Manage Content
To gain the maximum benefit from your structured content, it is essential to manage all of the moving parts in relationship to one another.
Technical information is always living and moving. When content is structured, a challenge arises as to how to manage all of the moving parts in relationship with one another. This is a very significant challenge without a Component Content Management system (also called a CSDB in the S1000D world) in place. Some organizations set down the structured content path thinking they can do without a Component Content Management (CCM) system. This is a fatal mistake. They find that they can’t manage the relationships between all the moving parts that comprise the world of structured content. In the end, they triple their time to adoption or even fail in their approach.
A CCM system by its very nature suggests that some content mangement systems are designed for structured content, while others are not. Let's take a look at DITA. To implement DITA quickly and most effectively, there is business justification for adopting a CCM system that is specialized for DITA out of the box. Such a DITA-enabled system understands the relationship between objects as described by DITA, and manages the relationships between topics, maps, release trains, and languages.
Here are some questions to consider when evaluating a content management system and whether a CCM is right for your business:
How are topics handled among different releases? And how is versioning and linking handled?
How is workflow supported? Is it supported at a project or object level?
How does the system handle multilingual content? Does it track the relationship between English and target languages?
How are conditions handled?
What authoring tools does your system integrate with? And how does it handle reviews?
Can your system publish to the Web
SDL offers a Component Content Management system for DITA called, SDL Trisoft , one for S1000D called, SDL Contenta S1000D, and one for custom structured content standards called, SDL Contenta.
Authoring and Review
The ability for large communities of users to create and review XML content in a user friendly way, without losing the inherent richness of the XML structure, has great value to an organization.
Why Do I Need a Component Content Management (CCM) System
A CCM system is a specialized form of content management system that can manage the relationship of all moving parts in association to one another.
How Does a Component Content Management (CCM) System Differ From a Content Management System (CMS)?
A CCM system is to content management what a conductor is to an orchestra.
