The risk that surrounds an IT project is high and none more so than on a content management project. The nature of content management projects has changed. We have been working on a wide variety of content management projects for over 10 years; here is our essential guide to the top 10 principles for project success
Five years ago it was common for a company’s online presence to be a close replica of a printed brochure providing the official word on everything corporate. Now a company’s online presence is dynamic, vibrant, designed to drive revenue and brand loyalty.
Furthermore, the concept of CM (Content Management) has expanded beyond web publishing and now incorporates multi-channel management and even the automation of marketing operations. Therefore, if the CM project under delivers on expectations, the consequences are high, from both a revenue and efficiency viewpoint.
Here are out top 10 principles for project success:
1. Address your content management needs logically by solving critical content bottlenecks first
Eradicate inefficiencies by identifying critical content and process bottlenecks and solving these issues in a logical order. For example, multiple systems for managing content results in repetition, inefficiency and inconsistency of brand and product information. The priority, which will deliver highest business value, is a central content repository that provides a single point of truth for content. A central repository enables an efficient multi-channel publishing solution to meet the demands of the multi-channel consumer.
2. Strong stakeholder group – consider the addition of a consultant if relevant in-house experience is lacking
During the choice of a content management solution the perceived risk is high. A stakeholder group will spread that risk and make an informed decision that is closely aligned to the delivery of the business case and projected ROI.
It is essential that this group has strong leadership and should include representatives from marketing, IT, content managers, web team and procurement or finance. Furthermore, consider bringing in an expert consultant if the in-house team lacks experience of implementing similar projects. In this way you are giving the team the best chance of making the right decision, delivering project success. This stakeholder group should stay in contact with the project beyond go live, helping to analyse project success and review delivery on timelines and objectives.
3. Build a strong business case linking to wider strategic objectives
Linking your CM project to wider strategic objectives will help to guarantee the success of your project by providing high value and gaining the awareness of senior management.
A great example can be found in the charity sector. Charities stated strategic objectives included reaching a younger audience and diversifying membership profile. The introduction of social networking and interactive features to the online presence supported this aim. The analysis of membership information and metrics mean performance can be monitored and fed back.
4. Run your project as a stand alone business unit by having solid objectives, building in measurable metrics and assessing ROI on a quarterly basis
You have built your business case; benchmarked initial processes / metrics so that you have a comparison point and now it is time to deliver. Refer to the business case promises and assign the team a list of SMART objectives that state: the high level objective, means to fulfil, target to monitor, dates for implementation / review, gap analysis and corrective action where needed. By building your monitoring on such principles you will remain focused and be able to adjust your online strategy before a known issue becomes a problem.
Ensure your key partners such as CM vendor are aware of these goals and run a quarterly meeting where all can contribute to the analysis of performance and share ideas. Finally, don’t forget to monitor risks as well as metrics. It’s essential during rollout but a good principle to continue beyond too.
5. Assess the ROI capabilities of your product and partner choice
As part of your vendor criteria ensure you analyse qualities such as cultural fit and what added value the vendor can bring. Ensure they have completed similar projects successfully and dig into their history of delivering a return on investment. Focusing on innovation beyond the delivery stage is essential. ROI should also be monitored and communicated to all partners / stakeholders on a quarterly basis.
6. Don’t implement in isolation – you need to align people, processes and technology
Technology is the enabler that brings the requirements to life. Quite frankly it’s the easy bit. Where it gets complicated is aligning people, processes and technology. To do this well you need advice and guidance from your vendor partner, who will have completed similar projects. The project team need to implement a comprehensive change management programme that addresses all user groups and has the key aim of high user adoption. The change management programme needs to achieve visual sponsorship from top management levels, to ensure that people understand and support the need for change.
7. Choose the right project methodology for your business and objectives
How are you on jargon? Do you want to adopt a waterfall or agile methodology and would that be Prince II or SCRUM. Confused? In short a waterfall approach is a linear approach or a stage-by-stage approach for product building. However, if dramatic changes are needed the team will have to go right back to the beginning and start developing new code. Agile emphasises values and principles rather than processes. Working in cycle’s known as sprints (i.e. a week, a month, etc.,) project priorities are re-evaluated at the end of each cycle. To summarise the difference between the two: the classic waterfall method stands for predictability, agile supports adaptability. Agile tends to benefit small teams with constantly changing requirements. Waterfall is all about light manoeuvrability and adequate consideration of future development; plan first and then enforce these plans. Your project team should, where possible, have experience of both methodologies and with your technology partner help advise on the best approach for your project.
The stakeholder group also need to analyse the methodology used during the consulting stage, not just the implementation. Finally, don’t forget about report structures and communications plans and ensure levels of responsibility are clearly defined. Getting these structures in place at the begging of a project is imperative.
8. Be realistic on what can be delivered in a desired timescale. Don’t let scope creep make you loose focus
In the high-level requirements stage it is not unusual to spread the net wide to assess if a vendor can fulfil immediate and future needs. However, being over ambitious in phase one of your project, or letting scope creep undermine project focus, can lead to failure to deliver on promises.
Identify the changes that bring highest value to the business and implement in a phased approach. Have clear objectives for each phase and then sell the success of that phase back to the business. Based on the success of phase one you will have established a high level of senior engagement and buy in. This enables you to continue your phased implementation plan. Don’t forget to have strong governance guidelines for your site, which include tone of voice, management of change request and look and feel.
9. Keep innovating. Don’t be afraid to beta test and take corrective action where necessary
Innovation and ambition is high at the initial stage of the project but can decrease over time. To keep delivering value, implement initiatives such as quarterly innovation meetings, where your main partners can contribute and discuss site metrics, ROI, objectives, competitor and general market trends.
Keep introducing new functionality to the site and seek feedback to ensure your visitors see the value of innovations. Beta pages are a great and efficient way of testing new functionality, without undertaking major and costly overhauls to the site. Site feedback direct from beta pages can then also be used to help justify the ongoing investment business case.
10. Consider the SaaS model to lower capital expenditure and deliver on promises quickly
Sometimes needs and budgets do not match. IT budgets are under scrutiny and there is a greater need to demonstrate value and keep capital expenditure low. The software as a service (SaaS) model can address these challenges. The SaaS model is where you pay monthly for the license and the support and maintenance. At times this monthly payment can also include the implementation fee, making the needs for a high upfront fee unnecessary.
The nature of a SaaS model lends itself to a more out of the box solution, so it is essential to check that the solution is flexible enough to evolve with your needs. However, vendors are increasingly introducing enterprise standard solutions on this model, delivering combined benefits of flexibility, scalability and controlled payment structures and costs.
So these are our top ten tips for success. These words of wisdom come from over 10 years of experience implementing a wide variety of content management and marketing automation projects and working in partnership with our clients to help deliver a strong ROI on projects.
Author: Ruth Knight, Sales and Marketing Director, VYRE Ltd