Architects of the User Experience

SharePoint: The Right CMS for Your Website?

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What is Web Content Management?Managing the text, images, flash, PDFs, and other multimedia that makes up your website(s)

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What is a Web Content Management System?A software system that helps you manage the content that appears on your website(s)

Has a central repository for your website content

Publishes content to your website(s)

Allows companies to exert greater control over the branding and presentation of their web properties

Helps to establish a repeatable and tunable process for creating, testing, approving, and deploying content

Simplifies content re-use

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CMS VendorsThere are literally hundreds of CMS vendors -- Today, the spotlight is on Sitecore and SharePoint

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Web CMS-enabled Companies the Most SuccessfulWhy CMS Selection is So Important

In a survey of 157 companies that were defined as “Best in Class” (20% ROI on marketing spend, 11% revenue growth in the past year):

77% of these companies had CMS that did not require intervention from the IT department for updating

70% said that the optimization and distribution of online content is a high priority for 2009.

Source: 2009 Aberdeen Group Survey, “Maximize Business Results Online: How Web Content Management Technology is Transforming Digital Marketing”

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CMS Evaluation PrimerHow do you know which system to select for your website? Desired Features and Functionality

Technical Platform

Budget

Ability to Deliver the Design

Staff Competencies / Usability for Content Authors

Established Vendor

Using these dimensions, the full universe of CMS choices can be narrowed down

Making a final decision often requires prioritization

Working with a CMS selection partner who has experience developing in the tools is a big advantage – There are aspects of a system you don’t learn until you get under the hood

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CMS Evaluation Primer: Some Selection Factors

Reputable CMS Vendor

Highly Usable

Straightforward Development

Content re-use

Produces Standards-Compliant (X)HTML

Multi-lingual Capacity

Developer Community, Professional Services

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CMS Evaluation Primer: Commonly Requested CMS Features

Usability

Custom workflows

Content re-use

PDF

Mobile devices

Multimedia

Media Library

HTML editor

Link Checking / Spell Checking

Browser-based interface

Roles / Permissions

Integration with Applications

Development Standards

RSS feeds

XHTML

Multiple languages

Manage website user accounts

Single Sign-On

“Faceted Navigation”

Documentation

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Content

SharePoint Evaluation

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SharePoint Intro

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Source: http://trainsignaltraining.com

SharePoint Intro

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Source: http://www.kpmg.com/Global/Pages/default.aspx

Example of a Public Site Built in SharePoint

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SharePoint – HistoryThis is the first version of SharePoint designed for Web Content Management

Release History SharePoint Portal Server 2001 Office SharePoint Portal Server 2003 Office SharePoint Server 2007

Breakthrough Release The first version for Web Content Management

Traditionally, an inside-the-firewall server -- Primarily intranet and collaboration tool

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SharePoint’s Strengths Core Web Content

Management functionality

Document management focused repository

Optimized for “classic” web publishing scenarios

Excels at assembling documents and collaborative content into pages for publishing and distribution

Extensible, skin-able interface to support branding

Ideal scenarios include: Intranets, extranets, brochure-ware sites

Image Source: Sharepoint.net Magazine

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The MOSS Sweet Spot Sites that can be supported by

classic publishing approaches

Best Fits: Intranets

Extranets

Brochureware sites of low/moderate visual complexity and low turnover

Remember, MOSS is a platform…

With enough time and money, anything can be accomplished

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SharePoint – Implementation ChallengesOut of the Box:

/Pages/ urls. E.g. www.yoursite.com/Pages/home.aspx

Need to hide several items, need to disable some things

Customization difficult

Name.dll

No “taxonomy” metadata (3rd party solution(s) available)

Lots of pieces: Search, domain accounts, “Alternate Access Mappings”, “Shared Service Providers”

“Absurdly voluminous” amounts of Javascript and CSS code out of the box

Not trivial to deploy securely to the web

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Content

Sitecore Evaluation

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Content Reuse and sharing

In Context Editing

Workflow

Publishing

Branding control and support

Security

Multilanguage support

Multi-device support

Accessibility checking and compliance

MOSS WCM

SEO Tools

Email Campaign tools

Integrated Analytics

Multisite Management

Content Reuse and sharing

In Context Editing

Workflow

Publishing

Branding control and support

Security

Multilanguage support

Multi-device support

Accessibility checking and compliance

Sitecore WCM

Web MarketingFeatures

Core WCMFeatures

MOSS and Sitecore – How do they compare?

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Sitecore Web Content Management A Marketing Oriented Approach Designed for infinite page componentization

Master -> sublayout -> sublayout -> sublayout …

Web controls are dynamically loaded on the fly

Renders pages are clean, light and accessible

Optimized for search engine placement

Optimized for rapid and iterative site branding / evolution

Support for table-less (CSS driven) design

Support for rich content types and taxonomies through multilevel inheritance

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The Sitecore Sweet Spot is in Public Website Content Management

Best Fits: Public website content management

Integration with other systems

Multi-lingual, multi-device (e.g. Blackberry)

Organizations that demand a usable CMS

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Why? Reuse of content

Specify once, display anywhere Reduced data entry for content authors

Consistency Sitecore enforces formatting decisions

made by designers

Authors focus on content Developers define appearance Sitecore combines content with

presentation when visitors request a page

Sitecore’s Content Architecture

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Content and Templates

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Sitecore SharePoint Connector Connect intranet content to your public website

Manage intranet, extranet documents in SharePoint

Publish to the web using Sitecore – via the SharePoint connector

Similarly could be used for other intranet items: Calendar events

Announcements

Images

“List” data

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Sitecore SharePoint ConnectorMapping Lists and Media

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Conclusion Select the right Web CMS for your organization

Evaluate the relative strengths and weaknesses of SharePoint vs other .NET-based solutions

SharePoint is excellent for the intranet and extranet

SharePoint has some challenges for Web Content Management

There are Best of Breed tools available like Sitecore

Consider a SharePoint-Sitecore combo

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See also: Top 10 Mistakes when selecting a CMS

http://www.steptwo.com.au/papers/kmc_selectionmistakes

CMS Watch:

The SharePoint Report (proprietary)

Sitecore Webinar “Is SharePoint the right tool for your organization?”

CMS Wire:

http://www.cmswire.com/cms/cms-reviews/sharepoint-2007-review-six-pillars-of-moss-000922.php

Sitecore SharePoint connector

http://www.sitecore.net/Product/Features/Architecture/~/media/Products/Fact%20Sheets/Sharepoint%20pdf.ashx

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QuestionsPlease type your questions using the control panel on your screen

Kristin Hodgson Bill SappNavigationArts Sitecore703-584-8920 415-380-0600