I suspect there are many people in our industry that use these terms within
their daily professional lives but aren't clear on their meaning. One indication
is the notes found at the top of each page within wikipedia on this topic.
Almost every page has a quality standards warning saying the article makes vague
or superficial statements and focuses excessively on Web CMS.

So what does it take to be a CMS or an ECM?

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You and I have a dirty little secret. Many of the Web applications that we call content management systems (Web CMS) are not really content management systems. Huh? A lot of this confusion stems from the difficulty most of us have in answering what should be a simple question, what is a content management system? Scott Abel, The Content Wranger, has noted in previous comments that one of the problems in discussions about content management is that we really lack a common definition of CMS.

The problem we have in defining a Web application as a CMS isn't because people haven't offered good definitions for how we should define today's Web CMS. For example, I especially value Dean Barker's interpretation of a CMS at Gadgetopia, What Makes a Content Management System? On the contrary, the challenge for many of us is that what we know in theory is a CMS isn't really what is currently put into practice. The latest generation of Web applications that we are still calling Web CMS simply have moved beyond the scope of content management and into social publishing.

The Semantic Web brings with it the opportunities for users to get smarter search results, and for site owners to get more targeted traffic as users find what they really want. But these benefits don't just magically appear. This article leads you through the aspects of both information architecture and general infrastructure you need in place to truly take advantage of this burgeoning opportunity.

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Analysis and Recommendations for Information Technology User Support Provided to a Government Field Office

Information technology users in government field offices require a user support program that addresses their needs for successful completion of job duties. Providing the necessary user support is a challenge for office management and the information technology staff. While this professional report focuses on information technology user support provided to a government office, many of the observations and lessons should apply to other organizations.

An assessment is made on the intended goals of the user support program for providing information system maintenance and documentation to the user of a selected government field office. A comparison is then made between the physical processes involved within the "ideal" information systems for user support with current information systems utilized by the organization. Based on the evaluation of the performance of the current information systems, recommendations for improving the information technology user support program at the government field office are presented.

Analysis and Recommendations for Information Technology User Support Provided to a Government Field Office

Chapter 5

Recommendations for the Field Office IT User Support Program

Author's Note: The original professional report was written in the Spring of 2005. Applications suggested for use were suitable solutions in 2005 and may not represent the author's choice today. Applications suggested for use should be seen as examples an organization may use but not necessarily the application that should be chosen. For your organization, these implementation strategies should be discussed by the managers, IT staff, and users before considering full implementation.

So far the focus by the author has been on identifying the information system needs for meeting the requirements of the IT users. Weaknesses in the current information systems have been identified and the ideal information systems for the field offices are identified. With the characteristics of the actual and intended information systems known, improvements and implementation strategies can be recommended.

The recommendations in this report are seen as key actions necessary for improving the field office IT user support programs. In some cases, implementation strategies have been provided with the recommendations. These implementation strategies should be discussed by the managers, IT staff, and users before considering full implementation.

Analysis and Recommendations for Information Technology User Support Provided to a Government Field Office

Chapter 1 (continued)

Author's Role and Position in the Organization

The author has been employed by the Organization for nearly 15 years, with the first 10 years working in the Operations Unit of the Organization's field offices. During this tenure, the author was also given IT related responsibilities that include software configuration of a Doppler radar system and management of the office's Internet Homepage. During the last five years, the author has been employed as the Information Technology Officer at his current field office.

The position of Information Technology Officer (ITO) is a relatively new position for the Emergency Field Office with responsibilities encompassing the operations, management, and administrative computer systems of the field office. The Information Technology Officer has been given responsibility for five critical IT elements at the field office (see "Performance Plan" in the Appendixes). Those elements include: (a) user support, (b) software development, (c) information systems analysis, (d) information technology program management, and (e) quality assurance and professional development. When a previous Assistant Administrator for Emergency Services was asked to describe, from his perspective, the role the Information Technology Officer position should play in the field office, he responded by saying:

Analysis and Recommendations for Information Technology User Support Provided to a Government Field Office

Chapter 4

Documentation for the User

Documentation as User Support

As mentioned earlier in this professional report, one of the key services of IT user support in the Organization is to provide documentation. The IT staff in the field office is required to provide user documentation for both installed applications and applications that are either locally developed or modified. The IT program is also responsible for providing and developing system operating manuals and application software user manuals. While the functions of user support through documentation have been specified by the Organization, the format and means for providing the documentation to the user have not been specified.

Because of the absence of standardized practices for managing the documentation in the field offices, most field office users have access to literally hundreds of documents in inconsistent formats utilizing many different methods for retrieving the documents. For example, users may have to go to the office intranet to retrieve the latest office computer usage policy. The user may then need to dust off a binder to retrieve a "hardcopy" of an e-mail containing instructions on how to reboot a system. Files that have been digitized are in various file formats such as ASCII text, WordPerfect, Microsoft Word Document, and Rich Text Format. A user manual for one application may be found by the user in a hardcopy "software binder", but a user manual for another application may only be available on a computer screen through the program's "Help" menu.

Analysis and Recommendations for Information Technology User Support Provided to a Government Field Office

Chapter 3

Information Technology Changes for the User

Introduction to Change Management Systems

Ideally, formal procedures should be in place for IT users to be able to request IT hardware and software changes, for users to be notified whether the requested changes are approved, and for users to confirm that the tasks performed to address the requested changes are completed. Actually, informal procedures are often followed by users to initiate changes in IT. A review of available literature shows that informal procedures to manage change could pose an obstacle for the efficient use of resources and for ensuring that projects meet organizational goals (Damodaran, 1996). Without formal procedures, it is unlikely that adequate communication between the user and IT staff would be possible, hindering the benefit of the participatory design process.