Building effective websites using content management
Content Management Systems
In order to build an effective web presence your organisation needs:
- An understanding of your business environment and competitive advantages
- Creative conceptualisation
- Online and offline brand development
- Design skills
- The ability to employ appropriate technology
- Copy writing that is effective and usable for your audience
- Marketing and PR
- An objective overview
- An understanding of the measures of your success
- Strategies to adapt
There are very few individuals within any organisation who have all of these skills, which means effective teamwork is essential. Good content management systems acknowledge the need for teamwork, the need to put the right tools in the hands of the right people.
Content management is about creating a distinction between the technical side of web development and the business side. Technical people, those who can conceive gorgeous, effective designs, and who can construct gloriously complex but easy to use systems are very rarely the same people who can write a powerful strapline or publish annual corporate report and accounts.
Ecru’s content management system acknowledges the distinction between format and content, between technical website development and business acumen.
Before content management a technical person was needed to perform all of the work on a website, so an unnecessary bottleneck meant that websites stagnated. If the webmaster is on holiday, or out of the office dealing with a client your corporate website suffers. The result of this technical bottleneck is a website that creates a negative impression of the company it is intended to promote. Ecru’s content management solves the bottleneck, making your website more effective.
Content management and your website
Every website is different, with a unique set of objectives, and operating in its own special environment. As we work with you to build your web presence, we think very carefully about structure, identifying the journeys people take through your site, and the way these might change in the future. We acknowledge the need for usability, and the way that publishing in digital media differs in crucial ways from your other business channels, and we make sure that your interaction with your clients is professional, thinking about your need for control and security.
The delegation of responsibility for your website throughout your organisation needs to be carefully managed and we have a wealth of practical experience to bring to bear helping organisations make this distribution of control happen effectively.
We think about giving your colleagues who deal with the public the ability to edit their own sections of your site, while putting legal terms and conditions in the hands of your solicitors. Placing your translated text in the hands of your outsourced translation service provider or your colleagues in other countries. While ensuring you retain full editorial control. We think about how the text elements of your website interact with other systems that support your web presence, such as online databases, ecommerce systems and bespoke business systems. We also think about the way that we should measure the success of your website, so we consider the way that the whole process works together, where your visitors come from, whether they do what you want them to do, and whether you make money from them.
How do we do this?
We can help establish your brand, and design your website to create the best possible image for your company. We can create technical systems that make your business more effective, easier and more profitable to run. Key to our process is that we deliver you a website that you and your colleagues can maintain yourself without needing any technical skill. If you can edit a document in Microsoft Word, then you will find editing your Ecru content managed website a breeze. We’d like to show you this in action right now!
We want to discuss your website ideas now – phone us on 01702 475170 or email us now.
Accessible Content Management
Content Management For Everyone
Web accessibility is about designing sites for everyone, independent of who they are or how they access the Internet. Specifically it addresses the need of disabled people, giving them greater opportunities to use and interact with the Internet and hence your organisation - and given the introduction of the 1995 UK Disability Discrimination act it is unlawful to provide information that is inaccessible.
For organisations that choose The Ecru Content Management System this isn’t a problem.
Where other content management systems struggle to meet the needs of disabled users, The Ecru Content Management System has been built acknowledging the needs of WC3 accessibility standards. Our long history designing for clients such as the NHS and EDF Energy means we have a keen eye for the finer details of the guidelines because our expert technologists implement our system.
The Ecru Content Management System reinforces and ably demonstrates your commitment to the millions of people who find it difficult to access information on the Internet.
Effective Document Management
It’s time to sort out document clutter and improve your organisational effectiveness
Effective websites do not just exist to service customer needs they are also essential tools in the way modern businesses are run and administered. The Ecru Content Management System takes business administration in it’s stride.
Your web-based content might well be organised and capable, but what of your documentation? Any form of file or media, be it image, spreadsheet or text can be uploaded, and subsequently sorted by category, date, description or your own set of attributes. This structured approach to documentation has even greater benefits when integrated across your Intranet and Extranet.
One World - many languages
The Ecru Content Management System – A World Of Opportunities
How do you get your message across to over six billion people in two hundred countries? Speaking their language helps, and The Ecru Content Management System can help you do that.
Our flexible multilingual system is innovative in that it delivers information in a customer's chosen language. The Ecru Content Management System also makes your language translators work easier. It tailors a workflow that meets your specific requirements – translated content that you have recently altered is prioritised and queued ready for attention.
The benefits are clear. If you need the same content delivered to different markets but in different languages, or you have a market-specific approach but need a consistent look and feel to maintain your corporate brand, then we tailor your website to fit.
A brand apart
Keeping the look and feel of your website up to date
Design changes, both small and large often present an unnecessary problem for big corporate websites. But not for a website powered by The Ecru Content Management System. By separating design from content, you can plan a complete change to the design, look and feel of your website, while continuing to manage the day to day content changes and updates that keep your website alive.
This means that The Ecru Content Management System can help ensure the look and feel of your site is always at the cutting edge.
Any alterations from minor tweaks to extensive redesigns can be achieved easily and quickly because content is held within a database - wholly separate from the design templates through which it will be presented.
Don’t let the chicken and egg problem hinder your website development
What comes first, design, structure or website content?
The reality of website development is that while you want to create as much certainty within your business planning as possible, the reality is that you need to work at lightning pace, and this means you need to structure web development projects around the realities within which your business operates.
With The Ecru Content Management System it doesn’t matter what comes first. Indeed, your content can be developed without worrying how it will look when it is published, and you don’t need to worry unduly if the final structure of your website hasn’t been established. Because these elements of your website can be developed in isolation, it doesn’t matter which order they come in.
With Ecru’s content managed System websites, you can navigate through your content in a design free greyscale, tweaking the wording of your text, while the design of your site is still being fleshed out. The real advantage of this process is the faster time to market that you can use to create competitive advantage.
If your logo changes at the last minute it doesn’t mean that your website development project needs to start again from scratch.
Why use a Content Management system?
The Technical Bottleneck
It's a common problem that affects a lot of organisations. Urgent information that needs to be uploaded to your website is waiting in an email inbox because the only person who knows how to upload it is away on holiday.
This in itself is a difficult situation, but what would happen if your website contained an unmistakable error or worse, some sort of libellous material or inappropriate statement. Could you really afford the potential damage to your name and reputation that such a technical bottleneck could entail?
Ecru’s content management system The Ecru Content Management System is the answer. Responsibility for publishing information on the web can be given those who need it most. Human Resources can post Job vacancies, press releases can be handled by Corporate Communications, and business material can be published immediately by the managers responsible. Your website can become alive, really sparkling, vibrant and current, making your staff feel proud of the organisation they belong to, engaging potential customers and winning respect from peers and competitors.
We want to discuss your website ideas now – phone us on 01702 475170 or email us now.
