Effectively and efficiently communicating with your
customers, partners and employees depends more and more on being
able to quickly and easily access accurate, relevant
data.
However, log jams on web team processes often prevent
content experts from quickly sharing or publishing vital
information to key audiences.
This can seriously hamper the forward momentum and profitability
of an enterprise. Added to this, web teams are overwhelmed with
requests to regularly publish high quality new content – while at
the same time managing vast amounts of existing web pages and rich
media across external websites and internal corporate portals.
These are weighty problems. But there are viable and
cost-effective solutions. One of the keys is for organisations to
give non-technical contributors the tools to author and publish
content to maintain consistency and quality without burdening web
teams with costly and time-intensive manual updates.
By re-configuring information representation technologies to
treat content as an asset in the corporate IT infrastructure,
businesses can realise the benefits of reusable and agile content.
But first, they need to move from ad-hoc and costly content
creation to componentisation and then to the appropriate content
services.
XML and web services are the keys to this transition to help
organisations realise the full value of their content. With these
technologies now comfortably in the mainstream of enterprise
software, this process is more achievable than ever.
Microsoft Office system 2003 provides XML support in a number of
existing Microsoft programs, along with some newer partner
providers including Factiva, Gale and elibrary who bring integrated
search tools to the Microsoft offering.
Microsoft developed the products in an effort to improve
information intelligence, streamline process management, improve
teaming and collaboration, and create a more personalised
environment for the business user. Office 2003 integrates with
Microsoft SharePoint products and technologies; offers XML support
in Microsoft Office Word 2003, Microsoft Office Excel 2003, and
Microsoft Office Access 2003; and supports Information Rights
Management.
Getting the results you want - the Microsoft
solution
Using Word 2003 to create an intelligent editing environment
means you can link to other record systems using the XML
integration built in. With task pane integration, Word 2003 can
integrate other sources of content like Factiva news archives or
other repositories.
Word 2003 can also be used for initiating workflow, reducing
backlogs, context sensitive help, custom UI and non-invasive error
handling. Using integrated instant messenger, the author can track
and receive notifications from other editors about the workflow of
that material.
Word 2003 can then export the content into different formats or
repurpose it for different media or audiences. Using integrated
XML, it can send the structured content directly to another system
or company via web services.
For more structured, forms based content, InfoPath 2003 gives
even more control over the content ensuring consistency of entries
and content aggregation with the same XML integration to and from
other systems.
Integration with Windows SharePoint Services enables back-end
storage, searching, processing and management of this information
with great out-of-the-box integration.
Case study
“If this solution is successful, we can replicate our existing
structure, meaning our authors don’t feel intimidated or
uncomfortable.”
Joel Greenberg, Director of Strategic Development, Open
University
Find out how the Open University is considering changing
course