Rich Media Revolution in Web Content Management: Are You Ready?

Video content has revolutionized the web. It would take over 400 years to watch every single clip that currently exists on YouTube, as there are 13 hours of video content uploaded every minute. In addition, the customer demand for video is getting stronger with over 100 million of YouTube clips viewed per day.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that the business community has woken up to the power of video. With greater competition, more organizations have come under the increasing pressure to facilitate effective use of rich media content.

Increasing Appetite for Rich Content

From consumer technology companies featuring flash animations of new gadgets on a website to financial service firms providing real-time graphical information to investors, the appetite for dynamic content has never been greater.

Rich media use isn’t just reserved for an organization’s external audience either. Easy access to on-demand webcasts, video-conferencing capabilities, the ability to host and present training sessions for remote employees are good examples of how the use of rich media can transform the internal workings of a company.

And Lack of Good Technology to Support Rich Content

Ironically though, while many are aware of these benefits, few companies have the resources to provide such services systematically. This comes down to a number of factors.

Firstly, many organizations have a plethora of applications designed to create, edit and manage rich content often sprawled across different locations. This fragmented approach makes the effective distribution of rich content across the company virtually impossible.

Many of the existing content management systems employed by companies require additional and expensive plug-ins to handle rich media — not a move favored within the current economic climate or by IT departments tasked with implementing and maintaining the additional applications.

Organizational Complications to Managing Rich Media

Secondly, and this ties in closely with the first problem, the growing number of ‘content editors’ within an organization. Traditionally, technically minded IT professionals were responsible for content management and they were the people trained to navigate complicated systems. This is no longer the case.

More people across businesses in areas such as finance and marketing operations need to know how to use CMS. The complicated nature of a lot of CMSs when it comes to handling rich media means that many ‘non-technical’ people are unable or unwilling to use dynamic content. A good content management system should be easy to work with, irrespective of the level of ‘expertise’ of the content editor.

Are You Ready for the Revolution?

There is no doubt the web will continue to evolve and deliver new types of content and Web CMS vendors have a major role to play in bringing about the rich media revolution. The challenge for vendors lies in modifying their solutions as technology evolves.

Working with Web 2.0-compliant systems should be the standard model for companies that want to face these challenges head on and turn the power of rich media to their advantage.

About the Author

Robert Bredlau serves as Director of International Business Development at e-Spirit.

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Tags: multimedia, rich media, video content, video content management, web 2.0, web cms, web content

Video content has revolutionized the web. It would take over 400 years to watch every single clip that currently exists on YouTube, as there are 13 hours of video content uploaded every minute. In addition, the customer demand for video is getting stronger with over 100 million of YouTube clips viewed per day.

Therefore, it’s no surprise that the business community has woken up to the power of video. With greater competition, more organizations have come under the increasing pressure to facilitate effective use of rich media content.