Based on their experience deploying websites for NACCO Materials Handling Group, AXA, and the Lloyds Banking Group, Ektron implementation partner, Realise Digital, shares the 10 principles that are vital to making your Ektron project a success.

1. Hello.
Nathan
Fulwood
Business
Development
Director
Dave
Malins
Technical
Manager

2. Old dogs, new tricks.
What we’ve learned over 6 years
and a dozen builds.

3. 10+
in-house, certified
Ektron .Net developers
working within a
digital agency of
60+
11
flagship
projects
delivered
By the Numbers.
1of 4
Elite partners
in Europe
Six
years
experience

4. Realise.

5. We’ve got a proven track record.

6. Top 10.

7. Educate Internally.

8. 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?’

9. Build a consistent team.

10. Build a consistent team.
Design Content
Owner
Web &
Technical
Development
Project
Manager
(And try and keep them)

11. Understand your audience.

12. 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 INTERVIEWS
phone-based
Dealers
from across
the world
(10)
+ online survey to over
90 key NMHG people
Internal
Stakeholders
(14)
Customers
from across
the world
(24)

13. 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.

14. User journeys.

15. Targeted content.

16. 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)

17. Never underestimate the C in CMS.

18. 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

19. Use PageBuilder
(considerately).

20. 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

21. 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

22. Get search right.

23. SWIP - Search.

24. SWIP - Search.

25. 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

26. Test, Test, and
Test again.

27. 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

28. Stay current.

29. 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

30. Train up.

31. 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

32. Make friends
with Ektron.

33. Make friends
with Ektron.
http://developer.ektron.com/
https://twitter.com/ektron
https://www.facebook.com/Ektron
http://www.ektron.com/Community/

34. 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

35. Questions?

36. Thank you.
Nathan Fulwood
nathan@realise.com
0131 4766093
@realisetweets