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We're still investigating database-driven CMS solutions here. The ROI
looks weak unless the following are met:
* your content is normalized prior to moving to CMS
* everyone is trained to use it properly and follows established procedure
* all content is in and is being leveraged by the CMS
We have literally hundreds of manuals that we actively maintain. We
first need to normalize all these (or a good portion of select ones),
and then determine if we'd benefit from extensive re-use. Currently
we're not 100% there, and the cost of a DB-driven CMS for global
access does not seem to be shadowed by its benefit at this time.
We work in FrameMaker, which allows us some decent flexibility with
regard to reuse. It may turn out that this is all that's required once
we normalize all content. Can't be sure until we're 100% normal(ized).
;-) Until then, we proceed with current tools.
My advice to you is to not take the decision to move to CMS lightly.
It will directly impact how you author content and may not bring as
much returned value as you'd think. (We scheduled a year for tools
research alone, and have been working to normalize content for over 2
years already.)
On Tue, 16 Nov 2004 08:14:08 -0500, Stevenson, Rebecca
<rebecca -dot- stevenson -at- workscape -dot- com> wrote:
>
> Has anyone overseen a change from traditional (multi-source?) docs to a database-driven single-sourcing solution, and would be willing to share what they have learned from the experience? Did you use a commercially-available tool(s) or grow your own? How big is your department? How long did the conversion take, and how long was it before you started seeing benefits? Are there printed resources we should consult?
>
> We are a small department, of three going on four writers, and we are (rather suddenly) being asked to produce miracles of interactivity and document reuse that strongly suggest our future lies in this direction. I don't think it's going to happen overnight, but maybe we can lay some groundwork as we go about our current projects?
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