Ektron London Conference: Realise Digital - Old Dogs, New Tricks

Hello.

Nathan Fulwood

Business Development

Director

DaveMalinsTechnical Manager

Old dogs, new tricks.

What we’ve learned over 6 years and a dozen builds.

10+ in-house, certified

Ektron .Net developers working within a

digital agency of

60+

11flagship

projectsdelivered

By the Numbers.

1of 4 Elite partners

in Europe

Six years

experience

Realise.

We’ve got a proven track record.

Top 10.

Educate Internally.

Educate Internally.

• Ektron is not just a developer’s tool

• Involve:

- Designers

- Marketing

- Business Stakeholders

• Encourage them to ask ‘what can this do for me?’

Build a consistent team.

Build a consistent team.

Design Content

Owner

Web &

Technical

Development

Project

Manager

(And try and keep them)

Understand your audience.

Research.

GLOBAL ONLINE SURVEY

15,151 invitations sent (via email)(more than 1/3 of which were outside North America)

+ translated into 10 languages

373 responses (2.46%RR)

QUALITATIVE INTERVIEWSphone-based

Dealersfrom acrossthe world

(10)

+ online survey to over90 key NMHG people

InternalStakeholders

(14)

Customersfrom acrossthe world

(24)

Cross-sector:

1. to find out details of a specific product

2. to get an overview of the trucks they produce

3. to find the right product

4. to find information on parts

5. to find a dealer

6. to find what products they have to meet my need

7. to access maintenance information

8. to find what solutions they have to meet my need

9. to find information on service

10. to find how to fix a problem with my fork-lift truck

User journeys.

User journeys.

Targeted content.

Understand your audience.

• Get out and speak to your users - from a pint

over lunch to a global research program

• Segmentation will help you design a better

site from day one

• Allows for content targeting & marketing

optimisation (see V9)

Never underestimate the C in CMS.

Never underestimate the C in CMS.

• You’re going to need to:

- Audit

- Create

- Describe

- Model

- Translate

- Sign off

- Load

- Review

• This always takes longer than you think

• Treat it as a separate project

• Automatic migration can help, but nothing trumps good old fashioned human editing

• Give beta access to authors early

Use PageBuilder (considerately).

Hyster - Pagebuilder.

• Define drop zones clearly to

your client

• Make sure to only allow

specific widgets on templates

• Keep it simple, often less is

more

Use PageBuilder (considerately).

• With great power comes great responsibility

• Think carefully about the templates and

drop zones you’re offering

• Link specific widgets to templates

• Often less is more

Get search right.

SWIP - Search.

SWIP - Search.

Get search right.

• Expectations are high

• Search signals intent

• Out of the box search is good – and getting

better

• Take advantage of the Ektron API to deliver

bespoke search tools

• Think outside the (search) box

Test, Test, and Test again.

Test, Test, and Test again.

• Testing isn’t something just done at the end

• Plan testing up-front

• Test Designs, Wires…

• System Testing, Gap Analysis & User

Acceptance Testing

Stay current.

Stay current.

• Make the most of your investment:

- New features

- Better support

• Build to be upgraded

• Plan for service pack upgrades and one

major upgrade per annum

Train up.

Train up.

• Build advocates from day one

• Show progress regularly – lots of show & tells

• Provide the right level (author, admin,

developer) early in the project…

• Internally, or via Ektron

• Provide bespoke documentation

Make friends with Ektron.

Make friends with Ektron.

http://developer.ektron.com/

https://twitter.com/ektron

https://www.facebook.com/Ektron

http://www.ektron.com/Community/

10 lessons…

(1) Educate Internally

(2) Build a Team

(3) Understand your audience

(4) Consider Content

(5) Get Search Right

(6) Use PageBuilder appropriately

(7) Test, Test, Test

(8) Stay Current

(9) Train up

(10) Make Friends

Questions?

Thank you.

Nathan Fulwood

nathan@realise.com

0131 4766093

@realisetweets