We are often asked by publishers what they can do to get a content management initiative headed in the right direction. Following are 7 tips that all publishers can follow to ensure a successful CMS project.

1. Data conversion | Typesetting service providers. Define what role a conversion house or a typesetter will have in the project and communicate that to in-house staff and the service provider. Get them involved early and detail the business requirements to them as well.

2. Pilot content. Identify and select representative publications that you would like to use as test content. It's useful to have a range of content types from your publishing organization (eg, 1 journal, 1 textbook, 1 instructor's manual, etc). But keep the number of actual documents small so you can work out the data details. You don't want to spend too much time just massaging data and not implementing core features.

3. Business rules. Define the essential business rules that the system needs to reflect. What are the high-level business process workflows? Keep the business process as simple as possible yet still document useful tracking and management. This usually means reflecting the key development, review, and approval steps. Don't necessarily model each little thing each actor does in the process. Shoot for the 30,000-foot view.  Typical RSuite customers require

• permissions
• data validation
• approvals

4. Metadata and search. Pinpoint the key discreet pieces of metadata that need to be captured to enable searching, reporting, and general management of content objects. Think about how you'll want to be able to search and find things from various users' perspectives. Also consider what you'll need to report on from a management and tracking aspect. Typical metadata fields include

• ISBNs
• DOIs
• author names
• classifying metadata
• controlled vocabularies
• approval statuses

5. Key deliveries. Determine what the system needs to deliver and export in order to demonstrate success.  Some key deliveries RSuite customers require include

• input to page layout
• XML for aggregation
• HTML for a Web site
• EPUB

6. System integration. Consider what systems the CMS will need to interact with now and in the future. Create a thorough list of systems that your editorial and production staff use. Obvious systems include page layout systems such as Typefi or InDesign. What about peer-review systems? Will your CMS deliver content to your web site? 

7. User roles. Specify all types of users of the system and define their roles. Will users interact with the CMS on a daily basis? What are the logical job roles? Will you need to provide for "casual" users of the system?

The main idea is to get your staff thinking about content management and CMS before you embark on an actual CMS implementation. Define, document, and communicate to internal staff, decision makers, stakeholders, and service providers. Have any other tips to add? How do you measure the success of your CMS implementation?

Eliot Kimber, senior solutions architect at RSI Content Solutions, spends most of his days helping publishers implement RSuite CMS, proselytizing DITA For Publishers, testing XML-to-EPUB3 conversions, and tending to his brood of hens and rooster. In his spare time he wrote a book: DITA For Practitioners, Volume 1, Architecture and Technology published by XML Press. On behalf of all his co-workers, congratulations Eliot!

Eliot has spent the past 25 years entrenched in generalized markup languages. He was one of the founding members of the XML Working Group, a co-editor of the HyTime standard (with Charles Goldfarb and Steve Newcomb), a long-time member of the XSL-FO working group, and most recently, a founding member of the DITA Technical Committee.
The goal of this book is to provide a detailed look at DITA aimed at engineers, tools builders, and content strategists – anyone who designs, implements, or supports DITA-based systems – as well as experienced DITA authors who want a deeper understanding of the technology they are using.

Webinar Series on the Business Case for Digital Content

RSI Content Solutions and Data Conversion Laboratory are kicking off a 6-part webinar series next week that will address the many myths associated with the world of XML, CMS, and eBooks.

The six part webinar series called ‘Reality Check’ features experts in content management and publishing who lead the series and detail how to manage information and transform content to work within eBooks, browsers, and mobile platforms.

Following are the webinars in this series. You can read more here.

• April 26 | Truth of Digital Revenue Streams
  Panelist: Darrell W. Gunter, CEO, Gunter Media Group
  Having worked with hundreds of publishing professionals during the past 10 years, we've observed organizations that implement a strategic content management initiative and converted backlist titles into XML are the ones who are seeing digital revenue exceed print. Join this free webinar and hear the truths about what your organization can do recognize true digital revenue.
• May 9 | Truth About Automation
  For publishers and media companies, automating editorial and production tasks is necessary to keep pace with customer consumption as well as the competition. While many knowledge workers view automation as a threat to job security and an impediment to editorial quality, this webinar illustrates the truths around automating common editorial and production tasks. Indeed automation can free staff to focus on better content development.
• June 9 | Truth About ROI
  Panelist: Christopher Hill, VP Product Development, RSI Content Solutions
  Publishers understand that content management and data conversion is a pivotal piece in today's publishing environment. Yet budgeting for these initiatives can quickly scale to the point where executives question why they should stray from the status quo. In this free webinar, DCL and RSI Content Solutions, will lead a panel of publishing professionals who will discuss how they made their business case and received enthusiastic executive buy-in for content management and data conversion in their organizations.
• August 29 | Truth About DIY CMS and Conversion
  Panelist: Pat Sabosik, Elm City Consulting
  While using internal resources to develop a homegrown content management tool or convert your backlist to XML sounds like a cost-effective approach, the reality is that 82% or IT projects fail. This webinar focuses on the real concerns you need to address so that your organization can make educated decisions based on truths and not what simply seems will work.
• September 19 | Truth About Quality
  Panelists: Mike Edson and John Corkery, The DETI Group
  The premise of all publishing organizations is to provide quality content in a format that customers desire. Ask any copy editor about house style and you can anticipate a lengthy and thoughtful response. Authors too expect nothing but perfection when transforming intellectual property into a print or digital product. So how do successful publishing organizations blend automation into workflows without sacrificing quality?
• November 19 | The Truth From the Publishers' Perspective
  Panelists: Barry Bealer, CEO, RSI Content Solutions and Mark Gross, CEO, Data Conversion Laboratory
  Throughout the year, DCL and RSI Content Solutions have polled a large number of publishing and media executives to understand where they are in terms of strategic XML content management. We’ve asked tough questions around true revenue numbers, quality-control issues, content automation, and ROI. In this webinar series join CEOs Barry Bealer, RSI Content Solutions and Mark Gross, Data Conversion Laboratory who share not only the results of our 10-month polling but also their views on what the metrics mean.

Every once in a while a company finds itself evolving and in need of a makeover. Really Strategies reached that point. The company's new name is RSI Content Solutions. "When we founded the company back in 2000, we were 100% focused on XML technology consulting to publishers and media companies," stated Barry Bealer, CEO and co-founder of RSI Content Solutions. "Today, 99% of our revenue is from our software products and related services and we needed to reflect that in our company name."

The name has changed but the dedication to provide world-class content solutions to publishers, media companies, and technical publishers remains.

The new web site reflects the name change and also brings together our three content management software products---RSuite CMS, DocZone Book Publisher, DocZone DITA Publisher---under one url: www.rsicms.com.  Additionally, the new web site highlights more of our customer success stories. When our customers make statements like this, we want people to know!

“RSuite CMS combined with the DITA for Publishers framework is helping us achieve the holy grail of single-source publishing: XML content automatically delivered to InDesign and to multiple ebook delivery formats. The transformations from structured content to designed content have been seamless, allowing our staff to focus on content and product development.”
--Holly Gilly, Vice President for Product Development, Human Kinetics

"RSuite CMS is 200 times faster than our old system. The efficiencies we've gained are hard to believe."
--Keith Lawrenz, Senior Business Analyst, SAGE Publications, Inc.

"We selected DocZone because it is the only DITA-specific CMS available as a hosted solution that met all of our requirements."
--Nancy Thompson, CMS Implementation Specialist, Epson America

"We saw the time for PDF proofs drop from a week to just a few minutes with DocZone Book Publisher."
--Stephen Driver, Vice President of Production Services, Rowman & Littlefield Publishing Group

Over the next week, this blog will also have a face lift to reflect our new brand. We'll share more customer case studies as welll as highlight a series of webinars that kick off in April. Thanks for your interest thus far and stay tuned!

Content industry analyst, John Blossom, shares his opinion on how a CMS like RSuite helps publishers accelerate revenue and profit growth through better content management.
Want to learn more? Click the link below.

Really Strategies recently polled a select group of publishers to understand projections on the shifting revenue metrics around digital and print products. The results are within our own expectations:

When does your organization project digital revenue exceeding print revenue?

Having worked with hundreds of publishing professionals during the past 10 years, we've observed that those organizations who implement a strategic content management initiative are the ones who are seeing digital revenue exceed print. In some cases, we've seen digital revenue actually drive print revenue!

Where is your organization on this timeline? Do you anticipate digital revenue to exceed print revenue in 2012?

Lisa Bos shares her thoughts on content mangement trends for the coming year. Lisa is CTO and co-founder of Really Strategies, with primary responsibility for the RSuite CMS product vision and engineering.  RSuite is a content management system used by some of the world's leading publishers to manage content assets from creation through multichannel publishing and distribution.

Want to learn more? Click the link below.

The 5th Annual RSuite User Conference welcomed more than 150 publishing executives on Tuesday, October 25th in Philadelphia at the Chemical Heritage Foundation Conference Center. There were 41 distinct publishing organizations in the house as well as a handful of companies who service publishers.  The overwhelming consensus among presenters and keynote speakers was that content management should be used strategically in an organization to gain success in the digital publishing world.

We'll highlight other key takeaways over the next few days here. In the meantime, you can revisit the confernence via the Twitter hashtag #RSUC11.

Of course, if you're ready to learn how strategic content management will help you accelerate revenue and navigate the digital publishing environment...just click the button below!

At next Tuesday's 5th Annual RSuite User Conference in Philadelphia, Diane Burley from MarkLogic Corporation will moderate a panel, "Getting to the Core of a Digital Publishing Strategy."

Publishers have been working hard the past few years plotting their organization’s digital publishing strategy. Yet there are still so many questions and the landscape is indeed vast. In this panel session, digital information specialist Diane Burley will question RSuite customers about their digital publishing strategy. We'll hear how RSuite is helping with dynamic content creation, streamlined delivery to licensing channels, and the emerging world of apps. Diane is a strategic visionary and understands the technology that is needed to leverage great content.

Panelists include Anthony Allen, director of digital media at the American Society of Training & Development. Anthony is a dynamic industry speaker who is known for translating how well-managed and structured content results in increased revenue. Linda Baker, VP, IT & web development at SLACK Inc. will share how transforming its entire wealth of content into XML enables them to repurpose content in an agile way. Dave Moreau and Joan Robinson from Wolters Kluwer Health detail how RSuite enables the Nursing Practice to produce and deliver a 21st century product in a 21st century manner.

Don't miss this important event. With 1 week remaining, limited seats are still available!

October 25, 2011
The Chemical Heritage Foundation
Conference Center
315 Chestnut Street
Philadelphia, PA 19106

Robert Methven, CTO at Triumph Learning, will speak at the RSuite User Conference and demonstrate how RSuite is a key component of Triumph’s long-term digital publishing strategy. Triumph Learning serves instructional materials to more than 25 million students across America. More than three brands serve up a range of curriculum needs, including test prep resources, digital curriculum, and classroom kits.

“RSuite has become the center of Triumph’s CMS strategy and is the foundation that allows Triumph to respond to changing market needs,” stated Marianne Calilhanna, conference organizer and marketing manager at Really Strategies. “Whether you are an educational publisher, STM journal publisher, or trade publisher, to be successful today, you need a solid digital publishing strategy and that includes proper content management and tools.”

The RSuite User Conference is a forum for publishers who want to learn how content management is the key to building a successful digital publishing strategy. All publishing executives are welcome to register. Attendees will hear case studies from some of the world's leading publishers, learning what works and what doesn't work when developing and implementing a CMS.