Below are the blog entries for October 2009.
Thoughts Behind the Cascade Server WCM Connector Strategy
By Morgan Griffith
Friday, October 30th, 2009 at 3:00pm
We often field questions from Cascade Server users on our product roadmap and strategy. With the release of Cascade Server 6.4, we've recently introduced a new product strategy by way of Connectors, and we wanted to share some insights on why we chose this direction for our web content management system.
Our company, and particularly our development team, places client feedback near the top of the totem pole when prioritizing each new release. As a result of soliciting this feedback over the last few years, we're keenly aware of Cascade Server's strength as the center of organizational web ecosystems. That said, we're also aware that our clients appreciate that we don't try to make Cascade a system that's everything to everyone. Rather than reinvent the wheel, in Connectors we've implemented a strategy that allows Cascade to remain the web "hub," for organizations, while fluidly incorporating "best of breed" 3rd party systems.
Connectors allow Cascade Server to tie into other applications, many of which are already in use by our client organizations. For example, many of our clients use WordPress for blogging. Instead of developing our own blog module, we opted to introduce a WordPress Connector to the system that allows organizations to manage blog content from inside the CMS and to publish it directly to WordPress. Likewise, our Twitter Connector allows organizations to automatically tweet newly published content to Twitter without any user intervention.
It's our feeling that we're maximizing Cascade's potential by further developing the web content management side of the system, while ensuring the product stays relevant to our user-base by tying in technologies they already use. Furthermore, the Connectors strategy requires our developers build functionality with not just one specific Connector in mind, but with a system architecture that ensures the potential for scalability and expansion in the future. Currently, we're in the process of shaping future Connectors, including one for Google Analytics. We would love to get your feedback and thoughts on additional Connectors to incorporate into the system in the future. If you'd like to share your thoughts, please don't hesitate to visit our Cascade Server Idea Exchange.
Category
- Commentary
Cascade Server 6.4 Out Next Week
By Chris Armistead
Thursday, October 22nd, 2009 at 1:00pm
Hannon Hill is proud to announce that the release of its award-winning content management system, Cascade Server 6.4 is slated for next week. As part of the new Connector strategy being incorporated into the future of Cascade Server, this release introduces the first of several upcoming Connectors. Connectors will be the bridge between Cascade Server and other best-of-breed 3rd-party applications.
The first two Connectors featured in the product will be the WordPress and Twitter Connectors. With the WordPress Connector, organizations can manage blog content and seamlessly publish WordPress blogs from inside Cascade. The Twitter Connector gives the ability to automatically tweet newly-published content to Twitter without users having to tweet content, links, and appropriate hashtags manually.
The WordPress Connector was added as a response to growing requests among clients and prospects for simpler blogging functionality within Cascade. Adding a Twitter Connector allows customers to automate an increasingly routine practice for organizations aiming to raise their online presence and promote their content. Rather than re-inventing the wheel, Hannon Hill made the decision to connect its content management system with applications already in use by many of its customers. The result will be even more Connectors in the future designed to maximize the capabilities within Cascade Server while minimizing development time.
In addition to these Connectors, Cascade Server 6.4 provides several other usability benefits such as an edit-area syntax highlighter, a drag and drop content form builder, and new compare with current capabilities for simplified page version comparisons. Hannon Hill is confident in calling this its most feature-packed release to date. Subscribe to our blog to keep up to date with news such as release announcements so that you can be among the first to download Cascade Server 6.4.
Category
- News
Keys to CMS Project Implementation Success - Part 2
By Kat Liendgens
Friday, October 16th, 2009 at 11:30am
In Part 1 of our Keys to CMS Project Implementation Success blog series, we discussed the importance of securing early buy-in from end-user stakeholders. We talked about the importance of identifying a project sponsor to oversee the implementation and facilitate communication. Getting buy-in from stakeholders and identifying this sponsor are critical in ensuring a successful implementation. However, equally important and critical to project success is the proper identification of your project scope.
Selecting your QuickStart Package Scope
To quicken user adoption, our Services team provides our clients with a variety of options to get their websites up and running. As the name indicates, a QuickStart is intended to help organizations get a small section of their website integrated into Cascade Server. Which particular portion of the site is implemented is up to the organization, but we recommend that the section integrated is a good representation (in terms of structure and layout) of the rest of your site content. This is to ensure that the integration techniques and best practices we have implemented can be applied by your web team to future sections of your site.
When selecting a QuickStart project, keep in mind that a small project that can be accomplished within 100 hours is ideal. This project will likely serve as a "proof of concept" for viewing by anxious stakeholders waiting to see how the CMS works for your organizational site.
Although the goal is to ultimately manage all of your site and subsite web content with Cascade Server, the purpose of the QuickStart package is to take a small amount of that content and time (100 hours) to properly set-up a portion of your site using best practices that can be reused across future integrations. As always, when you continue to bring your site content into Cascade Server, if you want help along the way, our Services team is available to help with a variety of projects to maximize your benefits and minimize your costs.
Look out for part three of our "Keys to CMS Project Implementation Success" blog series coming soon, in which we'll discuss the importance of requirements gathering.
Related Content
Category
- Commentary
Cascade Server User's Conference a WCM Success
By Morgan Griffith
Tuesday, October 6th, 2009 at 3:00pm
With web content management (WCM) users from over 50 organizations attending this year's Cascade Server User's Conference, this year's annual event spoke to the necessity of community and collaboration around content management. Guests began pouring into Atlanta on Sunday, September 27th and the two-day Conference was kicked off Monday morning with a welcome session from Hannon Hill's CEO, David Cummings.
Cummings discussed Hannon Hill's success over the last year, including the addition of over 30 new clients in the higher-education industry. As a result, over 120 universities are currently using Cascade Server to power and manage their campus websites. This trend was evident via the 85% of conference attendees coming from institutions of higher education. Cummings notes, "Our annual conference is a great way to bring these users together to give them a platform to network, share ideas and best practices, and discuss the ways in which Cascade Server can solve their web content management pain points." As Cummings' presentation came to a close, he announced a bonus feature hidden in the Cascade Server 6.4 release - a new Twitter Connector.
The surprises didn't stop there, however. David Klanac, Hannon Hill's COO followed Cummings with his "Cascade Server Roadmap" presentation, exploring the future vision of the WCM product. Klanac also revealed a surprise announcement, which sent the crowd into an uproar - the upcoming addition of a recycle bin to the Cascade Server system, the number one most requested idea on the company's idea exchange.
The remaining two days of the Conference were spent in sessions delving into Cascade's functionality led by the Hannon Hill team and Cascade Server users alike. Session highlights include a two-hour presentation from Karen Berntsen, Information Designer for Carnegie Mellon University on "Managing a University's Multi-faceted Web Presence," which got a huge response from attendees on Twitter and a variety of sessions exploring Cascade Server's new site-content model and connectors strategy.
With over 700 tweets using the Cascade Server Conference hashtag of #csuc09 over two days, users were able to share session feedback in real-time and provide Hannon Hill with valuable insight into client responses to new features. This data and that collected from the company's post-conference survey will be used to help shape the Cascade Server User's Conference in 2010. Look out for the final release of Cascade Server 6.4 packed with new features later this month.
Category
- Events
