Drew, As I understand it, your company has developed a CMS for a client, and now would like to take it commercial. Your need is to get your sales amd marketing staff to understand what a CMS is, so they can market the new product.
As an aside, have you checked the legal ramifications of any goal to go commercial to other clients with this product -- if I've understood correctly? But then your client may even be interested in partnering with your company on this. I support the previous point, made by Michale Kimsal, that it is critical to begin with the business needs that your client had, which your solution meets. However, I see that your sales folk may need background as well. I would like to offer several resources -- but if I may first offer a position. There are a multitude of resources -- but the basic problem is that the concept of Content Management is so variously understood -- and I'm sure you already know, also abused. This "freedome of interpretation" applies also to the vendors. While these resources I offer can give some background, the critical issue would be to know your product's place within the wide range of intepretations of a CMS. One basic distinction for example, is on type of conent management: is it just for web-based content (intranet and internet site content?), or can it manage corporate content? A few resources for basic information are in Research Oranisation publications. These reports are costly, but the web sites which home the reports are downloadable are an excellent resource for establishing crieria by which you might evaluate your own product. These resources are more for yourself -- you'd need to "translate" them for your sales & marketing team so they understand and market the same product you have built. 1. Ovum's reports at: http://www.ovum.com/go/product/flyer/WC2.htm 2. Forrester Research at: http://www.forrester.com/Research/Coverage/0,5907,137,00.html 3. Cutter Consortium Reports: www.cutter.com 4. Seybold Reports has a report focussing on Online/Internet publishing: http://www.seyboldreports.com/TSR/index.html 5. Our own favourite CMSWatch Content Mgt Report has fair introduction to the concept: http://www.cmswatch.com/TheCMSReport/ 6.Then there are the presentations on the business case of a CMS, such as CAtherine Schneider's of Anderson's Consulting (2001) at: http://seminars.seyboldreports.com/seminars/2001_san_francisco/presentations/086 /schneider_catherine.ppt 7. Finally, the vendors themselves offer great introductions to the concepts behind the products they're trying to sell. The core vendors can be found listed in the Research report samples 8. In addition, you may find some of the resources which target themselves more generically to "finding a way through the CMS jungle". The following table is rich with information -- but the best column is the "supported features" column, which can be a great guide for defining what features your own CMS supports: http://www.networkcomputing.com/ibg/Chart?guide_id&84 The core message is -- you have to develop your presentation yourself, since your own product will have taken it's own form. But these links should help. Since the climate for content management is hugely competitive right now, best of luck in your plans with your product. Carol Avis [EMAIL PROTECTED] Mgr Info Mgt and Technology Message: 1 Date: Sun, 01 Dec 2002 16:46:47 +0000 From: Drew McLellan <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Subject: [cms-list] Teaching resources Next week, I am due to give an internal company presentation about our CMS product. The presentation is to sales and marketing staff as well as designers, account managers and operations. The idea is to explain what content management is, pros and cons, and where our product fits in. Obviously, sales and marketing will be interested in what benefits the product brings and how that compares with the competition. Designers will want to know about the templating, separation of content and presentation and deliverables. The audience is pretty broad. Has anyone done anything similar to this? Are there any good resources that might help me with the "what is a CMS" bit? (btw, I come from a technical background - I'm the development lead / technical manager). Thanks! -- drew mclellan author: dreamweaver mx web development http://dreamweaverfever.com/dwd/ WaSP dreamweaver task force http://www.webstandards.org/ ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- This email and any accompanying attachments may contain information that is confidential and is subject to legal privilege. If you are not the intended recipient, do not read, use, disseminate, distribute or copy this message or attachments. If you have received this message in error, please notify the sender immediately and delete this message. Any views expressed in this email and any attachments are not those of acl, except where the sender expressly,and with authority, states them to represent acl's views. Before opening any attachments, please check them for viruses and defects. -- http://cms-list.org/ trim your replies for good karma.
