Content management

This page presents a guide about the content management process.

Introduction

Content management (CM) is a set of processes and technologies that supports the content life cycle: planning, developing, controlling, deploying, preserving and evaluating the content presented on digital signage screens.

Content management is an inherently collaborative process and often consists of the following basic roles and responsibilities:

• Manager – responsible for planning and evaluation of results.
• Creator – responsible for creating and editing content; this role requires creative and / or programming skills.
• Editor – responsible for tuning the content message and the style of delivery, including translation and localization.
• Publisher – responsible for releasing the content for use.
• Administrator – responsible for managing access permissions to folders and files, usually accomplished by assigning access rights to users / roles, assistance and support.
• Consumer – the content audience such as: visitors, employees, students, potential buyers, passengers, patients, citizens etc.

For large entreprises, content management practices and goals vary by mission and by organizational governance structure: localized, centralized, and federated.

Phases

In our vision, the content life cycle consists of six phases: plan, develop, control, deploy, preserve, and evaluate. Content management has to meet one or more business goals, so each phase has to be aligned with these goals.

Plan

In this phase, the content manager defines a content strategy in line with the business objectives:

• examines the business goal(s), business processes and requirements, and analyzes the content and the content life cycle
• defines measurable indicators to decide in the evaluation phase if the content management strategy is successful
• develops an information architecture (standards, workflow etc.) and installs a governance policy

Develop

In this phase, the content creator develops content according to the business requirements:

• creates original content and / or integrates existing content from various sources
• organizes the content according to its specific characteristics, enabling search and retrieval, reuse, delivery
• assembles the content into logical structures (folders, projects etc.)

The content creator requires creative and / or programming skills - someone who is familiar and enjoy using tools like Photoshop, Premiere Pro, After Effects, InDesign, Illustrator, CorelDRAW, Inkscape etc. and / or WEB development tools. This user can easily learn the SpinetiX Elementi software and start creating projects composed of layouts, playlists etc. In few hours it is possible to learn how to take advantage of more advanced features such as widgets that bring to life on screen social media, events from Google calendar or Outlook and other real-time data. In the hand of a creative user, Elementi and its widgets are the perfect tool to create amazing and live content. Special requirements can be implemented through jSignage / JavaScript code, in which case some programming skills are needed.

Control

Multiple roles are involved in this phase, where the content is stored, secured, optimized, reviewed and approved.

First, the administrator deposits the content into a repository and assigns roles-based permissions identifying who can read, create, modify, approve and delete content.

Then, the content editor

• examines and improves content for clarity, comprehensiveness, appropriateness, accuracy, accessibility and usability
• adapts the content to make it appropriate for content consumers who speak a specific language or reside in a specific country or region
• fine-tunes the content message and the style of delivery

Finally, the content manager and / or business stakeholders approve the content and authorize its publishing.

Deploy

In this phase, the publisher delivers the content onto players using any of the following mechanisms :

Method	Description	Requirements	Advantages
Content push	The content is directly pushed on the HMP storage, using Elementi, the player web interface, Fusion etc.	Direct network access to the HMP	No server needed Network access needed only during the update
Content pull	The content is first uploaded on a content server and then retrieved by the HMP from the server using different methods (in a scheduled manner or "live").	Web server HMP access to the web server	Direct network access to HMP not required Compatible with firewalls and NAT Automatic content update according to a schedule or on-demand Network used only during updates
Plug & play content	The content is first copied on a USB drive (which is then plugged into the USB port of the HMP) and played by the HMP directly from the USB drive .	Physical access to the USB port of HMP The the USB storage device is activated (and formatted as FAT32)	No network access required Larger storage space for the content FAT file system can be used with most PCs

Note:

The different methods described above can be combined between them if required. For instance, the media content can be locally managed using the player web interface, yet have an Elementi project that is retrieved from a web server using Pull Mode.

The publisher can also personalize the content to meet specific needs, such as:

• schedule when a certain content must be displayed on a certain screen or on all screens
• show the name of important visitor on the screen
• interactively change the content to inform the audience of certain event (your taxi is here) or to trigger an alarm

To do all these, the publisher can use

• Elementi software
• Built-in player web interface on HMP350 and HMP300 or Fusion web interface on older models
• Other third-party solutions like custom CMS applications

Preserve

This phase is about protecting valuable content from change or loss through archival storage and backup.

• One of the advantages of working with Elementi, is that you can create and modify projects off-line then publish them on the target HMP(s), thus having a backup copy locally, in case somebody else is modifying the live content by mistake. Elementi projects can manually be archived into 7z files and stored in different locations; you can also apply conventional backup methods on the "Projects" folder to reduce the risk of losing your work in case of computer failures.
• In some cases, you might want to restrict access to some parts of the project.
• Content created on the player can be archived using the "Backup" button; for older models, you can use Fusion's backup feature.

Evaluate

In this phase, the content manager evaluates if content is still up-to-date and if the content strategy or the goals need to be redefined.

• examines the content management processes, performance, end-user / customer satisfaction
• compares the audit results against the defined indicators in phase 1 to determine if the project was successful and to identify areas for future improvement
• adapts the strategy for the next cycle to address the results of the evaluation, if necessary
• researches new tools and methodologies to improve results

Governance structures

For large entreprises, content management practices and goals vary by mission and by organizational governance structure: localized, centralized, and federated — each having its unique strengths and weaknesses.

Localized governance

Localized governance models empower and unleash creativity by putting control in the hands of those closest to the content, the context experts. In the hands of a creative user, Elementi and its widgets are the perfect tool to create amazing and live content; from the same software, the user can easily deliver content on screen(s) based on predefined or dynamic schedule. The player web interface can be used as well.

These benefits come, however, at the cost of a partial-to-total loss of managerial control and oversight.

Centralized governance

Centralized governance places key content management levers under the control of a single corporate entity and an exceptionally clear and unified brand message can be delivered. It allows organizations many opportunities for cost savings, such as unifying work teams to avoid duplicating content-related work (creating, editing, formatting, reusing and archiving content) or end-to-end streamlining of the content development and deployment process. Revenue is also potentially increased through an enterprise-level deployment and repurposing of content for coordinated marketing, promotional, and product programs.

These potential cost savings and revenue-generating opportunities remain largely unrealized, perhaps due to bureaucracy and related effects such as stifling local initiative and creativity.

This can be implemented through multi-site technologies: Elementi M's feature of publishing on content servers and players' feature of retrieving that content from the server.

Federated governance

Federated governance models potentially realize the benefits of both localized and centralized control while avoiding the weaknesses of both. It balances the enterprise-level perspective of a centralized model with the creative initiatives realized in a localized model. The largest “weakness” or challenge of a federated governance model is that it requires a level of enterprise-wide cooperation that cuts across local product and service units - the key is negotiating the boundaries of control with local managers and content creators.

This could be implemented through content delegation methods to separate design and copywriting tasks, so that non-IT personnel can input content into an approved design template and management / publisher can approve its publication.