A Legacy CMS' False Sense of Security

Posted by Barry Bealer on Jun 25, 2014 9:30:00 AM

old computerAs with everything in life, it's all a matter of the lens you view things through.  Something can look rosey to one person while looking like a train wreck to another.  Often times the view of a legacy content management system is dependent on where you sit within your organization, and rightly so.  But many times the decision to not replace a legacy CMS is based completely on the false premise that everything is OK and IT has everything under control.  In our experience, many times the IT organization is overwhelmed with projects and maintaining a legacy system becomes more difficult with each passing year.  

In many publishing organizations that we speak with on a daily basis, legacy CMS' are patched together by one or two very key individuals within an organization because they happen to be the longest tenured staff and were around when the system was installed.  There is generally a knowledgebase of small system idiosyncracies that these individuals know to stay away from because of either a design flaw or through implementing the system incorrectly.  Having an IT person be a single point of failure is not a good business practice to begin with, but having little or no understanding of what the black box legacy CMS is doing is much, much worse.  Unfortunately these situation exist at major publishing organizations around the globe.  This is an outgrowth of publishers who don't want to face the reality that their system is in serious jeapordy of crashing and there is no recovery mechanism in place.  

So how does each management level within a publisher view a legacy CMS?  Here's an outsiders perspective:

C-Suite View - We have technology that is proven

From the top, everything looks calm, cool, and collected.  Think about the duck gliding across the pond.  Products are being produced, money is being collected, why do we need to change anything? Remember the duck is paddling like crazy under the water.

VP View - We can make this work with little investment

While there are issues we need to address, the technology is solid and has been proven for some time.  Our team does not have turnover issues and therefore they are well versed in the CMS.  Some investment might be required to patch things here or there, but we have no need to upgrade to a new CMS.  Throwing more staff or budget at the legacy CMS will take care of everytihng.  We should be fine to meet our strategy.

Director View - We are unable to keep up with daily issues let alone scale the system

The system has been working, but barely.  The fragile nature causes daily concern that one hiccup could bring the entire production process down.  Editorial is comfortable with the workflow, knows the editorial tools, but under the covers the CMS cannot be extended and is patched because the technology has not been upgraded in years.  Adding more content, integrating with other systems, or adding third party tools will be extremely difficult without a large budget and a sufficient timeline to complete.

Developer View - We are so screwed 

The application has been maintained by different people over time.  Nothing has been documented, we have not paid support and have not received CMS software upgrades, and the underlying database has not been upgraded in years.  If the system goes down, I may need to look for a job.

The Bottom Line

Every position and management level at a publisher has a different view of their CMS.  It's natural.  What consistenly surprises people is that a legacy CMS can only address the requirements from yesterday and potentially not address the strategy of multi-channel publishing or automated eBook creation or whatever objective because changes are difficult and the system cannot scale.  Legacy systems are generally proven, but they do not generally have the stability to support the long-term business objectives and must be replaced.

If your CMS is over seven years old, has been patched to keep it running, and doesn't support your strategy, let us show you why publishers from around the globe and over 10,000 publishing professionals use RSuite every day.

Topics: content management for publishers, content management, CMS for publishers, Content Mangement Project Team, CMS Teams, Legacy CMS

FrameMaker to CCMS: A DocZone Sponsored Webinar

Posted by Sarah Silveri on Jun 16, 2014 8:56:00 AM

FrameMaker to CCMS: A DocZone Sponsored WebinarOn Tuesday, June 24th, at 11am EDT, please join Alan Houser, co-founder and president of Group Wellesley, Inc., former president of the Society for Technical Communication as he presents the FrameMaker to CCMS webinar, sponsored by DocZone. 

Alan is a distinguished consultant and trainer in the fields of XML, XML technologies, publishing workflows, and authoring and publishing tools. Christopher Hill, V.P. Product Management at RSI Content Solutions, (makers of DocZone CCMS) will be conducting the interview.

 

They will discuss questions such as: 

  • Are desktop publishing tools like Adobe FrameMaker keeping up with today’s new business and customer requirements?
  • How can component content management systems like DocZone dramatically improve the efficiency of your publishing workflows and content lifecycles?
  • How can you plan for and successfully deploy component content management in your organization?

Whether you’re working with legacy content or starting your technical documentation from scratch, we hope you’re able to attend this informative webinar.

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Topics: Webinar, DocZone, FrameMaker, CCMS, June, Alan Houser

RSuite CMS and HarperCollins Publishers Digital Publishing Transformation Webinar

Posted by Sarah Silveri on Jun 9, 2014 2:44:00 PM

Webinar | The Reality of Digital Publishing Transformation ProjectsPublishers today are under increasing pressure to meet shorter time to market demands, build more products through content reuse, and automate the entire lifecycle of content development. HarperCollins has embarked on a transformation project to meet their long-term publishing strategy.

Mike McGinniss, Senior Vice President, Publishing Services from HarperCollins Publishers and Denis Wilson, Editor-in-Chief of Book Business will discuss:

      • Pros and cons of transformation projects
      • Lessons learned from executing cross-organization and cross-functional projects
      • Best practices for meeting aggressive timelines

Whether you are just starting a digital publishing transformation project or plan on embarking on a project, you won’t want to miss attending this webinar.

Register Now

Topics: RSuite, Webinar, RSuite CMS, HarperCollins, HarperCollins Publishers, The Reality of Digital Publishing Transformation P, Michael McGinniss

RSuite CMS Recognized with a Voltage Award as an Emerging Innovator

Posted by Sarah Silveri on Jun 5, 2014 8:18:00 AM

RSuite CMS Recognized with a Voltage Award as an Emerging InnovatorRSuite CMS, a content management system for publishers, was recognized last week by SmartCEO Magazine with a Voltage Award at a ceremony held on Thursday, May 29, 2014 at The Ballroom at the Ben.  The event was attended by over 200 Philadelphia technology executives.  RSuite CMS was a finalist in the Emerging Innovator category. 

“We are very excited to be recognized with a Voltage Award,”  stated Barry Bealer, President/CEO, and Co-founder at RSI Content Solutions. “RSuite CMS has helped many of the worlds leading publishers completely transform their business and we believe our product is truly innovative."

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Topics: RSuite CMS, SmartCEO, Voltage awards, Emerging Innovator

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