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CMS

CMS Types

CMS Types
There are three major types of CMS: offline processing, online processing, and hybrid systems. These terms describe the deployment pattern for the CMS in terms of when presentation templates are applied to render content output from structured content.
 
Offline processing
 
These systems pre-process all content, applying templates before publication to generate Web pages. Since pre-processing systems do not require a server to apply the templates at request time, they may also exist purely as design-time tools. 

Content Management Systems (CMS)

Content Management Systems (CMS)
In order to efficiently manage content, a content management system is required. A CMS is a tool that enables a variety of (centralised) technical and (de-centralised) non technical staff to create, edit, manage and finally publish (in a number of formats) a variety of content (such as text, graphics, video, documents etc), whilst being constrained by a centralised set of rules, process and workflows that ensure coherent, validated electronic content.
 
A Content Management System (CMS) has the following benefits: 
  1. allows for a large number of people to contribute to and share stored data;
  2. increased ability for collaboration;
  3. facilitates document control, auditing, editing, and timeline management;
  4. controls access to data, based on user roles. User roles define what information each user can view or edit;
  5. aids in easy storage and retrieval of data;
  6. reduces repetitive duplicate input;
  7. documents workflow tasks coupled with messaging which allow for formal review and approval of documents;
  8. the ability to track and manage multiple versions of a single instance of content.

Content Management Systems Review - Confluence

Content Management Systems Review - Confluence
Confluence means "a coming together" and has been helping workers do just that since 2004. Starting out as an enterprise wiki, it has evolved through the years into an all-round collaboration tool. Confluence is available as a SaaS or hosted product, powered by Java. It is the Atlassian product and it is designed to work with other Atlassian products.
 
Confluence has the widest spread application of Atlassian's products, it could be applied in almost any environment. It is free to open source institutions and non-profits. Pricing starts at just a charity donation of US$ 10 for hosted smaller installations for less than 10 users.

Content Management Systems Review - Open Text - ECM Suite - Records Management and Archiving

Content Management Systems Review - Open Text - ECM Suite - Records Management and Archiving
In my last post on Open Text ECM Suite Content Lifecycle Management group of products, I mentioned that this group consists of document management, imaging, records management, and archiving. I described document management in my previous post and I described imaging solution yesterday.
 
Today, I am going to describe records management and archiving solutions of Content Lifecycle Management group of products.
 
Records Management
 
OpenText Records Management (formerly Livelink ECM - Records Management) delivers records management functions and capabilities to provide full lifecycle document and records management for the entire organization. This product allows your organization to file all corporate holdings according to the organizational policies, thereby ensuring regulatory compliance and reducing the risks associated with audit and litigation. Records management can manage content in a number of different repositories.

Content Management Systems Review - Vasont

Vasont is a component content management system. It has powerful capabilities to store, update, search, and retrieve content. It offers version control, integrated workflows, project management, collaborative review, translation management, and reporting to manage content and business processes.

Vasont provides opportunities for multi-channel publishing and editing in your favorite applications. In addition, it provides an advanced editorial environment built to maximize, manage, and measure content reuse. Unicode support enables multi-language implementations. It also integrates the ability to process content with reusable, event driven business logic as an integral part of the system.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Alfresco

Content Management Systems Reviews - Alfresco
In my post about open source content management systems (CMS), I mentioned that Alfresco, Drupal, Joomla, Apache Jackrabbit, Liferay are just few of the open source CMS. In this post, I will describe Alfresco which is very popular CMS.
 
Alfresco is an enterprise content management system for Microsoft Windows and Unix like operating systems. There are two types of Alfresco: Alfresco Community Edition and Alfresco Enterprise Edition. Alfresco Community Edition is free software. Alfresco Enterprise Edition is commercially and proprietary licensed open source for an enterprise. Its design is geared towards users who require a high degree of modularity and scalable performance.
 
It includes a content repository, an out-of-the-box web portal framework for managing and using standard portal content, a CIFS interface that provides file system compatibility on Microsoft Windows and Unix like operating systems, a web content management system capable of virtualizing webapps and static sites via Apache Tomcat, Lucene indexing, and Activiti workflow. The Alfresco modular architecture is developed using Java technology.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - Automatic Classification

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - Automatic Classification
Documentum has two tools for automatic classification: Content Intelligence Services (CIS) and EMC Captiva Dispatcher. The subject of my today’s post is Content Intelligence Services (CIS. In my next post, I will describe EMC Captiva Dispatcher.
 
Content Intelligence Services (CIS) is an extension to the EMC Documentum content management platform that enables automatic classification and categorization of content in the Documentum repository. Its benefit is well organized, classified, and categorized content. With CIS, content is parsed and analyzed and classification rules are applied. The results of the classification can then be used for categorization as keywords to populate content metadata.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - Automatic Classification - Captiva Dispatcher

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - Automatic Classification - Captiva Dispatcher
In my last post, I mentioned that Documentum has two tools for automatic classification: Content Intelligence Services (CIS) and EMC Captiva Dispatcher. I also described Content Intelligence Services (CIS) tool. In this my post, I am going to describe EMC Captiva Dispatcher.
 
EMC Captiva Dispatcher delivers high speed automatic content classification, data extraction, and routing documents. With Dispatcher, companies are able to scan multiple batches of structured, semi-structured, and unstructured content within a single flow, without a need for separator sheets, barcodes, or patch codes. By combining EMC Captiva Dispatcher with the Captiva InputAsset Intelligent enterprise capture platform, you can scan, classify, extract, and deliver data from almost any kind of electronic or paper document, often without a need for manual sorting or data entry.
 
The result is cost reduction and business process optimization which are measures that can help save time and money while increasing an ability to manage the flow of incoming documents.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - CenterStage

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - CenterStage
In my last post on Documentum, I described one of its collaboration products - eRoom. In today's post, I am going to describe another collaboration product of Documentum - CenterStage.
 
CenterStage delivers the benefits of enterprise content management, advanced search, and collaboration tools on a single architecture.
It allows to:
 
  • manage and visually organize project, team, and corporate work information; 
  • launch projects with space and content templates; 
  • work with team members on documents in public and private workspaces; 
  • find information wherever it resides; 
  • gain access to this information from anywhere.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - Compliance Manager

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - Compliance Manager
Controlled content often exists as combination of paper documents, collected in binders and distributed manually and electronic files routed for editing and approval using email. Paper documents are a burden to store, even more difficult to share widely, and they can quickly can become obsolete. Electronic content reduces the storage and distribution problem but as emails circulate their attachments may be revised resulting in different versions in use across an organization.
 
EMC Documentum Compliance Manager offers an automated, integrated online environment for creating, reviewing, revising, approving, distributing, and auditing controlled content.
 
Compliance Manager helps companies to achieve compliance with external regulations such as FDA 21 CFR Part 11 and internal policies while maintaining high product and service quality standards. It replaces unreliable and inefficient processes with streamlined processes for review, approval, and distribution, and thus reducing the time and effort employees managing controlled content.
 
By helping organizations meet quality objectives and comply with internal and external regulations and standards, Compliance Manager can help you to reduce operating costs, minimize waste, errors, and production delays and deliver products to market faster with greater confidence.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - Content Management Platform

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - Content Management Platform
Documentum is a content management system produced by EMC Corporation. It is the unified platform for storing a virtually unlimited range of content types within a shared repository. It allows to manage all types of content including documents, photos, video, images, e-mail, web pages, XML-tagged documents, etc.
 
The core of Documentum is a repository in which the content is stored securely under compliance rules. This repository appears as a unified environment, although content may reside on multiple servers and physical storage devices within a distributed environment.
 
Documentum provides a suite of services which include content management, web content management, digital asset management, collaboration, content classification, email management, input management, business solutions (forms, invoices, reports, etc.), Information Rights Management, records management, document control, archiving, etc. It also includes xml content repository component which allows dynamic publishing.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - Content Transformation Services

In my last post on Documentum, I described Digital Asset Manager and mentioned that Content Transformation Services product of Documentum is very useful in conjunction with Digital Asset Manager. Content Transformation Services product of Documentum is useful also for other content management goals. In this post, I am going to describe Documentum Content Transformation Services (CTS).
 
Content is typically authored in one formal (such as Microsoft Word) then converted or transformed into a different format (such as HTML or PDF) that is more appropriate for the content reuse. This is a slow process and requires specialized knowledge not possessed by every user. Documentum CTS automates the creation of re-use ready content through pre-defined format transformations that can occur on demand or systematically.
 
The CTS suite enhances these processes and improves efficiencies by providing additional content intelligence, such as thumbnail and storyboard support, while shielding business users from the technical complexities of converting files from one format to another.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - Digital Asset Manager

I started to describe Documentum in my last post. I described Enterprise Content Management Platform and Documentum Webtop. The subject of my today's post is Documentum Digital Asset Manager.
 
Documentum Digital Asset Manager (DAM) allows to manage all digital assets, rich media, and traditional documents in one interface. It provides enhanced capabilities to effectively manage rich media in addition to the complete set of enterprise content management capabilities.
 
DAM is a part of a total Documentum Enterprise Content Management Platform. It can be used to:
  • implement rapid changes to digital assets while maintaining consistency and control; 
  • repurpose rich media regardless of platform or file format; 
  • perform fast search, retrieval, and delivery of digital assets; 
  • deliver enhanced media handling capabilities to your organization. 

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - Documentum for SharePoint

Documentum has few products for SharePoint users. These products are: Documentum Repository Services for SharePoint, My Documentum for SharePoint, Documentum SourceOne for SharePoint. In this post, I am going to describe these products.
 
Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - Documentum for SharePoint
Documentum Repository Services for SharePoint
 
Documentum Repository Services for SharePoint allows organizations to manage SharePoint Content and leverage it by re-routing content automatically to the EMC Documentum repository. Repository Services for SharePoint aggregates content from disparate SharePoint sites, providing centralized management and the ability to apply compliance, business, and operational control to SharePoint content without impacting the end user. SharePoint does not show that content is being managed by Documentum and SharePoint users and tools are not affected.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - eRoom

Collaboration has become very important in a work place. It increases efficiency and productivity of employees. Documentum eRoom is one of collaboration tools available on the market.
 
Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - eRoom

 It is a web-based shared workspace where team members can store project content, communicate and share ideas, assign task, and manage deliverables using a shared project context. It improves knowledge sharing, decision making, and problem solving.. eRoom integrates well with Microsoft Office, Microsoft Project, and other desktop applications. Files can be imported from Microsoft Project into eRoom.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - Federated Search

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - Federated Search
Documentum Federated Search is a suite of products designed to solve the problem of finding information quickly. Federated Search Services is comprised of two server-based components, the Federated Search Server and Federated Search Adapter Packs, and two client-level options – Webtop Federated Search and Discovery Manager. These options enable organizations to quickly search for information stored in a myriad of sources and data formats.
 
Federated Search Server
 
Federated Search Server manages federated searches through a query broker and source adapters to provide relevant results in real time while leveraging the local index and security permissions of each source being queried. The result: the most relevant and secure real-time search results which are organized in an intuitive manner.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - Records Management

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - Records Management

EMC Documentum Record Management Solution helps organizations to comply with legal and regulatory requirements for documents retention. This solution allows to capture and manage records generated in the company allowing for its automation. It also expands classic records management with features that track and dispose of non-records in order to reduce discovery costs and mitigate legal risks.
 
Records management solution is fully unified with Documentum content management platform.
 
Key Benefits
 
Risk Mitigation – reduce your content liability by disposing of records and non-records once they fulfilled all legal and regulatory and compliance obligations.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - XML Platform for Content Reuse

Content Management Systems Reviews - Documentum - XML Platform for Content Reuse
Designed for content oriented applications such as publishing, archiving, information mashups, regulatory filings, collaboration and knowledge management, XDB provides a scalable architecture to warehouse content in an application-neutral format, not dependent on any application for information retrieval.
 
XML-based Documentum platform reduces costs by enabling technical writers to reuse rather than reinvent content. You can:
  • manage content at a granular level thus increasing the likelihood that a particular piece of content can be used without modification;
  • automate the assignment of attributes to content so that writers spend less time describing content;
  • leverage advanced search techniques to enable writers to easily find, reuse, and repurpose content;
  • manage images and other types of rich media in a common content repository;
  • separate content from structure and format, using external DTD and schemas to control the document structure;
  • leverage automatic transformation and publishing capabilities to package information for different delivery channels;
  • significantly reduce costs associated with localization and translation efforts on only the content that has changed.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Drupal

Content Management Systems Reviews - Drupal
Drupal is a free and open-source content management system (CMS) and content management framework (CMF) written in PHP and distributed under the GNU General Public License. It is used as a back-end system for at least 1.5% of all websites worldwide ranging from personal blogs to corporate, political, and government sites. It is also used for content management and business collaboration.
 
he standard release of Drupal, known as Drupal core, contains basic features common to content management systems. These include user account registration and maintenance, menu management, RSS-feeds, page layout customization, and system administration. The Drupal core installation can be used as a brochureware website, a single- or multi-user blog, an Internet forum, or a community website providing for user-generated content.

Content Management Systems Reviews - FatWire

Content Management Systems Reviews - FatWire
FatWire Software is web content and experience management software which powers web presence for organizations, allowing them to deliver relevant customer content, build community engagement and drive site stickiness and loyalty.
 
FatWire Software was a privately held company selling web content management system software. It was acquired by Oracle Corporation in 2011, and its products rolled up into Oracle's WebCenter product lines.
 
FatWire solutions are powered by content server, which combines complete business user control over the creation and presentation of content with a scalable architecture for dynamic content delivery and multi-site deployment.
 
 

Content Management Systems Reviews - Joomla

Content Management Systems Reviews - Joomla
Joomla is a free and open source content management framework (CMF) for publishing content on the World Wide Web and intranets. It includes features such as page caching, RSS feeds, printable versions of pages, news flashes, blogs, polls, search, and support for language internationalization.
 
Over 9,200 free and commercial extensions are available from the official Joomla! Extension Directory, and more are available from other sources. It is estimated to be the second most used CMS on the Internet after WordPress. Joomla won the Packt Publishing Open Source Content Management System Award in 2006, 2007, and 2011.
 
You can think of a Joomla! website as bringing together three elements:
  • your content, which is mainly stored in a database;
  • your template, which controls the design and presentation of your content (such as fonts, colors and layout);
  • Joomla! which is the software that bring the content and the template together to produce webpages.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Open Text

Content Management Systems Reviews - Open Text
Open Text Corporation is the software company which provides enterprise content management (ECM) software solutions. This software combines content lifecycle management, business processes, and collaboration. It includes the underlying platform to manage most content types, ranging from user generated content in social networks to data in enterprise resource management systems. These ECM technologies can be used to address end user engagement, business agility, and cost and risk reduction.
 
Open Text sells software licenses including support and maintenance, offers worldwide consulting services, software training, and individual support packages.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Open Text - ECM Suite

Content Management Systems Reviews - Open Text - ECM Suite
In my first post about Open Text, I mentioned that Open Text Corporation is the software company which provides enterprise content management (ECM) software solutions. I described Open Text Solutions in general. In my today's post, I am going to start describing Open Text ECM Suite.
 
The Open Text ECM Suite integrates multiple technologies for document management, records management, web content management, portal, digital asset management, email management, and content lifecycle management. Other components include electronic discovery, auto-classification, document capture, document imaging and digital faxing solutions. The suite provides functions for team collaboration, forums, blogs, wikis, and real-time instant messaging and collaboration. These functions are connected through business process management tools to each other and to other business applications and processes.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Open Text - ECM Suite - Auto Classification

Content Management Systems Reviews - Open Text - ECM Suite - Auto Classification
For records managers and others responsible for building and enforcing classification policies, retention schedules, and other aspects of records management plan, the problem with traditional, manual classification methods can be overwhelming.
 
Content needs to be classified or understood in order to determine why it must be retained, how long it must be retained, and when it can be dispositioned. Managing the retention and disposition of information reduces litigation risk, reduces discovery and storage costs, and ensures that organizations maintain regulatory compliance.
 
Classification is the last thing end-users want (or are able) to do. Users see the process of sorting records from transient content as intrusive, complex, and counterproductive. On top of this, the popularity of mobile devices and social media applications has effectively fragmented the content authoring market and has eliminated any chance of building consistent classification tools into end-user applications.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Open Text - ECM Suite - Content Lifecycle Management

Content Management Systems Reviews - Open Text - ECM Suite - Content Lifecycle Management
In my last post about Open Text, I started describing Open Text ECM Suite. The subject of my today's post is Open Text ECM Suite - Content Lifecycle Management. Content Lifecycle Management includes document management, imaging, records management, and archiving.
 
Managing, controlling, and securing content is critical to an organization’s overall information governance strategy. OpenText ECM Suite, Content Lifecycle Management gives organizations ECM solutions to manage content throughout its entire lifecycle.
 
Features
 
Fully featured, highly scalable, web-based document management provides a secure, single repository for organizing and sharing enterprise content.
 
Workflow automates processes, such as change requests and approval, for accuracy and consistency. Processes can be designed according to corporate or regulatory standards.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Open Text - ECM Suite - Document Management

Content Management Systems Reviews - Open Text - ECM Suite - Document Management
Open Text ECM Suite - Document Management (formerly Livelink ECM - Document Management) is a document management solution that provides full lifecycle management for any type of electronic document. Document Management provides a single, authoritative repository for storing and organizing electronic documents. Web based interface and open architecture make it easy to deploy.
 
It is the powerful, fully integrated content management system that delivers the essential capabilities for managing documents. You can store, organize, access, and manage documents in an organized, hierarchical structure. Version control and audit trail functions ensure accuracy and currency. Powerful search functionality allows users to easily find what they need when they need it. Classification and metadata identify content authors and stakeholders so users can quickly find subject matter experts.
 
Documents from across entire organization can be consolidated within a centralized web-based interface. Each user has access to a personal workspace which can be customized to suit individual preferences and enhance the overall user experience. By allowing users to organize information intuitively, they can quickly access what they need.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Open Text - ECM Suite - Knowledge Management

Content Management Systems Reviews - Open Text - ECM Suite - Knowledge Management
OpenText Knowledge Management (formerly Livelink ECM - Knowledge Management) is a comprehensive knowledge management solution that enables organizations to search, classify, navigate, and collect all of their corporate knowledge in a single, secure, web based repository.
 
OpenText Knowledge Management works with OpenText Document Management or OpenText Content Lifecycle Management, leveraging the power of these content repositories and adding functionality that manages all knowledge from a single interface, regardless of originating source. Open Text Knowledge Management is a completely integrated, web based solution that delivers end-to-end, closed-loop management for all of your corporate knowledge assets.
 
Knowledge Management enables employees to perform their daily work more efficiently and accurately. The benefits of a centralized knowledge repository and library services ensures that you are working with the most up-to-date information. Specialized tools enable you to identify topic experts; quickly finding the best information resources from anywhere in your organization.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Open Text - ECM Suite - Portal

Content Management Systems Reviews - Open Text - ECM Suite - Portal
OpenText Portal (formerly Vignette Portal) is a part of OpenText ECM Web Content Management Solution. It enables you to create web sites with rich content and applications, enabling customized users interactions. It provides a highly scalable and efficient means of aggregating content and applications for use across a variety of initiatives inside and outside the firewall.
 
It enables users to combine web services, repository data, and user interfaces in meaningful ways to create valuable business applications without IT help. Users can create web pages by simply selecting portlets from OpenText’s library of over 200 portlets.
 
Portal layout management allows users to easily apply a variety of page layouts via visually intuitive tools. There is interaction between portlets. Pages refresh only as needed. Portlets load separately, so the end user does not have to wait until the entire page loads. Pages are dynamic and load quickly.
 

Content Management Systems Reviews - Open Text - ECM Suite - Web Content Management

Content Management Systems Reviews - Open Text - ECM Suite - Web Content Management
The following products deliver the Web Content Management component of the OpenText ECM Suite:
 
OpenText Web Experience Managementis a comprehensive solution for managing content in high performance, scalability, and transaction-oriented web applications.
 
OpenText Portalworks in tandem with OpenText Web Experience Management to allow you to rapidly create mashups and composite applications built on Web services, repository data, and user interfaces.
 
OpenText Dynamic Portalfor Third-Party Portals works in tandem with OpenText Web Experience Management to allow you to publish content directly into portals such as Liferay, IBM WebSphere, or Oracle WebCenter.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Oracle UCM

Content Management Systems Reviews - Oracle UCM
Oracle Universal Content Management (UCM), formerly Stellent, is a component CMS and supports the entire content lifecycle. Component CMS manages content at a component level rather than at the document level.
 
Oracle UCM manages the entire spectrum of unstructured content - from documents, graphics, and Web pages to scanned images, e-mail, and records.
 
Oracle UCM converts over 500 file formats to web-ready formats such as HTML, XML, GIF and PDF, and delivers content via web sites, desktops, syndication feeds, mobile devices, and web services.
 
It integrates with Microsoft Office, Outlook, AutoCAD, Lotus Notes. It includes multi-site web content management, document and image management, digital asset management, records and retention management, personalized content delivery, categorization, portal integration, SharePoint integration, document capture and scanning integration, content conversion and transformation.

Content Management Systems Reviews - SDL Tridion

Content Management Systems Reviews - SDL Tridion
SDL Tridion is the leading web content management system. This solution enables organisations to deliver a consistent, interactive and highly targeted customer experience, in multiple languages, across multiple web sites and channels including email, mobile sites and print.
 
In addition to content creation, management, translation, delivery and archiving solutions, SDL Tridion provides brand management, targeted communication, multi-channel delivery and visitor interaction capabilities.

Content Management Systems Reviews - Sharepoint

Content Management Systems Reviews - Sharepoint
First launched in 2001, Microsoft SharePoint is typically associated with content a management system, but it is actually a much broader platform of web technologies, capable of being configured into a wide range of solution areas.
 
SharePoint is designed as a broad, central application platform for multiple purpose. SharePoint's multi-purpose design allows for managing of intranet portals, extranets, websites, document management, collaboration spaces, social tools, enterprise search, business intelligence, project management, workflow automation, and core infrastructure for third-party solutions.

Content Management Systems Reviews - TeamSite

Content Management Systems Reviews - TeamSite
In my previous posts, I described component content management. A component content management system (CCMS) is used for managing component content.
 
A component content management system (CCMS) is a content management system that manages content at a granular or component level rather than at the document level. There are few of them in today's market including Interwoven, Documentum, AuthorIT, DocZone, Vasont, SiberLogic, Trisoft, Astoria, Tridion. In this my post, I am going to describe Interwoven.
 
This system is made by Interwoven company which was purchased by Autonomy which in turn was purchased by HP. Autonomy TeamSite is a market-leading content management system for content authoring, site design and layout, content targeting, advanced analytics, workflows, and archiving.
 
Interwoven TeamSite® is the industry’s most advanced Web Content Management System. For enterprises, TeamSite powers corporate and ecommerce web sites, employee intranets, support portals, marketing microsites, and extranets as well as e-mail, wireless, and print.

Document Management in SharePoint

Document Management in SharePoint
Document management in SharePoint includes documents life cycle from their creation to archiving. The system allows to store and organize documents so that they can be easily found and shared by users thus enabling collaboration.
 
When organizations do not have any kind of formal document management system in place, content is often created and saved in an unmanaged and decentralized way on scattered file shares and individual hard disk drives. This makes it hard for employees to find, share, and collaborate effectively on documents. This also makes it difficult for organizations to use the valuable business information and data.

Electronic Signature and Content Management

At this time of digital transformation, it is difficult to talk about managing content management without talking about using electronic signatures. E-signatures make it possible to create digital workflows, help to maximize ROI from content management, and enhance productivity, compliance, security, and analytics.

Quite a few content management tools include e-signature implementation such as SharePoint, Box, and other content management systems (CMS).

Electronic signatures, digital business, and content management are interdependent. Without e-signature capability, documents continue to be printed for signing, then photocopied, shipped, corrected, imaged back into the system, archived, and shredded. 90% of the time and cost of labor dedicated to managing paper can be saved by using e-signatures. There are also other benefits of using e-signatures such as faster decision making, shorter sales cycles, and improved customer experience.

Enhancing SharePoint Through Information Governance

Enhancing SharePoint Through Information Governance
According to Microsoft, every day for the past five years 20,000 new SharePoint users have been added. As one of the most popular departmental content management solutions, SharePoint silos are now littering the organizational landscape with little or no centralized control. Enterprises are seeking to do more with less, leverage what they already own, and take advantage of SharePoint 2010 functionality.
 
Technologies are available to tag content, classify it to organizational taxonomies, preserve and protect information through the automatic identification of records and privacy data, and as a migration tool. These building blocks work well in the SharePoint environment and add functionality transparently to the end user.
 
Building Block #1: Metadata
 
An enterprise metadata repository is the primary building block in the framework, enabling the proactive management of content. This component is tightly integrated with the management of content life-cycle. Enterprises struggle with managing content, stemming from the end user's inability to accurately and consistently tag content for search, storage, records identification and archiving purposes. Most organization still focus on relying on the end user for appropriate tagging. Only by eliminating the human factor can enterprise metadata management be achieved and subsequently the content life-cycle management.

Enterprise Content Management as SaaS

Software as a service (SaaS) is a software application delivery model where a software vendor develops a web-native software application and hosts and operates (either independently or through a third-party) the application for use by its customers over the Internet.

Two factors are driving the movement to SaaS. One is the significant technical improvements over the last decade. Computer hardware costs like CPUs, storage and network bandwidth have dropped significantly. In the last two years, memory prices have fallen by almost 75% and CPU prices have fallen by 50%, while capabilities like processing speed and capacity have increased significantly.

Headless CMS

A headless content management system, or headless CMS, is a back-end only content management system (CMS) built as a content repository that makes content accessible via a RESTful API for display on any device.

The term “headless” comes from the concept of chopping the “head” which is the front end, i.e. the web site off the “body” (the back end, i.e. the content repository).

Whereas a traditional CMS typically combines the content and presentation layers of a web site, a headless CMS is just the content component which focuses entirely on the administrative interface for content creators, the facilitation of content workflows and collaboration, and the organization of content into taxonomies.

Headless CMS - Contentful

In the last post, we have described headless CMS. Headless CMS architecture is rising in popularity in the development world.

This model allows breakthrough user experiences, gives developers the great flexibility to innovate, and helps site owners future-proof their builds by allowing them to refresh the design without re-implementing the whole CMS.

One of headless CMS is Contentful. Contentful platform lets you create, manage and distribute content to any platform. It gives you total freedom to create your own content model so you can decide which content you want to manage.

How to Select a Content Management System

How to Select a Content Management System

You have decided to deploy a content management system? How do you select a system? This is the subject of my today's post.

The process of selecting a content management system (CMS) centers on the list of requirements you users have for the system, then vendor presentations, and some sort of selection committee. The process contains the following steps:

  • create a high-level overview of the CMS project and your users requirements;
  • review the market for the products that seem to fit your project and your users requirements;
  • make the first cut from the list of candidates, selecting those that seem worth really pursuing;
  • send a Request for Proposal (RFP) to those who make the first cut;
  • select a small number of finalists by scoring the RFP responses and any follow-up questions that you ask;
  • have technical drill-down meetings and check references from each of the finalists;
  • have a presentation from the remaining candidates;
  • make a final decision by combining the scores for the references and presentations with those for the RRP.

Improving User Adoption

Many organizations that deployed a content management system have gone through phases of deployment, development and upgrades without leveraging common practices around information architecture and usability.

In some cases, a well-intentioned IT department holds user requirements sessions, only to implement the technical features without truly understanding core principles of usability. In other situations, a particular process will be enabled and user tested with good design principles but employing the “build it and they will come” deployment plan.

Managed Metadata in SharePoint - Part One

Using metadata in SharePoint makes it easier to find content items. Metadata can be managed centrally in SharePoint and can be organized in a way that makes sense in your business. When the content across sites in an organization has consistent metadata, it is easier to find business information and data by using search. Search features such as the refinement panel, which displays on the left-hand side of the search results page, enable users to filter search results based on metadata.

SharePoint metadata management supports a range of approaches to metadata, from formal taxonomies to user-driven folksonomies. You can implement formal taxonomies through managed terms and term sets. You can also use enterprise keywords and social tagging, which enable site users to tag content with keywords that they choose. SharePoint enable organizations to combine the advantages of formal, managed taxonomies with the dynamic benefits of social tagging in customized ways.

Managed Metadata in SharePoint - Part Two

In part one of this post, I described using metadata in SharePoint. In this part two, I will describe metadata management.

Managed metadata makes it easier for Term Store Administrators to maintain and adapt your metadata as business needs evolve. You can update a term set easily. And, new or updated terms automatically become available when you associate a Managed Metadata column with that term set. For example, if you merge multiple terms into one term, content that is tagged with these terms is automatically updated to reflect this change. You can specify multiple synonyms (or labels) for individual terms. If your site is multilingual, you can also specify multilingual labels for individual terms.

Open Source Content Management Systems (CMS)

Open Source Content Management Systems (CMS)
The proliferation of information has made enterprise content management a necessity for most organizations. Managing the growing amounts of content generated throughout the normal course of daily operations requires flexible, rapidly deployed solutions that transform traditional content repositories and static intranets into dynamic, user friendly work environments. However, content management solutions from proprietary vendors could be expensive for some organizations. Open Source Content Management Systems (CMS) could be a solution when budget is an obstacle in implementing enterprise content management initiative.
 
Open source ECM solutions have matured over the past several years, equaling the capabilities of proprietary software, and have been successfully deployed in major enterprises worldwide. They can support web content management, document management, records and email management, and collaboration. Today’s leading commercial open source ECM solutions feature all of the capabilities that proprietary applications offer - from rules-based content repositories to collaboration features combined with enterprise-grade scalability, reliability, and security.

SharePoint - Blog Sites

SharePoint - Blog Sites
A blog is a Web site that enables you or your organization to quickly share ideas and information. Blogs contain posts that are dated and listed in reverse chronological order. People can comment on your posts, as well as provide links to interesting sites, photos, and related blogs.
 
Blogs posts can be created quickly, and they often have an informal tone or provide a unique perspective. Although blogs are frequently used for commentary on the Internet, they can be used in several ways in a corporate environment. For example, in one of companies I worked, maintenance employees were using a SharePoint blog to document their findings during the site visit and their supervisor to respond by posting comments to their posts.
 
A SharePoint blog is a site that contains lists and libraries, such as a list of blog posts, a list of other blogs, and a library for photos. Once you create a blog, you can set up categories, and then customize the blog settings.

SharePoint - Content Types

SharePoint - Content Types
One of biggest success stories of the last few years is the overwhelming adoption of Microsoft's collaboration and content management platform SharePoint. Because it is so popular and important, I thought that I would post series of topics about SharePoint. In my today's post, I am going to describe content types.
 
A content type is a group of settings that describe the shared behavior of a specific group of documents. Content types make it possible to organize and manage documents in a consistent way across a site. In the course of a single project, a company might produce several different kinds of content, for example SOPs, Work Instructions, White Papers, Articles. Although these documents might be stored together because they are related to a single project, they can be created, used, shared, and retained in different ways.

SharePoint - Lists and Libraries Management

SharePoint - Lists and Libraries Management

When a SharePoint list or library has a large number of items, you must carefully plan its organization, taking into account how users need to access documents or data. By planning and using a few key list and library features, you can ensure that users can find information without adversely affecting the performance of the rest of your site.

SharePoint contains a Document Center site template that you can use when you want to create a site that is optimized for creating, managing, and storing large numbers of documents.

Manage large numbers of documents using Document Center site
 
A Document Center is a specialized site designed to serve as a centralized repository for managing documents. You can use a Document Center site as an authoring environment or a content archive.
 
In an authoring environment, users actively check files in and out and create folder structures for those files. Versioning is enabled, and 10 or more earlier versions of each document can exist. Users check documents in and out frequently, and workflows can help automate actions on the documents.

SharePoint - Project Management Features

SharePoint - Project Management Features
SharePoint has project management features to manage projects and keep track of project information on a site. You can track team events with a calendar, manage a list of tasks, and log and respond to issues.
 
A team can use a calendar to track team events, vacations, and conferences, and other events. Team members can connect this calendar to Microsoft Office Outlook 2007, where they can overlay it with their personal calendars to avoid scheduling conflicts. They can copy events back and forth between the calendars.
 
The team can use tasks lists to manage the work for large projects, such as planning a convention and managing a marketing campaign. Tasks can be set up with a standard list view or as a project tasks list. A project tasks list provides a visual overview, known as a Gantt view, of the tasks and their progress. Templates are available for creating lists in either format — a standard list view or a project tasks list.
 
The team can use an issue tracking list to track logistical problems that are related to the conference planning, such as registration database issues. A team member logs the issue, and then people record any updates and fixes until the issue is resolved.

SharePoint - Site Content and Structure

SharePoint - Site Content and Structure

Site Content and Structure page is used to manage both the content and structure of your SharePoint site collection. In SharePoint, navigation is dynamically generated from the site collection hierarchy. This means that when you change the structure of the site (for example, if you move a subsite), that change is carried through to the site navigation. Where the item now appears in the site navigation reflects the new location of the underlying subsite.
 
The actions you can take on this page include more than changing the structure of the site. You can manage content by performing other actions on lists and list items. For example, you check out or check in, publish, and copy items.
 
To ensure that the interface for the Site Content and Structure page is familiar to you, it was designed to be similar to Windows Explorer. You can see the site collection hierarchy in the navigation pane as a tree view on the left of the Site Content and Structure page. On the right, items are listed in the list pane. To access the Site Content and Structure page, you must have a minimum of Contribute permissions.
 
You can go to the Site Content and Structure page through the Site Actions menu. If you are at the top level of your site, you will see the menu item listed on the Site Actions menu. If you are in a subsite, you can navigate to the Site Settings page and then navigate to the Site Content and Structure page.

SharePoint - Wiki Sites

In addition to document management features, SharePoint has collaboration features. One of them is the ability to create wiki pages. This is how it looks:
 
SharePoint - Wiki Sites
Word "wiki" comes from Hawaiian word "wiki wiki" which means “fast”. A wiki is a site that is designed for groups of people to quickly capture and share ideas by creating simple pages and linking them together. After someone creates a page, another team member can add more content, edit the content, or add supporting links.

SharePoint - Workflows

SharePoint - Workflows
Workflow is the automated movement of documents through a sequence of actions or tasks. Workflows streamline the cost and time required to coordinate business processes, such as project approval or document review by managing and tracking the human tasks involved with these processes.
 
Rather than going to a person to get the document approved, you can use the workflow feature of SharePoint to accomplish this task. Workflows also encourage collaboration on documents.
 
Workflow Types
 
Workflows available in SharePoint are: approval, collect feedback, collect signatures, disposition approval, three-state.

SharePoint 2010 - Part 1

SharePoint 2010 - Part 1

Today, I am going to describe more details about SharePoint 2010.

 
New user interface
 
SharePoint 2010 user interface includes a new ribbon to perform tasks quickly and in the context of your work. If you work with 2007 Microsoft Office applications such as Microsoft Word or Microsoft PowerPoint, you are already familiar with the ribbon.
 
Like the ribbon in these Office applications, the new ribbon in SharePoint 2010 is designed to help you quickly find the commands that you need to complete your tasks. Commands are organized in logical groups, displayed together under tabs. Each tab relates to a type of activity, such as working with a document in a document library or adding and formatting text on a page.

SharePoint 2010 - Part 2

Yesterday, I started to describe the features of SharePoint 2010. Today, I will conclude the description of SharePoint 2010.
SharePoint 2010 - Part 2
 
Enterprise Content Management
 
Managed Metadata Features

SharePoint 2010 - What is different?

SharePoint 2010 - What is different?
My last post was about Microsoft SharePoint. Today, I am going to talk about the differences in SharePoint 2010.
 
SharePoint Editions
 
Microsoft SharePoint 2010 comes in three different editions: SharePoint Foundation, SharePoint Standard, and SharePoint Enterprise.
 
Microsoft SharePoint Foundation
 
Microsoft SharePoint Foundation is the platform for all products in the SharePoint family. It contains all of the core functionality and architecture drawn on by the commercial versions of the package. SharePoint Foundation is available for download at no cost. Downloading SharePoint Foundation however, requires a mandatory registration.

SharePoint 2013 - Adopt it or Not?

SharePoint 2013 - Adopt it or Not?
You may have just finished with upgrading your SharePoint to 2010 version and now we are hearing about SharePoint 2013. What is this all about? And are you going to adopt it or not?
 
Microsoft releases a major version of SharePoint every three years. SharePoint 2013 is a significant release with many new great features. However, you may find it hard to justify moving on to 2013 release in the near future, unless you can find a business justification for spending the time and money it will take to make the transition.
 
I am going to highlight new features of SharePoint 2013 to help you with this decision.
 
Reuse Content Across Multiple Sites
 
One of the pain points experienced in previous versions of SharePoint was around the fact that content that was created within one site collection could not easily be reused in a separate site collection. Since many organizations required multiple site collections, this limitation created a few cases where duplicate content was required.

SharePoint 2013 Improvements

In this post, I will describe few improved features in SharePoint 2013.

Cross-Site Publishing

SharePoint 2013 has cross-site publishing. In the previous versions of SharePoint, it was not possible to easily share content across sites. Using cross-site publishing, users can separate authoring and publishing into different site collections: authored content goes into an indexable "catalog", and you can then use FAST to index and deliver dynamic content on a loosely coupled front end.

This feature is required for services like personalization, localization, metadata-driven topic pages, etc. An example of its use is a product catalog in an e-commerce environment. It can be used more generally for all dynamic content. Note that cross-site publishing is not available in SharePoint Online.

SharePoint and Collaboration

SharePoint and Collaboration
Most people spend the greater part of their work day involved in collaborative tasks. They share information, they work together in teams, and they manage projects. It can be a challenge to collaborate effectively if you do not have tools to easily communicate, share information, and coordinate projects details and deadlines among a large group of people.
 
SharePoint can help you get your work done more efficiently because it provides organizations with a platform for sharing information and working together in teams. A SharePoint site offers specific kinds of tools and workspaces that you can use to communicate with team members, track projects, coordinate deadlines, and collaboratively create and edit documents.
 

SharePoint Architecture

SharePoint Architecture
The SharePoint platform is a flexible, n-tier service-oriented architecture (SOA). It can be scaled down to operate entirely from one machine, or scaled up to be managed across hundreds of machines.
 
There are few parts in SharePoint architecture: farms, web applications, site collections, service applications, administration and security.

SharePoint Implementations

There are a few main considerations for governance and metrics in SharePoint implementations:

* metrics to gauge maturity, success, adoption, compliance and progress in your program;
* mechanisms for managing content across the full lifecycle including compliance with standards for tagging;
* governance processes and policies to control site and content ownership.

SharePoint Libraries for Content Management

SharePoint Libraries for Content Management
A library is a place on a site where team members can work together to create, update, and manage files. Each library displays a list of files and key information about the files.
 
Why work with libraries?
 
Storing your documents in a central location can help your team work on files together, especially if your files tend to be scattered among people's computers or in multiple shared folders on your network.
 
For example, the Marketing team uses a document library named Marketing Documents for managing its press releases, budget files, contracts, and other types of files. The library stores information that is relevant to the type of file, such as the name of the project that the file is associated with. The Marketing team also uses a slide library to share and reuse slides for presentations.

SharePoint User Interface

SharePoint User Interface
In my last post on SharePoint architecture, I mentioned that there are few parts in SharePoint architecture: farms, web applications, site collections, service applications, administration and security. User interface is represented by site collections. In my today's post, I am going to describe SharePoint user interface.
 
Site collection is the top-level SharePoint site which contains children sites which are organized in a hierarchy. When you create a site at the root of a Web Application, you create a site collection. In other words, a SharePoint site collection is a hierarchical set of sites that can be managed together. Sites within a site collection have common features, such as shared permissions, galleries for templates, content types, and web parts, and they often share a common navigation. Creation of site collections usually performed by a system administrator.

Taxonomy and CMS

Taxonomy and CMS

Any information system should have two access points - search and browse. When users know exactly what they are looking for, they are going to use search. If you have enabled metadata search in your system, this search is going to be precise and will retrieve documents that users are looking for.
 
If users do not know what they are looking for, they are going to use browse to navigate to documents. Somewhere, some time during their browsing they may switch to search and then back to browsing.
 
In order to enable browsing or navigation in your system, you must create taxonomy and organize your documents according to this taxonomy.
 

Using SharePoint to Create a Blog

Using SharePoint to Create a Blog
A blog is a Web site that enables you or your organization to quickly share ideas and information. Blogs contain posts that are dated and listed in reverse chronological order. People can comment on your posts, as well as provide links to interesting sites, photos, and related blogs.
 
Blogs posts can be created quickly, and they often have an informal tone or provide a unique perspective. Although blogs are frequently used for commentary on the Internet, they can be used in several ways in a corporate environment. For example, one of my clients used SharePoint blog for facility maintenance notes.
 
SharePoint Services provides a blog template that makes creating a blog easy. A blog is a site that contains lists and libraries, such as a list of blog posts, a list of other blogs, and a library for photos. Once you create a blog, you can set up categories, and then customize the blog settings.

What is New in SharePoint 2016?

Microsoft releases a new version of SharePoint every three years. SharePoint 2016 public Beta version is available. The full version is expected in Spring 2016. Here is what is new in SharePoint 2016 version.

SharePoint 2016’s main goal is to bring the best of Office 365 Cloud technology to on-premises solutions. In this truly effective Hybrid model, organizations will be able to have the best of the Cloud, whilst keeping all their important information and data stored on-premises.

Why Any CMS is Better Than Network Drives and Email Attachments?

Why Any CMS is Better Than Network Drives and Email Attachments?

This might be a trivial question, however, many organizations still use network drives for storing documents and their employees collaborate on these documents by sending them to each other as email attachments.

What is wrong with this picture?

The volume and variety of electronic information is exploding. Organizations are required to analyze new information faster and make timely decisions for achieving business goals within budget. They therefore are becoming increasingly dependent upon efficient access to information. In order to effectively use information, it must be readily available for analysis and synthesis with other information. The value of information depends on two things: finding it, and being able to use it.
 
Why can't this be done in network drives? Here are just few reasons:
  • documents in network drives cannot be searched;
  • there is no version control in network drives;
  • there is no trail who changed documents and what has been changed;
  • there are multiple versions of the same document;
  • there are no workflows and so there can be no automatic documents movement between participants;
  • few people could be editing the same document at the same time and so there is no control of made changes;
  • there is no possibility for the reuse of content;
  • permissions cannot be set up.

Yammer and SharePoint

Enterprise social network vendor Yammer was a large and fast growing player when Microsoft acquired it in late 2012. Yammer has users in more than 150 countries, and the interface is localized into more than 20 languages.

At its core, Yammer is a micro-blogging service for employees to provide short status updates. Whereas Twitter asks, “What’s happening?” Yammer asks, “What are you working on?”