My first reaction was a sort of sarcastic applause full of enthusiastic interjections. Later I realized that the majority of website and intranet editors still work in stone age environments where even a minor content or structure alteration leads to special (often multiple) requests to ever-busier web programmers or appeals to a not-so-easy-to-understand and technologically autophilous back-ends with geek-style controls. This naturally leads to tremendous delays in content updating, greater error probability, and reduced productivity. In the worst cases, the problem’s persistency leads to user frustration and failure of the CMS/intranet strategy in general.
Here we have a single failure that threatens business-critical initiatives. Really, things shouldn’t be like that.
Let’s start with a quick glance at how-it-can-be and a smooth transition to how-it-should-be.
Naturally, the website’s or intranet’s content and structure is a key for a successful implementation of an online or social collaboration strategy, be it for external or internal purposes. Who really needs a web solution that is static and outdated? Leaving aside the user frustration aspect, the failure of this simple task may result in damaging the organization’s reputation.
I have already mentioned the ‘good-old’ way of managing content and structure. And this way is way too far from strategic goals. The proper way is streamlining content management and making it as easy as editing text in a word processor.
And the keyword here is front-end editing.
Let’s take and as examples. Both products rely on the same interface (proudly bearing the title
) that has two levels of content management interaction. The back-end normally contains all the fine tuning things – things that are generally done once. The front-end allows click-away editing of the content and structure.
How does it work? Just like your word processor. An authorized editor points the cursor to the target field to edit and an editing tab immediately pops up. After clicking on the edit action, the system opens up a WYSIWYG/HTML editor where the sky is the limit.
Example: front-end content editing in Bitrix Site Manager
In the same elegant way editors can (and in fact should; if not – ask for an alternative CMS!) edit web pages and menu items.
Example: click-away front-end menu items and web pages editing in Bitrix Intranet
Once the editing is completed, previewed and approved the changes automatically appear online with an opportunity to roll-back.
Importantly, content editors can only work with content and structure according to their access rights. A system administrator can assign specific rights to particular users or user groups.
There are many other options surrounding front-end editing which can be employed to streamline website or intranet content management and synchronize it with adopted rules and procedures.
For example, the organization can configure integrated (business process management) to implement two-way communications between, say, product managers and content editors. A sample business process can start with the product manager’s request to change a product description on the website. Once the request is approved by the involved parties, it is automatically passed to content editors with detailed guidelines. After the request is processed and implemented, the product manager gets confirmation, can review the placement, and either confirm that the job is done or request changes.
Another useful feature is tight integration of intranet and website layers. Among other capabilities, the allows organizations to orchestrate and automate the content lifecycle across the whole range of web resources. For example, once a press release is approved it can automatically be published in the intranet and on the website!
Getting back to front-end editing. Personally, I believe this feature should become a commodity in contemporary content management systems. It saves a lot of time for content editors, smoothes out internal processes and positively influences business performance.
And many CMS vendors have already followed this trend.
