Strategic and Operational Significance of Web Content Management Systems - Literature review Example

Critically analyse the significance, both strategically and operationally of the growing use of Web CMSs in an area of administrative ,or economic, or social activity where Web CMSs are effective

Executive Summary

This report critically analysed the strategic and operational significance of Web Content Management Systems (WCMSs) in business organisations from economic activity perspectives where WCMSs are effective. The findings of the research show that Web CMSs play a significant role in promoting operational and strategic goals of the organisation, leading to the achievement of overall organisational objectives of the business such as competitive advantage and profitability.

Web CMS improves the operations of an organisation by allowing employees and managers from different organisations to participate in publishing and updating content on the company’s website hence meeting operational needs of each department in regards to work processes. Web CMS also allows operators to filter information to achieve simplicity and ease of workflows by eliminating unnecessary information. It also enhances efficient and effective work processes, hence achieving operational goals of each department.

WCMS also integrates information from different departments to promote effective collaboration, decision making and problem solving in the organisation. The strategic needs of the organisation are met by applying WCMS to decision making to allow employees to participate and contribute to good decisions that address specific needs of the organisation and those of stakeholders at the workplace.

However, lack of employees’ competence and infective change management approaches may lead to the ineffectiveness of Web CMS. Therefore, employees should be trained about IT issues and encouraged to appreciate change in various strategic and operational issues of the organisation.

Introduction

Web content management systems can be defined as a web-based application that allows a group of users to collaboratively publish content and manage, organise and update website content (Addey, 2002). This report critically analyses the significance of Web Content Management Systems (WCMSs) in business organizations as an area of economic activity to enhance collaboration among diverse employees in different countries where the company operates. The report will first provide the background of WCMS obtained from research in online and journal articles and books. It will then use various academic sources to analyse the role of WCMS in the workplaces of business organisations.

Background

In the recent past, the internet has emerged as an important tool of collaboration among various groups of individuals with common goals and objectives. The development of new technologies has resulted in advanced web technologies that have evolved over time to meet the changing needs of users. Various types of web applications are used for online communication and collaboration purposes. Web CMS is one of the web application that allows users of websites to participate in creation, publishing and transfer of information (Mican et al, 2009). Web CMS is a collaborative tool because it allows users to be engaged in a common activity and interact in various activities to achieve a common objective.

Since the rise of the internet in 1990s, corporate websites have been used by large, small and medium sized business organisations worldwide to reach the large number of internet users worldwide. Almost all business organisations nowadays have web domains that can enable them to communicate with employees, customers, shareholders, partners and other stakeholder groups. Traditionally, the role of publishing and updating content on the company’s website was left to the IT department (Boiko, 2002). However, WCMS has evolved over the recent past. It is now easy to collaboratively update a company’s website (Nakano, 2002). Employees in different departments including finance, marketing, and HRM and different geographical locations can be easily publish and update content to meet the changing business environment.

WCMS allows page navigation and website format that can be controlled centrally while encouraging decentralised responsibility of creation and publishing of content in various departments or teams within the organisation (Ndubisi, 2006). Various departments within an organisation may also be involved in updating the information or content of the website to adapt to the changing needs of the organisation and other stakeholders such as customers.

Literature Review

Various researchers have examined the operational and strategic significance of using Web Content Management Systems in organisations. Powel and Gill (2003) argue that the World Wide Web has matured, leading to new ways of meeting evolving customer expectations. The challenge of managing websites from a central location is that it is consistent only by look and feel, but it grew slowly and had limited availability of information (Mescan, 2004). As a result, web development has been decentralised in business organisations to meet strategic and operational needs of organisations.

The implementation of Web CMS across the organisation has significant impacts on the organisation. It acts as a resource for the organisation because it is used by employees in different departments to collaborate and produce superior operational and strategic decisions. Mican et al (2009) suggests that Web CMS acts as a process support system that can be used by employees in different organisations to gather information from different sources and process them to achieve the right format for storing and accessing the right information for management and operational decision making.

The Web CMS should have an expanded collection system to receive data from difference sources e.g. XML files, Excel and external databases to promote informed decision making in business operations and strategic management (Mauthe & Thomas, 2004). The Web CMS also enhances a well developed information system that connects different departments to support an integration of different workflows and strategic goals of different departments to achieve common objectives. For example, a document may be published by a member from the marketing department and sent to other teams and departments who then review and update them to reflect the needs of their departments and send them to the publisher for updating. This leads to a collaborative approach for superior operations and strategic decisions (Nakano, 2002).

Operational Significance of Web CMS in Business Organisations

In terms of operations, suggests that WCMS enables business organisations to provide quicker response times. Making web content available on a business website is quicker when Web CMS is used because each member of the organisation can update content directly to the website without assigning tasks to the IT department (Ndubisi, 2006). This ensures that information needed for performing specific tasks is available on time; hence promoting faster and effective workflows and achieving operational goals.

The WCMS also promotes efficient workflows in a business organisation because it enables the organisation to make changes and updates in a simplified manner (Powel and Gill, 2003). Employees from different departments and different geographical workplaces can add or change information on the company website based on pre-determined workflow process to enhance effectiveness of work performance at the workplace.

The WCMS also provides operators with interfaces and tools necessary to support creation process and publish content on the website in the simplest way possible to enhance easy understanding and performance of tasks by different employees in different departments in a business organisation. The XML application is often used to integrate information into the system in order to promote easy access for task performance in the workplace (Mescan, 2004). The WCMS also enhances easy conversion of content into an agreed-upon format to eliminate content and information that is needed for workflow processes.

The negative operational impact of Web Content Management Systems is that they may not necessarily solve the pertinent operational challenges if the management and operational competence of employees is poor. Business organisations may adopt Web CMS without properly training employees to use it appropriately to meet the operational needs of the organisation. Change management approaches may also fail to recognise the changing business environment; hence the web content may fail to adapt to the changing needs of the business organisation and its stakeholders (Bouwman et al, 2005). To solve this problem, the company should train employees in all departments to use the website appropriately and manage changes effectively in various operational aspects of the organisation.

Business Strategic Significance of Web CMSs

One of the most important strategic impacts of using Web CMS in business organisations is that it promotes effective and efficient decision making. One of the key aspects of an effective business strategic decision making is to engage employees in the decision making process. The Web CMS puts the responsibility of accessing, storing, and using information on the hands of employees (Tang et al, 2005). Therefore, employees who are directly involved in business processes and contact with stakeholders are allowed to provide their ideas that could enhance effective decisions to meet the needs of the organisation as well as those of stakeholders. According to Mican et al (2009), web CMS is a collaborative tool that allows members of the organisation from different departments to engage in common activity to achieve common objectives. Across-department collaboration enhances the integration of information across departments to promote effective and efficient strategic decisions to achieve organisational objectives including profitability and competitive advantage.

Another function of strategic decision making is to manage information and knowledge effectively to enhance problem solving and decision making capabilities of the organisation (Ndubisi, 2006). It enables the organisation’s management to get relevant information from different sources so that they can make effective decision making and solve problems effectively based on information gathered directly from the people who are affected by the decisions. Therefore, the business organisation can be able to meet the needs of various stakeholders in their decision making and problem solving processes.

Conclusion

This report has found out that Web Content Management Systems can be used by business organisations to promote their economic activity areas. It has significant benefits on operational and strategic aspects of business organisations, leading to competitive advantage and increased profitability. Rather than leaving the IT department to perform all the tasks of web content management, Web CMS allows the company to delegate the responsibilities of publishing and updating content on the company website. This improves operations by enhancing effective, faster and simpler workflows and task performance processes. It also allows collaboration among various departments and inclusion of knowledge and information from different sources in the decision making and problem solving process of the organisation, leading to effective strategic management and achievement of organisational objectives. However, lack of employee competence and appropriate change management approaches could cause ineffectiveness of Web CMSs. This can be solved by training employees about IT issues and implementing good change management initiatives.