Managing Enterprise Content - Chapter 1 (Peterson)
Chapter 1 - Content: The lifeblood of an organization really hit home with me. I almost felt as if the authors had been observing the company I work for.
A content management system was purchased by our IS department to update our corporate internet site. Several months later, it was strongly recommended that the corporate intranet department, which I work in, should convert to that the system too. Two totally separate worlds were about to collide.
On page 10 of the textbook it says, "After careful research, they [customer support area] present their business case to management for the [content management] product they have decided to purchase. However, the web management group has already purchased its system, and is expecting it to be installed any day, so the customer support area is told to use the same system." After reading that, I felt better knowing we weren't alone!
The silo mentality mentioned in the book was alive and well at my company. After several months of struggling to understand one another, IS has decided to support the software my department uses (FrameMaker and WebWorks) and my department has begun building new intranet sites using the content management system and its site styler features.
I wish I'd read this chapter 12 months ago! It spelled out in non-threatening terms exactly what is meant by "content" in organizations and what a content management system intends to do. I have now seen firsthand the advantages a good content management system provides. It really does lead to consistency and time-savings. The system we use, although lacking in some design areas, has proven to be an enhancement to my department's online documentation procedures.
Guess that makes me a convert.
A content management system was purchased by our IS department to update our corporate internet site. Several months later, it was strongly recommended that the corporate intranet department, which I work in, should convert to that the system too. Two totally separate worlds were about to collide.
On page 10 of the textbook it says, "After careful research, they [customer support area] present their business case to management for the [content management] product they have decided to purchase. However, the web management group has already purchased its system, and is expecting it to be installed any day, so the customer support area is told to use the same system." After reading that, I felt better knowing we weren't alone!
The silo mentality mentioned in the book was alive and well at my company. After several months of struggling to understand one another, IS has decided to support the software my department uses (FrameMaker and WebWorks) and my department has begun building new intranet sites using the content management system and its site styler features.
I wish I'd read this chapter 12 months ago! It spelled out in non-threatening terms exactly what is meant by "content" in organizations and what a content management system intends to do. I have now seen firsthand the advantages a good content management system provides. It really does lead to consistency and time-savings. The system we use, although lacking in some design areas, has proven to be an enhancement to my department's online documentation procedures.
Guess that makes me a convert.
posted by Anne Peterson | 4:33 PM
10 Comments:
I, too, work for a large organization and can empathize with you in the area of being told what you will use and when you will use it.
Although I am not involved in documentation or ITS, I can assure you that the silo mentality exists in other areas of business as well.
When I read about the silo mentality in chapter 1, I freaked out a little bit. I pictured this taking place and a company and just boggled at all the wasted time, money, and resources. My God! Having all these people wasting all of this while working on the same things seems like it should be a sin! I’m sure you got to go through your own version of this content hell Anne, and it doesn’t sound pretty at all. The strategies that are presented in the book seem like some good tools to go with and I hope that I won’t have to fight to implement them in whatever field I end up in.
I found it very interesting to read about the Content Silo Trap. I had never heard of this term before, but have noticed it happening in one of my previous workplaces - time and money being wasted because of a lack of communication. I think a lot of the reason for the silo trap is because the workers are so wrapped up in their individual projects and deadlines that they feel working alone will make them more productive due to less distractions. However, if a unified content strategy was used, collaboration would be used to create a more productive workplace, rather than having writers work in isolation.
I work for a hospital and actually we are not on the same campus as the hospital. Nonetheless, there are times when we need to access information that the hospital has on its system but we cannot because our system deals with the retail aspect of the medical industry while the hospital software is more for intake and database. Therefore, it is extremely frustrating at times when we need to access something and instead of being able to dive in to the hospitals resources we have to wait for them to look up the information for us. It creates a long list of problems and time management being the most severe. I don't really know if that is related to what this chapter is saying but I guess that's how I interpreted it. Good job, good examples.
Content in Silos is a large and growing problem. The mentality of silos seems, in my mind, to stem from bureaucrats who are kingdom building. By controlling access to their information they think they are preserving their little fiefdoms to themselves. Knowledge is power and they restrict the knowledge on purpose.
I understand the importance of collaborating to avoid the silo trap. There are, at times, downfalls to collaborating. I worked for a small company where collaborating was necessary. The problem? If changes were made, the information was not always conveyed to all departments. "They forgot" Being the devil's advocate, in that situation maybe a silo trap would have been beneficial. Better yet, hire a new messenger.
I think the silo metaphor was a good one for this example. Although I have not worked in a large company I can see examples of this effect in other areas of my part time jobs. It is really chaotic when you don't understand what others are doing and it is hard to appreciate coworkers when you don't know what they contribute. Poor communication can cause a lot of overlap in tasks and even cause some tasks to become 'undone'.
I have to start by saying that I haven't recieved my copy of this text yet (darn mailing system!); however, the comments and summaries posted so far have been very informational and useful to me. Good job so far to everybody for that.
I would like to ask the same question Larry asked earlier: is single-sourcing the same thing or similar to a unified content strategy? Or, if not, is single-sourcing one means of creating a unified content strategy?
I realize this semester we will be experimenting with a single-sourcing program (AuthorIT), and we will be collaborating with docs.google, and it seems like these two programs could be considered tools for putting together a unified content strategy. Is this correct?
*note: this post is also in Haupt's summary. I put it here, too, to make sure my posts are where they should be.
It’s hard to believe that a company can in a sense can paint its self into a corner. I believe the failure is due to the organizational structure design that can lead to a lose of communication such as the Silo trap. Everyone wants to believe that what they do is the most important part of a work project instead of as being part of team working together.
I thought the idea of an information Silo was really well done. It really draws a distinctive mental image.
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