Content Control & Access: Why Content Control Enables Secure Content Access

Information is the lifeblood of an enterprise. Providing timely access to information is the key to the success of a business in today’s knowledge economy. The time companies waste looking for the right, up-to-date content is astounding. This result leads to enormous costs for the enterprise.

According to a survey by IDC - 76% of company executives considered information to be “mission critical” and their company’s most important asset. Yet, 60% felt that time constraints and lack of understanding of how to find information were preventing their employees from finding the information they needed.

                                                      Source: The High Cost of Not Finding Information, IDC

To understand the enormity of the problem, which is growing with digitization, it is essential to understand the exact waste enterprises incur annually. Based on the report, the major enterprises stand to waste $2.5 billion annually due to an inability to locate, retrieve and consume information.

Several factors will cause this problem to grow as technological advancements happen:

1. Multiple sources - storage services, web content, faqs, hard drives, mobile apps, knowledge bases, intranet sites, Microsoft Word files stored on a computer, etc. are used by enterprises to store information (unstructured content).
2. Content being produced at a faster rate than ever before- the #1 content authoring tool is the mobile phone. Everyone has internet access and the ability to create and configure new content with the snap of a finger.
3. Formal content development by enterprises is taking an agile mode- with the additional capability and functionality of allowing users from different geographic locations to create and share content, content proliferation is taking place faster than ever.

All the above significantly impacts the enterprises to provide the most up-to-date information to their users when needed.

Which Content Control Properties Are Needed to Control and Secure Content Access?

Timely access to critical information separates the winners from losers in today’s information economy. While a traditional Digital Asset Manager (DAM) is a great start, more advanced service providers can better help enterprises control their content and create rich learning opportunities for various user types.

Single Source of Truth and Versioning Capabilities

Digital rights management (DRM) is a huge component of content control. Being able to keep your licensing straight is just the start, though. As companies scramble to provide the most up-to-date information to a wide array of user types, it is essential to consolidate all content in a single unified platform. A platform that combines version history and compatibility with multiple content types is critical.

2. Focus on Users Access and Blocking Access With Permissions

Enterprises’ focus should shift from storing information to providing access to information to the right person when they need it. Pushing content to the right places from one admin portal is vital, regardless if the content is on a website, learning academy, brochure, or advertisement. It is just as essential to ensure the content is secured, access is blocked for users that don’t need it or unknown users, and this content cannot be downloaded and shared unless desired.

3. Control Branding With Built-In Style Guides

The right system to control your content and access will include the ability to implement a Style guide with text content control, dictating predefined definitions for plain text and rich text fonts, header sizes, inline text styles, and much more. Many style guides provide templates for specific content types.

4. Taxonomy, Metadata, and Content Filtering 

Your content needs to be easy to search, with users and admins needing to filter the right content with robust taxonomy/metadata definitions. With the right search technology, users can use drop-down lists and checkboxes to find the right internal content. Though building the initial taxonomy might be daunting for enterprises, it is worth the investment. Being able to include metadata on public-facing web pages is very important as well for web filtering. If your content is public-facing, Google can also act as a search engine for your content.

5. Content Security

Stay ahead of the game. Make sure that proprietary content does not land in the wrong hands. Being able to control who can download and when is critical. SSL for a website is great, but your content needs more- you need endpoint protection from ransomware and much more. Look to providers that are SOC 2 Type 2 compliant. Some systems can even dictate content control based on IP address.

6. User Interface and Analytics

The user interface is critical for those who manage content for companies user interface is very important. Having a platform that makes content versioning and dissemination easy is critical to properly managing and securing this content. Understanding how your content is used is essential to making crucial business decisions. Integrating with Google Analytics is helpful, but having an internal data visualization engine that details content usage is significant.

The Time is Now to Take Control of Your Content

Digital transformation is happening right now. If enterprises don’t embrace it, they will be left behind. While the costs of not finding information are enormous, they are hidden within the enterprise and rarely perceived as having an impact on the bottom line. But the decisions are usually information problems. If they are made with poor or erroneous information, then they put the life of any enterprise at stake.

Take action.

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