CMS presentation abstract

I was requested to prepare an abstract for a Content Management Strategies conference to be held on April 11-13, 2005 in Annapolis, Maryland. Preparing this abstract gave me a chance to reflect on the last two years and all the effort in getting to this point. Upon reflection, I learned so much during this period. Not only about technology, but also inter-relations between change management, process management, and knowledge management. I also watched a number of folks step-up and will be major champions as we move forward.

The abstract is below:

The Awwa Research Foundation has reached an agreement with Stellent, Inc. for purchasing a Content Management System (CMS). The system will be installed in March of 2005.

Our CMS journey started in early 2002 after managers saw a CMS demonstration and said “we need one too.” Over the next two years we went through efforts preparing our organization for CMS implementation. We learned what a CMS is, how it could help us, and what it takes to implement successfully. We built our information model and defined items such as business needs, taxonomy, use cases, and system requirements. Most importantly, we developed an organizational culture that will embrace CMS. Our biggest challenge now is managing expectations and explaining why it’s not here yet.

In hindsight, taking this time in preparing for a CMS is essential. This presentation will describe the process we went through to ready our organization.