Foreword

Ann Rockley has been talking about content strategy and intelligent content for over a decade. Why haven’t the rest of us been talking about it, too?

Perhaps Ann’s vision of content as a business asset was simply ahead of its time. Maybe the idea of “intelligent content”—content that’s free from the constraints of a document or page, and therefore free to adapt to any context or platform—didn’t seem as applicable to our challenges as, say, a website redesign or migrating to a new content management system. Of course, none of our tactics seem to have solved the core challenge enterprises have faced: ineffective, poorly organized, and laborious content processes.

So here we are, stuck with the same challenges we had last year, and the year before that, and the year before—you get the picture. On top of it all, we’re dealing with the constant introduction of new platforms where we need to (or should) make content available to our customers. There are countless new opportunities to deliver the right content, to the right people, in the right place, and at the right time. How can we take advantage of them without starting from scratch?

The good news is, we don’t have to. It’s very likely that your organization has at least some form of content infrastructure; the question is, how will it need to change? As Ann and her coauthor, Charles Cooper, write, “The processes and best practices to create and manage content are undergoing a dramatic shift as content creators adapt to the increasing demands of a volatile content world.” I’d call this an understatement. Content processes and best practices are evolving at the speed of light, and it’s not enough just to keep up. If you want your content to truly realize its value as a business asset, you need to be able to look ahead. And the only way you can continue to face forward toward an unknown future is to know your content is truly ready for it—no matter what may come. That’s intelligent content.

Ann Rockley is nothing short of a visionary, someone who truly understands the value of content as a business asset. Intelligent, adaptive, nimble, or agile content—call it what you will, but without it, you’ll stay mired in the content mess that’s keeping you from getting ahead. It’s time to make intelligent content a reality for your organization. Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy will show you how.

Kristina Halvorson