What is a Component Content Management System?
A Component Content Management System (CCMS), is a content management platform that segments content into discrete, self-contained components which can easily be shared and reused across any number of publications and channels — from internal and external corporate communications to product training, technical documentation, learning & development, customer education, and everything in between.
Sometimes referred to as a Learning Content Management System (LCMS), a CCMS makes it possible to share and reuse individual content components, from single paragraphs, procedural steps, images, tables or even a single title.
These components are stored in a centralized content repository, making it easy to reuse and streamline content across different channels. A robust CCMS allows content groups across the organization to create, manage, publish, reuse and store content components at a granular level, even when operating on a global scale.
Driving efficiency with Component Content Management
A CCMS allows organizations to improve content management ROI across the extended enterprise by centralizing content in order to streamline processes, increase agility, and drive a better user experience.
How a CCMS supports the extended enterprise
Improves Agility & Speed to Market
Reduce time to market with centralized, reusable content, built-in publishing templates, collaborative workflows and seamless updates at the component level.
Simplifies Reuse & Personalization at Scale
Drive a better customer & user experience through simplified personalization and localization by reusing core content & customizing the context around it for any number of diverse audiences.
Supports Collaboration Across Teams
Streamline communication with collaborative review sessions & real-time feedback, & share and reuse content components across the extended enterprise.
Ensures Quality & Consistency
Eliminate design inconsistencies & improve the end-user experience with a multitude of built-in, branded templates and enterprise taxonomy alignment.
Facilitates Regulatory & Audit Compliance
Track employee & customer activity at the version level to gain an accurate picture of content & user histories in order to support legal discovery, simplify audit requests & facilitate regulatory compliance.
Lowers Translation Costs
Simplify translation management & reduce costs by only exporting & importing components that require translation, without manually packaging or un-packaging files.
Key Features of a CCMS
A single-source centralized content repository eliminates content silos and maintenance headaches. Unlike other tools, a Component Content Management System provides authors the ability to create, store and search libraries of content components all in one location. From searching a keyword in a publication, to jumping to a specific page — with a CCMS, searching across the content landscape doesn't require logging into multiple systems. Centralization and searchability allows for specific content components to be found quickly and at the point of need. Content teams can search libraries for existing components of content of any size, from a table to a single topic. Built-in reporting allows authors to see exactly where each piece of content has been used (and reused). Powerful metadata tagging also allows authors to track their content lifecycle. With the ability to tag properties at the component level (paragraph, image, question table, etc.), data is provided on the most granular level, from who authored a particular piece of content, to when it was last modified, expired dates and more.
Single-source content creation
Searchable media and document libraries
Micro-component repository
A CCMS uses standard XML language that makes content rich and dynamic. Publishing themes give content teams the flexibility to publish content from one source and publish it across many formats & channels — HTML5, web pages & portals, IoT apps, chat bots, PowerPoint, SCORM, Word, PDF and more — to deliver a range of customer & user experiences. Content teams can develop components once, and avoid spending a lot of time recreating the same content for different publications. This ensures that each derivative is consistent and accurate.
Create once and publish to many channels
Link content — don't copy & paste — to easily reuse individual content components
Deliver both digital & printed content from the same source
With the use of dynamic publishing themes, a CCMS decouples content from its delivery publication formats. This means content teams can focus on creating compelling content, not on formatting, layout and styling. Using publishing themes and standard templates gives users the confidence that their content is always properly formatted — bullets are lined up, headers & footers are consistent, and branding is intact — without constantly having to reformat layouts.
Standardized publishing layouts
Consistent brand alignment
Content-focused development
Because a CCMS has a centralized, single-source content library, it allows authors to create and assemble content components of all sizes into a variety of publications. This allows for rapid assembly of content, and the ability to re-purpose content for a variety of different publication types without starting from scratch. Content then becomes a single-source of truth. Instead of copying and pasting, content teams can link to individual content components and always have the latest and most up-to-date information. If a change occurs to any content component, such as an updated procedure, a new product version or updated copyright statement, users can simply change the original piece of content and automatically push the updates to all locations where the content is used, without having to manually update each individual publication.
Build content in individual, reusable components
Curate existing content and reuse components efficiently with intelligent linking
Quickly assemble publications and deliver content across the extended enterprise
Maintain existing content in one place to ensure it is always up to date
With a Component Content Management System, delivering a personalized user experience starts with filtering. Filtering allows content teams to adapt content for specific audiences across different languages, regions, roles and any number of other parameters. A CCMS provides the flexibility for users to access the specific content they need at the point of need, from novice to expert and everything in between. Providing personalization with the push of a button allows organizations to scale their content to serve new audiences without starting from scratch.
- Filter by role, product, region & more
- Support print & web outputs
- Personalize publications for multiple audiences while reusing the same core content components
A CCMS gives content teams a centralized, collaborative environment to develop and store structured content, allowing teams to work together in a more agile way. With check-in and check-out features, one user can be working on an interaction while another is adding in the surrounding contextual content for the same topic. All of this can happen without slowing down the delivery time. A built-in web-based review tool allows anyone with access inside or outside of an organization to review and provide iterative feedback on content in real time, while eliminating the need to manage extraneous emails and versions. As a result, collaborators and Subject Matter Experts (SMEs) can see each other's edits and have an accurate, real-time view of the editorial process in order to reduce development time while also improving accuracy and consistency.
- Built-in collaborative web-based review tool
- Granular permissions to control access for authors, contributors & reviewers
- Streamlined, real-time review & feedback processes
A flexible CCMS allows integration of external content, while still supporting the complete content management lifecycle. For more advanced interactions, external content can be seamlessly embedded from other popular authoring tools. Videos, HTML5 content and more can be developed in an author's favorite tool and easily integrated into the CCMS. This simplifies the workflow and review sessions, while maximizing control of the content itself. Organizations can also leverage data collected & export it to external business tools with built-in xAPI integration, or place content within applications & platforms already in use by the organization to get the most out of your technology investments.
- Embed interactions, HTML5 content and videos
- Import & export data with seamless xAPI integrations
- Easily embed content in external business tools
Using a Component Content Management System to support localization and translation workflows helps organizations scale. With the ability to generate XLIFF (XML Localization Interchange File Format) files — a standard format used by translation vendors — content teams can quickly export content to send out for translation and easily import it back in. A CCMS also supports side-by-side translation, so that native speakers familiar with certain industries can compare translations to the base version for review and refinement. Another benefit of utilizing a CCMS is that it has the ability to separate text strings from images and screenshots, making it easier and more cost-effective for content teams and translation vendors to manage.
- Export translation content in XLIFF & XML
- Separation of text strings for translatable images and interactions
A robust CCMS includes analytics dashboards that provide an accurate and objective picture of an organization's content engagement & performance. From segmenting data by region or location, to granular page-view data, content analytics can help organizations identify trends so they can continue to refine and improve content over the long term.
- Access to granular content performance data
- Filter analytics by location, department, region & more
- Track content & user activity
Identify exactly which version of each piece of content was accessed, when, & by whom, with comprehensive version history reporting to support audit compliance. Whether tracking employee & customer activity or facilitating legal discovery & audit requests, having complete & accurate historical content & learner records allows organizations to manage large volumes of content with confidence.
- Detailed content version histories
- Comprehensive user access data
- Simplify audit processes with detailed tracking & reporting
Easily control access to content by role, region, language, or any parameter, ensuring content can only be accessed by the intended audience. Keep content safe by supporting authenticated access, IP whitelisted access, single sign-on (SSO) & public access.
- Customizable permissions
- Multiple access levels & options
