Disruption in digital technologies has opened up an entirely new realm of possibilities for enterprises. Harvesting new-age digital technologies can redefine the ways business is done online and can potentially give numerous possibilities to reengage with stakeholders such as consumers, partners, resellers, and others. Digital technologies enable enterprises to provide on-demand, customer-centric, personalized, contextual, and meaningful content from anywhere, anytime, on any device. Digital-enabled business models reshape customer experiences and form the key differentiators. As a result, the digital user will be meaningfully engaged bringing in productivity, loyalty, and long-term relationship. On the B2B front, digital technologies have also opened up new realms of possibilities through process optimizations, enterprise integrations, and other developments, and a digital technology ecosystem has reshaped infrastructure and operations sides of things through hardware consolidation and cloud enablement.

Digital technologies are disrupting most of the business domains, technology ecosystems, and business processes. Due to its wide range of benefits and long-term strategic impact and competitive advantages, enterprises across domains are embracing digital revolution. In today's hyper-connected world, word-of-mouth promotion is given preference over sponsored ads, Facebook “likes” count more than expert rating, and enterprises strive hard to convert a visitor into a brand advocate using digital technologies.

Drivers and Motivations for the Book

Modern enterprises face multiple challenges in building a robust enterprise digital ecosystem. The challenges are multifold in nature and consists, among other things, of internal challenges concerning employee productivity, process optimization, information management, content management, and big data management. Coupled with these are external challenges such as, among others, Omni-channel customer engagement, social and collaboration integrations, personalized presentation, and competitive pressures.

Based on our experience, the most effective way to address these challenges is to provide a robust information management system consisting of seamless relevant information discovery. This book tries to address these two fronts by exploring various concepts in digital content management (for information management) and enterprise search (for efficient information discovery). This book takes a differentiated view through a combined focus on content management and enterprise search. During the process it aims to help organization build robust digital platforms using proven best practices, practical models, and time-tested techniques discussed in the book.

We can map the technology topics (CMS and Enterprise Search) discussed in this book with the modern digital platform's capability as shown in the following diagram:

The first layer depicts the core digital technologies, namely ontent management system (CMS), enterprise search, portals, and analytics. The second layer maps the technical capabilities offered by corresponding technologies. CMS provides robust content management, workflows, documents, and asset management whereas search provides relevant search and recommendations. Both CMS and search would enable metadata-tagging capabilities. The outermost layer depicts the business capabilities enabled by corresponding technology capabilities. Content management enables intuitive user experience, communication, messaging, branding, and micro-site. Search and CMS combined enables promotions management, campaigns, and marketing and relevant information discovery capabilities.

The diagram depicts the importance of role played by CMS and enterprise search in a digital scenario. CMS and search form the information management backbone for a digital enterprise. The book tries to cover the capabilities discussed under CMS and search umbrella and relevant analytics capabilities wherever applicable.

Main Themes and Focus Areas

Main themes and focus areas of this book are:

• Digital content management and enterprise search: The primary focus areas of this book are digital content management (primarily Web content and digital assets through Web content management [WCM] concepts) and enterprise search. Wherever necessary, the book also elaborates other supporting systems/components such as digital asset management (DAM) systems, document management system, workflow management, and Web analytics, among others.
• Technology and product agnostic view: The concepts, methodologies, techniques, and best practices discussed in the book are product and technology agnostic. Wherever necessary, concrete examples are drawn from specific technologies and products to explain the concept.
• Open source frameworks: Many of the concrete examples are drawn from open source products. Some reference architectures are also developed using open-source components. The intention is to help readers leverage open-source technologies while creating digital systems.
• Proven practical methodologies and best practices: We have elaborated many proven models and best practices in areas such as content migration, CMS evaluation framework, content performance, content security, and such. This would help the content and search practitioners apply these frameworks and techniques.
• Challenges and best practices: While discussing core portal technologies such as integrations, content management, search, and others, we have discussed the commonly encountered challenges/pitfalls and the best practices.

Chapter Organization and Target Audience

The book is organized in three parts with 14 chapters. The online Wiley book support material section provides various supporting material such as content case study and end-to-end digital case study. Part I consists of six chapters that introduce reader to core concepts of content management. We look at content strategy, CMS basics, CMS architecture, templates and workflow, information architecture, taxonomy, and content metadata. Part II includes six chapters and extends the content management concepts and elaborates on topics related to integration, content standards, DAM and document management, content migration, CMS evaluation, content validation, content analytics, content security, content performance. Part III consists of two chapters and is mainly dedicated to discussing basics of enterprise search and advanced search.

We have provided six appendix sections: Appendix A provides a content strategy template, Appendix B provides a checklist for various content management activities, Appendix C is a CMS product evaluation template, Appendix D is the enterprise search product evaluation template, Appendix E provides sample Java code for adding a JCR node, and Appendix F provides an evaluation template for DAM platforms.

The following is the high-level summary of various chapters along with intended target audience:

Declaration

• Utmost care has been taken to ensure the accuracy and uniqueness of the book content. Any inaccuracies or inconsistencies are entirely my own. If you think any corrections are needed, or for any other feedback, please write to Shailesh.shivakumar@gmail.com
• In a few chapters I have used the features of popular and open-source WCM products to explain the concepts. The explanation is for educational purposes only and should not be considered as a product or technology recommendation or evaluation. The CMS plugins and modules used to illustrate examples and concepts are also for educational purposes only; they should not be interpreted as recommendations or evaluations. Comprehensive evaluation template and framework are provided in the appendix section.
• All open-source tools mentioned are in public domain as open source at the time of writing of this book.
• I acknowledge the trademarks of all products, technologies, and frameworks being used in this book.
  • WordPress, Joomla, Drupal, and dotCMS are registered trademarks and are the legal property of their respective owners.
  • Documentum is a registered trademark of EMC Corporation.
  • Oracle, Oracle Access Manager, WebCenter, WebLogic, OHS, and Java are registered trademarks of Oracle and/or its affiliates.
  • Synaptica is the registered trademark of Synaptica, LLC.
  • SiteMinder is the registered trademark of CA Technologies.
  • WebSphere, Tivoli Access Manager, IBM WCM, IHS, and DB2 are registered trademarks of IBM and/or its affiliates.
  • AEM and CQ5 are registered trademarks of Adobe and/or its affiliates.
  • FAST, SharePoint, and SQLServer are registered trademarks of Microsoft and/or its affiliates.
  • Liferay is a registered trademark of Liferay and/or its affiliates.
  • Intel is a registered trademark of Intel Corporation.
  • All other trademarks or registered trademarks are the legal property of their respective owners.

I am blessed to be surrounded by knowledgeable colleagues, subject matter experts, and friends who are happy and willing to help. I would like to acknowledge them and show my gratitude for their immense help, incredible support, and cooperation.

I would like to convey my sincere and heartfelt thanks to Elangovan Ramalingam, Arun Sugumar, Ashwin Raju, Verma V.S.S.R.K, Subramanian Narayanan, Ajay Kumar Sharma, Shikha Mahajan, Aanchal Sikka, and Nagarajan Kuppuswamy for their valuable inputs and review comments. I feel blessed in the company of these gifted colleagues.

I would also like to convey my sincere thanks to managers Shankar Bhat, Rahul Krishan who encouraged and supported me in all my initiatives.

My sincere and heartfelt thanks to Professor Dr. Viraj Kumar for his moral support and patience. He has been a continuous inspiration to me.

I really appreciate the efforts and support given by Rahul Krishan and Sreenivasa Kashyap at Infosys for ensuring timely reviews and approvals of this book.

I would also like to recognize and thank Dr. P. V. Suresh for his constant encouragement and immense support.

My special thanks to Mary Hatcher, Melissa Yanuzzi, Brady Chin, Allison McGinniss, Alex Castro, and the editors, designers, and publishing team at the IEEE and Wiley for providing all necessary and timely support in terms of review, guidance, and regular follow-ups. The team at Wiley took special care in design to make this book look beautiful.