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White Paper
Creating a Web StrategyWhite Paper
Creating a Web Strategy
Table of Contents
Page 1 Appeal to your market and your stakeholders
Page 1 Take control of your project
Page 2 Work smarter, not harder
Page 2 Avoid common pitfalls
Page 2 The price of failure
Page 2 Choose the right technology to maximise your potential
Page 3 About AlterianWhite Paper
Creating a Web Strategy
Appeal to your market and your stakeholders It's our belief that much of this thinking can and should be doneAlterian, leading provider of content management solutions, in-house in discussion with senior staff that are most familiar withbelieves the best starting point for determining a website the issues that are holding back the firm and therefore thestrategy is to understand both the market that an organisation business requirements of any new web-based systems.operates within and the needs of its key stakeholders. Once all this thinking and planning has been done selection ofMost organisations operating today are highly complex and the technology itself begins and consultants within integration orpolitical, making the identification and prioritisation of IT services firms have a major role to play in recommendingstakeholders a difficult task. There are three key broad appropriate technology solutions, sourcing and integrating them.stakeholder groups which need to be factored into web strategyplanning: Work smarter, not harderWeb strategies are often best fulfilled through the use of a Web. The board/shareholders/business executive: They Content Management System (CMS). There are many viewsunderstand the vision of the organisation and delivering their surrounding what makes a good CMS. At Alterian we think thatneeds will clearly support the business but it is essential to end-user simplicity and functionality, coupled with the use ofhave their buy-in and backing standards-based technologies which scale, extend and integrate. External website users: Understanding the website users is effectively with other enterprise-wide solutions, is the key tocritical and pretty much open-ended. Consider external user delivering effective web strategies.needs by refining what type of relationship that they would liketo have with the organisation and rationalise this to what is a Sadly the syndrome of 'you never got fired for hiring IBM' hasrealistic roadmap of communication dialogue and functionality. overshadowed the Web Content Management market withMarket research is vital as is listening to the needs of the third vendors offering hugely complicated toolsets that delivergroup immense power without much consideration for the needs of the. Internal website users (business units such as HR, finance, non-technical business user. Enterprise Content Managementfacilities management, research, branding, marketing, sales (ECM) vendors have thrived on this syndrome in recent yearsetc.): For a website strategy to operate effectively, strategists despite the fact that many of their core systems are built on oldneed to understand the needs of each of these groups of users technology platforms and use out-of-date proprietary systems.and the potential business impact if their needs are not met. Organisations should identify WCM and ECMS vendors during theTake control of your project evaluation process that offer real Return on Investment (ROI) andFaced with this plethora of issues to consider, many company transparency for the total cost.directors reach for the phone to an IT consultant. However Selecting a CMS vendor that has a matured standards-based withconsultancy can be a two-edged sword. Whilst it can ease the open source architectures will ensure that your vendor relationshipweb strategy pain and speed up the scoping, evaluation and is a partnership rather than a shackle.procurement process, organisations run the risk of beingdiverted from meeting the needs of their three key stakeholders. Avoid common pitfallsIn summary, Alterian believes there are some key requirements toWhen your web strategy becomes a reality you want to be sure look out for when selecting CMS:that your web deployment embraces good design principleswhich are to make the site beautiful, functional and useful (for all . Ensure that the technology is built on standards-basedthree key stakeholder groups). Remove any part of these architectureconsiderations you will have a tactical nightmare on your hands. . ... [download for more]
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