Content management and maintenance of e-business systems

Sell-side e-commerce sites are continuously under development, even when they become live. The sites need to be dynamic to deal with errors reported by customers and in response to innovations by competitors. Additionally the content, such as information about different events or new product launches and price promotions, will need to be updated if the site is to generate repeat visits from customers.

Buy-side e-commerce sites are less dynamic and are more akin to traditional business infor­mation systems, so in this section we will focus on maintenance of e-commerce sites, although this description will also apply to e-business implementations of intranets and extranets.

What are the management issues involved with maintenance? We will review the following:

  • Deciding on the frequency and scope of content updating
  • Processes for managing maintenance of the site and responsibilities for updating
  • Selection of content management system
  • Testing and communicating changes made
  • Integration with monitoring and measurement systems
  • Managing content in the global organization.

1. Frequency and scope of content updating

The moment an e-commerce system is live it will require updates to the content and ser­vices. Different types of content updating can be identified, and a different approach will be required for each. We can apply the fault taxonomy of Jorgensen (1995) to an e-commerce site to decide on the timing of the action required according to the type of problem. We can see that the approach is quite different from that for a traditional information system or packaged software that is distributed to thousands of customers. For example, with a mild problem such as a spelling mistake within software, it would be too costly to update and redistribute the software. With the e-commerce site, a spelling mistake, although trivial, can be updated immediately by correcting it on the web page or in the database or content man­agement system where it is stored. Indeed, minor problems need to be corrected because they reduce the credibility of the site.

For more major errors, it is essential to fix the problems as soon as possible since revenue will be lost, both from customers who are unable to complete their current purchases and from users who will be unprepared to use the site in future because of their bad experience. Data from transactional e-commerce sites show that very few have continuous availability. Problems can occur from bugs in the e-commerce software or problems with the web-server hardware and software. Some are as bad as 90 per cent. If the site revenue for a 24-hours, 7- days-a-week site is £10 million per week then if availability falls to 95 per cent this is the equivalent of losing £500,000 before the loss of future revenues from disgruntled customers is taken into account. A modular or component-based approach to e-commerce systems should enable the location of the problem module or cartridge to be identified rapidly and the problem in the module to be fixed, or possibly to revert to the previous version.

As well as fixing the problems shown in Table 12.3 companies will also wish to update the functionality of the e-commerce system in response to customer demands, sales promotions or competitor innovations. Again, a component-based approach can enable self-contained, discrete, new modules or cartridges to be plugged into the system which are designed to pro­vide new functionality with only minimal changes to existing modules. For each such update, a small-scale prototyping process involving analysis, design and testing will need to occur.

2. Maintenance process and responsibilities

For efficient updating of an e-commerce system, it is vital to have a clearly defined process for content and service changes. Different processes will apply depending on the scope of the change, as described in the previous section. We can identify two different types of changes – routine content changes such as updates to documents on the site or new documents and major changes where we make changes to the structure, navigation or services on the site.

2.1. Process for routine content changes

The process for routine content changes should be communicated to all staff providing con­tent to the site, with responsibilities clearly identified in their job descriptions. The main stages involved in producing an updated web page are to design it, write it, test it and pub­lish it. A more detailed process is indicated here which distinguishes between review of the content and technical testing of the completed web page.

According to Chaffey et al. (2009), the different tasks involved in the maintenance process for new copy are as follows:

  • Write. This stage involves writing copy and, if necessary, designing the layout of copy and associated images.
  • Review. An independent review of the copy is necessary to check for errors before a docu­ment is published. Depending on the size of organization, review may be necessary by one person or several people covering different aspects of site quality such as corporate image, marketing copy, branding and legality.
  • Correct. This stage is straightforward and involves updates necessary as a result of stage 2.
  • Publish (to test environment). The publication stage involves putting the corrected copy on a web page which can be checked further. This will be in a test environment that can only be viewed from inside the company.
  • Test. Before the completed web page is made available over the World Wide Web a final test will be required for technical issues such as whether the page loads successfully on different browsers.
  • Publish (to live environment). Once the material has been reviewed and tested and is signed off as satisfactory it will be published to the main web site and will be accessible by customers.

The difficulty is that all these stages are required for quality control, but if different people are involved, then rapid, responsive publication is not possible. Activity 12.4 illustrates a typical problem of content maintenance, involving the six stages described above and assesses changes that could be made to improve the situation.

2.2. Frequency of content updates

Since the web is perceived as a dynamic medium, customers expect new information to be posted to a site straightaway. If material is inaccurate or ‘stale’ then the customer may not return to the site.

As information on a web page becomes outdated and will need to be updated, it is impor­tant to have a mechanism defining what triggers this update process. Trigger procedures should be developed such that when price changes, PR release or product specifications are updated in promotional leaflets or catalogues, these changes are also reflected on the web site. Without procedures of this type, it is easy for there to be mismatches between online and offline content.

As part of defining a web-site update process and standards, a company may want to issue guidelines which suggest how often content is updated. This may specify that content is updated as follows:

  • within two days of a factual error being identified;
  • a new ‘news’ item is added at least once a month;
  • when product information has been static for two months.

2.3. Process for major changes

For major changes to a web site, such as changing the menu structure, adding a new section of content or changing the services for users, a different process is required. Such changes will involve a larger investment and there will be limited funds for investment, so priorities for these major changes must be agreed. To achieve this the approach that is usually used is to set up a steering committee to ratify proposed changes. Such a decision usually needs an independent chair such as the e-commerce manager or marketing manager to make the final decision. The typical structure of such a committee is shown in Figure 12.4(a). It is made up of both technical and business staff and is useful for encouraging integration between these roles. Typical roles of some members of the committee who may also be involved in update of the site are shown in Figure 12.4(b). Figure 12.4(a), which could apply to Internet, extranet or intranet content, shows how a pyramid arrangement is used to ensure content quality on the site.

The committee will typically have a range of responsibilities such as:

  • Defining agreed update process and responsibilities for different types of changes
  • Specifying site standards for structure, navigation and look and feel (Table 12.4)
  • Specifying the tools that are used to update and manage content
  • Assessing proposals for major changes to site standards, content and services
  • Reviewing quality of service in terms of customer service and security
  • Specifying online promotion methods for the site (e.g. search engine registration) and evaluating the business contribution delivered via the site
  • Managing the budget for the site.

2.4. Initiatives to keep content fresh

It is often said that up-to-date content is crucial to site ‘stickiness’, but fresh content will not happen by accident, so companies have to consider approaches that can be used to control the quality of documents and in particular to keep them up-to-date and relevant. Generic approaches that I have seen which can work well are:

  • Assign responsibility for particular content types or site sections to individuals.
  • Make the quality of web content produced part of employees’ performance appraisal.
  • Produce a target schedule for publication of content.
  • Identify events which trigger the publication of new content, e.g. a new product launch, price change or press release.
  • Identify stages and responsibilities in updating – who specifies, who creates, who reviews, who checks, who publishes.
  • Measure the usage of content through web analytics or get feedback from site users.
  • Publish a league table of content to highlight when content is out-of-date.
  • Audit and publish content to show which is up-to-date.

2.5. Managing content for a global site

The issues in developing content management policies that are described above are compli­cated for a large organization with many lines of business and particularly for a multinational company. Centralization can give economies of scale and can achieve consistency in the way brand values are communicated nationally and internationally. However, content will need to be developed locally for regional audiences and this may require variations from central guidelines. Some regional autonomy needs to be allowed to enable buy-in from the different regions. It can be suggested that the following are required at an international level:

  • Technology platform. A common software system (CMS) will reduce costs of purchase, update and training. Integration with common software for customer relationship manage­ment (Chapter 9) and evaluation and measurement systems (see later in this chapter) will also be most efficient.
  • System architecture. A consistent architecture will avoid ‘reinventing the wheel’ in each country and will enable staff, partners and customers who need to access the CMS in different countries to be immediately familiar with it. Standards include:
    • Common page layout and navigation through templates
    • Common directory structures and consistent URL structure
    • Programming standard and languages and version control systems.
  • Process/standards. Update procedures for review of content for marketing, data protection and legal reasons as described in previous sections. Backup and archiving policies will also be required.

Source: Dave Chaffey (2010), E-Business and E-Commerce Management: Strategy, Implementation and Practice, Prentice Hall (4th Edition).

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