When you think about what web content management systems do, it isn't apparent that there is a
workflow or collaboration under the hood, after all they manage content, right? Most
WCMS (at least those that service the Small to Medium Enterprise businesses) provide an approval process for publishing of content, and or the ability to replace documents which is considered workflow.
Robust workflow engines and
decision trees that have the ability to create work queues and route documents or work units based upon a pre-defined (and changeable) set of rules or actions are generally available in higher-end WCMS packages and out of the budget range for
SME's. However, let us examine other ways that OnDeCC for the SME market actually provides workflow.
In a
OnDeCC site, the administrator has the ability to launch a contact us page, create a form to be filled out, the information is then gathered and submitted via email (and stored in a
relational database) and that email either goes to a sales queue or even to
SalesForce.com for lead follow up, this by definition is workflow. Granted this OnDeCC process may not use exclusively WCMS components, but we still have a system capable of a workflow.
If you look at OnDeCC we can consider its workflow as the process of creating content and/or pages that are routed through an approval process before the content can be consumed by visitors.
We can take the definition to the ability to restrict updates to the documents that are contained in the content management system. Just like OnDeCC's newsletter component that allows users to subscribe to different categories of newsletters, maintain their own subscription and receive newsletters. The OnDeCC newsletter administrator has the ability to create, upload and send newsletters to subscribers.
In this is also considered work flow, by using a sequence of operations to perform an action on a document; the newsletter. I am sure that there are SME WCMS that have a workflow engine to them; the question becomes whether or not the interface for defining rules, queues, and routes intuitive and user friendly.
I have been involved with large Document and Workflow systems, Like
FileNet that had massive capabilities to precisely define rules, queues, and routes; however you needed a BS degree in Computer Science with a minor in Electrical Engineering. Okay, just a joke about the minor, but how do we create rules and queues in a user friendly way?
In my next post, I am going to discuss how to simplify workflow and make it user friendly with OnDeCC.
