMS
1. Define and document your content needs into a
process flow
2. Organize those needs into categories (I’ll get
you started)

14. © 2015 SAPIENT CORPORATION
Defining Content Requirements for CMS
1. Define and document your content needs into a
process flow
2. Organize those needs into categories (I’ll get
you started)
3. Formulate questions designed to determine the
impact of a CMS on those needs

15. © 2015 SAPIENT CORPORATION
Defining Content Requirements for CMS
1. Define and document your content needs into a
process flow
2. Organize those needs into categories (I’ll get
you started)
3. Formulate questions designed to determine the
impact of a CMS on those needs

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Content Processes
What are all the things you do, or want to do, with digital content today?
• Create an article
• Select photography
• Create an infographic
• Enter in to CMS
• Edit, review, revise, preview, approve
• Translate
• Tag (SEO keywords, performance measurement, and related product content)
• Create a FB post and tweet
• Create a related video
• Create captions & transcript
• Publish
• Tweet
• Repurpose as a series of blog posts
• Archive or decommission
BONUS POINTS!
Think about content owners
& roles while you think about
process.

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Basic content process diagram
Create9 Review9 Approve9 Publish9
Author9 Editor9 Legal9 Content9Manager9
Create9 Review9 Approve9 Publish9
Create9 Review9 Approve9 Publish9
Create9 Review9 Approve9 Publish9

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Typical categories of requirements
Category Examples
Content Management content authoring, rich media, preview, site design, testing, tagging
Page Templates consistent layout with some flexibility in component use, sharing across BUs
Publishing versioning, revert, archiving capabilities
Localization multi-lingual content, sharing
Personalization geo-location, pages visited, referrer, tags, time of day, customer profile
Workflow user management, authorization, manage review process, approvals, queues
SEO metadata fields
Search (inside the CMS) author, user group, time stamp, text search
Integration content creation platforms, eCommerce, multi-channel distribution, social media
interaction
Product Support training, services, resources
Reporting analytics

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Formulating questions
Content Management
• Does CMS allow for centrally managed assets? Do all documents, images, animations, and videos
live in one location?
• Can I upload files in bulk?
• Will I have the ability to batch content? (Copy it in bulk and then do something with it, like tag it
or export it.)
• Does CMS support user-generated content, including need to moderate and maintain?
Page Templates
• What level of support is there for page templating?
• How flexible are layout and landing page templates?

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Formulating questions
Publishing
• Is there support for content versioning?
• Is there support for content caching?
• Is there support for preview?
• Is there support for multi-channel delivery?
• Can I do scheduled/time-based publishing?
• Does it support parallel/multiple publishing queues?
Localization
• Does CMS support content reuse on multiple pages, sites, screens, or channels?
• Can I designate nodes of content as “corporate/no edits,” “shared/you can edit”?
• Can content originating at a local level be shared back “up” to the corporate level?
• Can content items and page templates be shared between sites?
• How does the system support translation?

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Formulating questions
Personalization
• Does CMS support content meta information? (Page types, media types, product types, etc.)
• Do I have the ability to identify content dependencies & relationships?
Search (within CMS)
! Does it allow for text-based content search?
! Does it allow for advanced search based on content meta information?
! Does it allow for search based on author or user group?

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Formulating questions
SEO
• How does the CMS help me create search engine-friendly content? (Metadata fields like keywords
and description; heading tags to text, SEO-friendly URLs, populate image alt tags)
• Does the CMS analyze my content and provide recommendations and best practices to improve
my search engine placement?
Workflow
• To what level do I have role-based access control?
• Can workflow trigger external tasks?
• What level of workflow capability comes OOTB?
• Can I customize workflows?

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Q&A

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THANK YOU!