Modular Content

The Role it Plays in Successful Content Lifecycle Management

We recently kicked off Quark's "Close the Content Loop" webinar series which talks about all things enterprise content lifecycle management. Our first episode What the Heck Is Modular Content? digs deep into modularized and componentized content, specifically, what it is and the role it plays in helping organizations not only improve content operations productivity, but how it supports omnichannel publishing and ensures created and published content meets today's stringent compliance requirements.

So what the heck is modular content?

Creating modular content is the process of building and assembling approved, reusable chunks of content - or components - that can be reused and published to a variety of outputs and channels (think print, web, mobile and more) through automation. This is particularly a big deal for any organization that must adhere to strict corporate policies, procedures and regulatory compliance requirements. So, for industries like pharmaceutical & life sciences, government, and financial services, this is critical.

For decades, companies have been using modular design best practices in all types of "construction" and "assembly" projects, from software development, automobiles to residential and commercial buildings and appliances. The same applies to enterprise content creation and as organizations begin to understand the role content plays in digital transformation, it's prime time to understand how modules or components can be reused for easy, automated assembly of content for different content types with just a few clicks.

Why does component selection matter?

Remember to think of component selection as assembling reusable blocks of content. Reusable content components are created, stored and searched in a central CCMS repository and can be implemented in multiple content types simultaneously. Examples of components include text, graphs/charts, photos, videos and more and each could exemplify legal disclaimers, compliance certifications or privacy statements, to name just a few examples. Components in a reusable library can be linked to multiple output channel formats from a single document.

Organizations benefit from reusable components in many ways, including:

Drives a modular content strategy - design components can be reuse-friendly, context-independent blocks of content and be repurposed in multiple content output formats. Building content with the notion of connecting blocks of text and images is at the heart of a digital content strategy and the longevity and reliability of modular content and its intrinsic value is invaluable for the creation of any form of digital or print content.

Empowers intelligence and reliable search - you can categorize and search for content components using metadata to assemble modularized documents for reuse on online platforms such as websites and mobile apps.

Safeguards consistency, accuracy and compliance - although reusable content lives in one place, it supports omnichannel publishing and can be leveraged in multiple places and through multiple channels, ensuring only verified content is reused to safeguard regulatory compliance. Noncompliance in any industry not only can lead to legal or monetary consequences but result in the demise of your brand. And it's not just content accuracy but the expiration of content too. Organizations must follow strict process reviews with dedicated roles to ensure this is properly addressed before formal publishing - and reusable components addresses all these through automation, not manual processes.

Creates an automated trail - find out where, when and by whom any component has been used.

Drives automation from a single source-of-truth - treat your content like data, enforce content consistency, ensure high quality, reduce costs, increase relevancy, improve usability, eliminate duplication and optimize content for dynamic delivery.

One effort supports omnichannel publishing - take a 1: many approach and create component content only once for automated output to HTML, PDF, apps and more.

Structured authoring and reusable components oh my!

Structured authoring is the creation of content that is underpinned by a schema. Subject-matter experts can create reusable, modularized, compliance -controlled content within a universal, enterprise -wide taxonomy using their familiar Microsoft Word or a web browser. Structured content follows a specific pattern and is componentized and stored in a 'single source-of-truth' central repository. It's easily searchable and reusable because of XML metadata tags that are automatically generated during the authoring process, making assembly of different content types simple.

Remember, content automation cannot be achieved without a reusable strategy. You can never have enough hands-on manpower to develop an automated environment which will support enterprise content management scale. In highly regulated industries you can increase your compliance posture with a central, reusable single source-of-truth component library that ensures that all content is 100% accurate and current - eliminating human error from manual processes and legal consequences that could result in heavy fines or commercial penalties.

Reusable components are created by original authored published work. As new content is created by subject-matter experts, steps can be administered to identify reusable content. Formal techniques for harvesting, reviewing and approving reusable content are best practices we mentor our customers on using. They can be developed by any organization and often part of a digital transformation strategic initiative.

Content automation is essential to organizations modernizing their content ecosystems to support digital transformation, customer satisfaction, revenue growth and meet regulatory compliance. Content creators can better share, collaborate and access trusted, compliance -controlled content that can be quickly leveraged for different content types - while decreasing production time and costs by replacing error-prone manual processes with automation.

Quark Publishing Platform (QPP) NextGen can get you there. QPP NextGen automates every stage of the content lifecycle: creation, collaboration, assembly, omnichannel publishing and analysis. With QPP NextGen, you'll have an end-to-end, closed-loop approach to operationalizing your content strategy.

See for yourself. Request a demo of QPP NextGen.

Tune in to the webinar and mark your calendars for our next episode of "Close the Content Loop" series on August 24 at 12pm ET that will take an under the hood look at the role of automated workflows in content collaboration.

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