Hannon Hill Corporation

800.407.3540 | www.hannonhill.com | info@hannonhill.com
Makers of the Award-Winning Cascade Server content management software
products | services | customers | partners | news & events | company

Blog Archives

Blogs - October 2010

////

Below are the blog entries for October 2010.

/

Want a Successful CMS Rollout? Train the Trainer

By David Klanac
Tuesday, October 26th, 2010 at 3:00pm

I was on a sales trip recently where the prospect began asking questions about our recommended approach to rolling out Cascade Server to their organization.  I have a fairly short answer for this frequently asked topic.  My first response is to tell people to always be able to identify at least 3 core, recurring problems that you are looking to solve using the CMS and how you're going to measure your progress.  That's the nice softball answer that will get just about any group of people quickly nodding their heads in agreement.  What I follow up with, however, usually takes a moment to explain as it's designed to address what I feel is the Achilles Heel of organizations rolling out new software or attempting to enact change of any kind –– buy-in.

I'm sure that there are a multitude of definitions out there for buy-in, but I try to keep mine simple.  If you can convince another person that a) there is a problem to solve and b) that the proposed solution will make their daily responsibilities easier, the person is bought in.  As an aside, if you can elicit ideas from him or her on ways to further improve the solution, then you've found an ally and already multiplied your return on time invested.

Returning to my CMS rollout recommendations, the best way by far to get that buy-in and daily use of the system is to maintain an individual on staff who is responsible for training and supporting end users.  Focus your outside vendor training efforts on making that person and any website managers comfortable and knowledgeable about the CMS and your unique implementation of it.  What you end up doing is constructing a living, renewable resource of knowledge who facilitates problem solving and continues to invest in your team.  I'm not advocating that an organization hire a person full-time, but I am saying that a company needs to be prepared to shift responsibilities around so that there is a person(s) whose highest priority is successful CMS adoption.

Some of this advice may not appear very sage at surface level.  But it's interesting, however, how many organizations still insist on solely relying upon the outside CMS vendor to get buy-in and train end users on the software.  There are a couple of reasons why this is not a recommended approach. 

First, a successful training experience is predicated on the fact that the trainee wants to be there and sees value in the exercise.  An outsider vendor with little to no firsthand knowledge of your organizational culture or internal CMS selection history is going to spend more time selling than teaching.  Yes, yes –– we vendors "never stop selling," but imagine the same scenario with an "inside guy" who is able to navigate the human roadblocks to getting buy-in and is able to jump right into training much earlier in the process.  Which scenario sounds more effective to you?

Secondly, a vendor is not going to remain onsite indefinitely, which means that you will eventually grapple with another challenge.  CMS implementations tend to be very customized and leave users still needing specific questions answered where a vendor's support team is not always going to be the best source to consult.  For instance, imagine using Microsoft Word's form fields feature in a custom .dotx template file and getting frustrated when you can't find any Microsoft support information explaining why your department's template requires a nine-digit zip code instead of the typical five.  Chances are much higher that an individual on staff will have a better answer to your question, because it's a customization.  Step back into the more sophisticated scenario with a CMS and it might be more clear why a staff trainer could not only answer your implementation questions but also provide one-on-one, supplemental instruction.

As I said, the other half of my recommendation takes a brief moment of reflection.  Essentially "training the trainer" is a repeatable way to ensuring user adoption of your CMS and, therefore, success with your CMS.


Category


View the Schedule for the First Ever Group Training in Cascade Server

By Uran Piedra
Friday, October 22nd, 2010 at 10:45am

Don’t forget that Hannon Hill will be hosting its first ever group training for Cascade Server on November 9-10, 2010. This 12-hour training, held over two days, will take place from 10:00 AM - 1:00 PM and 2:00 PM to 5:00 PM EST on both days.
 
We need at least six people to sign up in order for us to confirm the training, so if you’re on the fence, check out the schedule below to see what will be covered:

Group Training Agenda
1. Cascade Server Technical Basics 2. Creating sites and templates 3. Configuration Sets and Content Types 4. Metadata and Structured Data 5. Introduction to XML, XSLT, and Velocity 6. Advanced XSLT/Velocity 7. Introduction to Workflows 8. Publishing 9. User, Group, and Role Management 10. User, Group, and Role Management
For more information on pricing and other logistics, check out our original blog about the training.

Category


Transitioning To A New Design

By Kat Liendgens
Wednesday, October 13th, 2010 at 3:00pm

Many of our customers have been maintaining their website in Cascade Server for a number of years now, so we are seeing more and more organizations who are going through the process of re-designing their website. Naturally, the biggest question that arises is “How do I implement my new design in Cascade without having to copy and paste all of my content into the new pages?”
 
The short answer to this question is that you can create a new Configuration (“new-html”, for example) which uses your new templates. You can then publish the new output to a staging server, and once everything looks the way you want it, publish to Production. Sounds easy, right? Sure, but there are several things that you need to consider:
 

How will the new templates be mapped to the current pages? 

You need to determine which of the current Content Types will use which new Templates. If your new design requires additional new Content Types, you have to know which, if any, of the current pages should be using the new Content Types. I highly recommend capturing the mapping on a spreadsheet to ensure that you don’t overlook any of your existing pages.

How do the current Data Definitions correspond to the new ones that you will need?

This is the tricky part. Take a look to determine if your current Data Definitions are compatible with your new ones. For instance, if you have a WYSIWYG editor for the main content, an image chooser for your main image, and a WYSIWYG editor for a side column, then you would be in good shape if you had the same Data Definitions for your new design, even if the look and the placement of the content is completely different. In some cases, you may add some fields (such as a block chooser for call-outs) which is not a problem if you explain to your end users ahead of time that they will see some additional fields that will have no impact on the current design and content. However, if your new design constitutes a drastic departure from your current design with regard to Data Definitions, then you would have to manually create all of the content for your new pages since the system would have no way of knowing which structured data on your current design would have to go to which field in the new design. Therefore, prior to designing your new site, I recommend that you ensure that your current Data Definitions can be used for the new design if it is important to you to minimize manual content migration.

Will the new design require a new folder structure?

If your site contains any folder-driven content, such as dynamic navigation, it is of utmost importance to refrain from moving folders or page assets until the new configurations have been implemented and tested and you are ready to call a content freeze. During the content freeze, nothing will be published to the Production server while you go through the process of re-arranging the directory structure. Once you’re done, publish to a staging server, perform QA,  and then publish your new site to Production.

We recently had the pleasure of working on a project for Bouvé College of Health Sciences who did an outstanding job planning their redesign process. While the new look and feel of the site was quite different from the old site, Bouvé managed to maintain their current Data Definitions and just added a few new ones. Therefore, no existing content had to be moved to new structured data. Bouvé also succeeded in keeping the exact same Content Types that they had on their previous site. After calling a content freeze, they re-arranged their assets to match their new navigational structure, tested the new site, and went live with the new site last week. Feel free to take a look: www.northeastern.edu/bouve/

If you have any questions about best practices with regard to implementing a new design, please do not hesitate to contact us.


Category


Catch The Hannon Hill Roadshow

By Eric Karaszewski
Thursday, October 7th, 2010 at 1:00pm

I’m the kind of person who enjoys a constant change of scenery. If I could, I’d work from the pool in Atlanta on Monday, a log cabin in North Carolina on Tuesday, a beachside hut in San Diego on Wednesday, the steps of the Lincoln Memorial in D.C. on Thursday, and the Sears Tower in Chicago on Friday. Then, the next Monday, I’d do something completely different.

With that said, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that I’m excited for our next deviation from the daily routine, the HighEdWeb Conference 2010 in Cincinnati. Hannon Hill Software Engineer Syl Turner and Solutions Consultant Dean Smith will be joining me as we travel to Cincinnati from October 10-13. As Hannon Hill’s newest employee, HighEdWeb marks only my third conference ever, and these events are quickly becoming one of my favorite parts of the job.

Something I am really looking forward to are presentations from eight Cascade Server clients:


Of course the collaboration on ideas, problems, and solutions from higher education professionals is the reason we're there, but I have to admit there are a few other things I am looking forward to as well.  I am hoping to have time to make it out to Skyline Chili and Fountain Square when I am in Cincinnati, and maybe even the Reds' playoff game at Great American Ballpark if there is a Game 4.  With the forecasted highs in the 70s and 80s for next week, it should be great weather for my visit.

And don't forget that in addition to our journey to Cincinnati, we’re also sending four other Hannon Hillians to Educause in Anaheim, CA next week.  Feel free to reach out if you’ll be at either one, or just stop by our booth to say hello and pick up some free SWAG.  We hope to see many of you out and about at both of these great conferences!


Category


Special Offer on Group Training for Cascade Server

By Kat Liendgens
Tuesday, October 5th, 2010 at 3:00pm

In previous blogs, we've talked about the Cascade Server training options provided by the Services Team. The pricing for our standard two-day training is particularly beneficial to clients who have multiple trainees, since it is based on a fixed price rather than a per-seat basis. However, some of our clients may only have one or two people who need to be trained. Therefore, we are happy to announce that we are now offering an online cross-client group training as an alternative.

Here are the details:

Date and Time
Our first group training will take place on 11/09/2010 and 11/10/2010. The 12-hour group training will be held over the course of two days. In order to accommodate clients in each time zone, the sessions will take place from 10 AM to 1 PM EST and 2 PM to 5 PM EST, with a one hour break on each day. 

Format
The training will be held online, via a screen-sharing session, and a conference number will be provided. Since we are restricting the maximum number of participants to ten, you will have plenty of opportunity to directly interact with the trainer. You will also be given access to our training instance in case you would like to follow along with the examples. Of course, feel free to work on your own instance if you prefer. 

Topics Covered
Most of the topics covered in our standard two-day session will also be covered in the group training including Cascade Server Technical Basics, Creating Sites, Configuration Sets and Content Types, Metadata and Structured Data, Formats, Advanced Velocity, and Publishing.

Class Size
The minimum number of participants is six. As soon as we have reached six sign-ups, the training session will be confirmed. In order to ensure the best possible interaction with the trainer, the number of participants is limited to ten. 

Pricing
The price is $800 per seat and includes both days of the training.

Signing Up
To sign up for our next group training, please fill out our training request form. The deadline for sign-up is 11/01/2010.

Request Additional Information
If you have any additional questions about standard, group or mini-training, please contact us.


Category


© 2001-2010 Hannon Hill Corporation. All rights reserved. | Full HTML Version