I knew it sounded too easy

We're now well underway in our implementation of our CMS system. We've been working closely with the Stellent consultants to finalize the architecture, load the software, and configure the system. In general, they've been great to work with but as we get into the details have had a few surprises with our original design. We've also found that we need to push some items back because we just weren't ready.

We are well positioned in metadata and file structure, since we spent a lot of upfront time on these. They've gone into the system quickly. Our challenge is now is having our staff move files into our new file structure prior to batch loading them into the system. Sounds easy, but are giving this process two months. I'm waiting for the next phases of migrating in paper, implementing workflow, and changing the search on the web. All should be quite fun!!!

A comment from the CMS conference is ringing true, that people still need to do their jobs while you are implementing the new system. We're finding this a challenge as we identify things that we need to fully configure the system. As the list of things grow that we need to do, my uneasiness of about asking too much of staff grows.

We also found that for a few of our business requirements, there's still a lot of "art" involved, not out-of-the-box as I expected. Using XML is one of those challenges. With all the talk I've heard about this at conferences, we're finding that this still requires a large amount of customization.

As a friend of mine puts it, "it's all good." While it may seem overwhelming at times, we've got good conscious people working on our staff and Stellent consultants. I'm looking forward to reading this posting a few months from now when everything is up and running perfectly.