Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy

Book Description

Today's businesses are overwhelmed with the need to create more content, faster, cutomized for more customers, and for more media than ever before. Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy provides the concepts, strategies, guidelines, processes, and technological options that will prepare enterprise content managers and authors to meet the increasing demands of creating, managing, and distributing content.

Author Ann Rockley, along with the Rockley Group team, provides techniques that will help you define your content management requirements, build your vision, design your content architecture, pick the right tools, and overcome the hurdles of managing enterprise content. This book will help you visualize the broad spectrum of enterprise content, the requirements for effectively creating, managing, and delivering content, and the value of developing a unified content strategy for your organization.

Customer Reviews:

An expert's view on unifying information.......2007-07-26

Actually implementing a content management solution, even for a small company, is a daunting prospect. Not only do you have to consider a myriad of concrete tasks in order to audit, centralize, and reuse your information. You also have to "sell" a major work-style change to numerous players. Even knowing where to start can be overwhelming, and that's where Ann Rockley's book Managing Enterprise Content comes in.

Authoritative and experienced, Rockley acknowledges that enterprise content management is not for everyone (a refreshing change from those pushing cookie-cutter solutions). In cases where content management could solve business problems, Rockley makes her case with calm conviction, breaking the subject down into logical chunks. In particular, her chapters on designing metadata (the "information about information" that is key to effective and scalable content management) and workflow (the designation of who does what, when) are lucid and comprehensive.

Whether your objective is to get a grasp of the subject, sell an implementation to your organization, or just digest what an impending implementation will mean to you, you'll want Rockley's book on your desk.

An excellent starting point for tech writers making the move to single sourcing........2007-05-25

I came to this book from a very different direction than many (all?) of the other reviewers. I'm a technical writer ("content developer") researching methods and tools for single-sourcing technical documentation. For my purposes, this book was an excellent starting point in recognizing and understanding the considerations that must be taken into account when migrating to a single-source solution (i.e., one tool and set of practices for developing documentation to be delivered in multiple media), defining a new set of practices, and evaluating an authoring tool. I recommend this book strongly to any tech writer/manager who needs help understanding the basics of single-sourcing.

Content reuse, not Enterprise Content Management...,.......2006-11-05

This book's title has probably attracted those interested in Enterprise Content Management. ECM has increasingly become a major buzz in business strategy circles as the information age tidal wave spills over into organizations and floods them with content. We're literally drowning. "Managing Enterprise Content" does not discuss ECM in broad terms, such as structured and unstructured content, email, scanned documents, OCR, ICR, etc. Instead, it focuses on content reuse. To take a simple example, a product brochure, a website, and a press release all include descriptions of a product. Why, the book argues, rewrite that description three separate times for each medium? Why not write it just once, store it in a content management system, and then reuse it over and over again? "Content Modularization" or "Content Reuse" probably describe the goals of this book less confusingly than "Managing Enterprise Content." But, in fairness to the authors, the current title isn't inaccurate, it just lends itself easily to misunderstanding. To reiterate: those looking for a course in Enterprise Content Management conforming to the Association for Information and Image Management's (AIIM) guidelines should look elsewhere.

Nonetheless, those looking for a strategy to manage distributable content throughout an organization should take a look at "Managing Enterprise Content." The focus remains on implementing a "unified content strategy," which translates essentially to an efficient reuse of content. Here the word "content" has a specific sense relating to verbiage authored for a specific use. Product descriptions, mission and vision statements, disclaimers, compliance and regulatory announcements, anything widely distributable qualifies. How does one efficiently manage the creation and the evolution of such content across an organization? This obviously implies some form of centralization (although this pregnant term gets strategically avoided for obvious reasons). And this further implies a software system. But prior to purchasing an expensive application, the business must align itself process-wise to enable content reuse. Otherwise the costly program will sit and rot. The first three parts of the book (I - III), comprising its first twelve chapters, discuss these necessary preparations and walk the reader through to implementation. This progression mirrors, for good reasons, the project management and software development life cycle processes. First, determine the concept or the "why?" of the project (Chapters 1 & 2). Then perform cost benefit analysis (Chapter 3 discusses ROI for content reuse), analyze and prioritize the current content infrastructure, the "As-Is" (Chapters 4 through 6), look to the future by modeling and designing the elements of the system the "To-Be" (Chapters 7 through 11), and finally implement the reusable content infrastructure (Chapter 12). Evaluation of software tools and technology should come before implementation, but the book instead covers these topics in Part IV (Chapters 13 to 18). So it's that easy to implement a unified content strategy? Well, no, not really.

Part V, the book's final section, outlines the inevitable issues that face organizational restructuring. Implementation of a unified content strategy will probably necessitate fundamental changes. Roles will get changes, people moved around, departments will get realigned or reorganized. All of this can sap morale or cause anxiety amongst employees. The author is not an authority on such issues, so this section of the book remains somewhat cursory and high-level. Conflict management gets deferred to a website (the book contains an out of date URL, but the book's website[...] has an updated address), and the advice presented here will probably not surprise anyone. Still, managing change remains an important part of any new implementation and this section, though rudimentary, will at least raise awareness.

Lastly, the appendices contain a grab bag of information. Appendix C, on vendors, has probably suffered from age (these days, a lot can happen in three years), but it may provide some good leads. Appendix B, "Writing for Multiple Media," probably could have appeared in the main body of the book; it contains important details not covered elsewhere.

Overall, the book does give a plausible outline for implementing the proposed strategy. Some of the chapters may seem overly simplistic or overlong to those experienced with system implementations or business process management. At the very least, "Managing Enterprise Content" may introduce some readers to the concept of enterprise content reuse. That concept remains a challenging one that will likely mean different things to different organizations. So this book does not provide the final word on the subject, nor does it intend to. An organization can only use this book as a blueprint or a guidepost for implementing its own unified content strategy.

Review of Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Str.......2004-05-21

Are you overwhelmed with the need to create more content, faster, customized for more customers, and for more media than ever before? Do you consider storing documentation on a server as an effective a content management system? Do you want to learn how content management will empower your organization? The answer to these questions and many more is covered in Managing Enterprise Content: A Unified Content Strategy by Ann Rockley with Pamela Kostur and Steve Manning of The Rockley Group. The Rockley Group is one of the leading providers of content management methodologies.

Managing Enterprise Content provides concepts, strategies, guidelines, processes, and technical options that will prepare you to meet the increasing demands of creating, managing, and distributing content. It describes techniques that will help you define your content management requirements, build your vision, design your content architecture, select tools, and overcome obstacles of managing enterprise content. It will help you to visualize the spectrum of enterprise content, the requirements for effectively creating, managing, and delivering content, and the value of developing a content strategy for your organization. That¡¦s a lot of information for one person to understand. That¡¦s why the book is written for three audiences: content managers, information architects, and authors. Managing Enterprise Content follows the same methodical approach that Rockley uses to teach content management in seminars and workshops.

I was expecting the book to jump into the technologies to implement a content management system. But that¡¦s not how Rockley presents content management. She begins with The basis of a unified content strategy and describes how content is created, who creates it, why authors work in isolation, and the consequences of isolation and centralizing content. The solution is to consolidate content in a definitive source, and a process that encourage authors to work collaboratively. The next step is to assess opportunities for content reuse. If you have never heard the term ¡¥reusing content,¡¦ you may know it as single sourcing. You probably already reuse content (i.e. copy and paste), which works well until the information, and everywhere that it appears, must be updated. Content reuse involves using existing content components (e.g. paragraphs, sections, and chapters) to develop new documents. Implementing a unified content strategy is a costly investment: tools, technologies, and training are not cheap. Investment costs are incurred in technology, training and consulting, and lost productivity.

Examples are given to calculate the cost of authoring tools, content management systems, training and consulting¡Xa content management system is not a plug and play, one size fits all solution. The return on investment is achieved by reduced time to market, reduced cost of product content development, improved accuracy and quality of content, and reduced manufacturing defects. The examples are especially helpful because you will need to create a proposal to convince budget holders and management on the return on investment of a content management solution.

Are you ready to buy a content management system? Not yet, read further. ¡§Performing a substantive audit: Determining business requirements¡¨ begins with an introduction on how to determine goals that you want a unified content strategy to solve, for example:
h Reduce the time to plan, write, review, approve, and publish
h Create flexible content that is easily reused to create information products for multiple products and multiple media
h Reduce the cost of translation by reusing existing translations.
h Make content more accessible; separating content from format makes it possible for content to be displayed automatically in a format appropriate to the disability.
Rockley describes how to identify opportunities where a unified approach of content management (i.e. planning, design, authoring and revision, version control, access control, publication and delivery to its audiences) is beneficial.

You are probably wondering how this all fits together, and Rockley explains how. ¡§Design¡¨ describes information modeling and metadata, how to personalize content, how to design a workflow, and how to implement your design.

An information model is critical for a unified content strategy because it provides a framework for documentation. It's the 80/20 rule: 80% of your effort is planning and analysis, and 20% of your effort is implementing the solution with whatever tools are selected to accomplish the goals the organization has set for itself. The level of detail of your information model depends on the level of reuse you want to achieve.

Many desktop publishing tools can dynamically publish personalized letters and forms by matching elements such as names and address¡Xa content management system can do the same. I was confused why design is given so much attention. Why not conduct the audit, buy the tools, and worry about design later? You can¡¦t. The design of information, reuse models/maps, meta data and workflow are all tool independent tasks. Regardless of the tools selected, you must first analyse and then design a content or information model so that it can be presented to IT staff and software vendors. Doing this in advance makes it possible for you to ask vendors to respond to a request for proposal and document how their tools can help you satisfy your specific challenges. Analysis provides an opportunity to collect metrics. From your information models, you can identify how much of your content could be reusable and where.

Educated on how content is used, where and how, you are better prepared to match the tools and technology to the origination¡¦s goals to deliver a unified content management solution. ¡§Tools and technologies¡¨ offers guidelines for evaluating tools. With so many tools and technologies to choose from, selecting the one that best satisfies your goals and budget is a challenge. Your best advantage is to be an educated consumer before you shop around. Rockley recommends that you identify your needs, and criteria for evaluating product options in terms of usability, training provided, supporting documentation provided, technical support, upgrades and enhancements, implementation time, cost, vendor viability, partnerships the vendor has to provide an expanded solution, and references. Where do you being looking?

Some good sources are conferences where vendors present authoring solutions such as the annual STC conference, electronic mailing lists, technology magazines, Web sites and online discussion boards and newsgroups. A supplement to ¡§Tools and technologies¡¨ is Appendix C, ¡§Vendors,¡¨ which is an overview of products, features and vendors. Appendix D, ¡§Tools Checklist,¡¨ which lists sample questions to ask a vendor. When you have narrowed your list of potential vendors, Rockley suggests that you either contact the vendors and request onsite demonstrations or send vendors an RFP (request for proposal).

¡§Tools and technologies¡¨ covers XML because it provides interoperability between applications. XML is not a set of tags that you apply to documents; it is a specification that sets rules for the creation of tag sets that you apply to documents. For instance, if you selected tools first and then designed your content, you might find that some of the content does not behave the way you expect it to. One solution would be to use XSLT to transform the content and move it around where you want it. While this may be an acceptable solution, it¡¦s not. The conversion costs time, money, and resources. There is no need to convert or transform content if it¡¦s modelled in XML from the start.

Rockley describes strategies for collaborative authoring, how to separate content from format, how to manage change and transition. An example is given to illustrate how the same product description is reused effectively to create a show catalog, brochure, press release and Web site. It¡¦s easy to understand that people find it hard to believe that content somebody else created could possibly meet their needs. After all, Rockley notes, it was written for a different purpose and media, and the author could not have known their customers/audience/requirements. However, if content is written for a different purpose, audience, or media without considering how the content can be reused, it¡¦ won¡¦t work.

Don¡¦t be optimistic that everybody will be willing to convert to a better way of authoring and managing content. Rockley presents issues to consider when planning your change management strategy such as overcoming resistance from opponents and descriptions of new and modified roles. She recommends creating a role for an enterprise project coordinator and information technologist; a change to existing roles business owners or analysts and information architects; and new skill sets (p. 413-415). Unintentionally overlooked are system administrators to maintain the content management system and to ensure that users adhere to standards.

Don¡¦t be overly optimistic that everybody will want morph into new roles and change their authoring habits. An XML system is best suited and ideal for a large documentation department for all content authoring or an organization where every author uses the XML authoring tool. A team of ten or fewer will be constrained to balance XML implementation and documentation project duties, and learn how to use the (new) content management system. Even if you assign the complex task of XML implementation and creation of information models, workflows and DTDs to a consultant, the consultant will require guidance from the team. These are only a few of the constraints to overcome to assure a successful unified content strategy that Rockley expertly describes how to overcome.

Managing Enterprise Content concludes with a checklist for implementing a unified content strategy, suggestions for writing for multiple media, sample questions to ask vendors, a checklist for the tools required to implement a unified content strategy, and the importance of content relationships in version control. Pay close attention to usability. The rollout of a content management system, authoring tools, and authoring standards affects every member of the organization. If it¡¦s not easy to learn, easy to use, easy to support, and easy to maintain, authors will revert to the traditional way of writing and managing content.

Read Managing Enterprise Content before you invest in a content management system and consulting fees. You will be an educated and informed customer and user when you begin shopping for a content management solution of your own.

A must for Content Management projects.......2004-02-02

This book is an absolute must for Content Management projects. It touches all of the important aspects: Technical, functional and process. There is something for all stakeholders in a EMS/CMS project.

Especially good about this book is that the parts that are not your direct job are still very readable, understandable and interesting. It provides valuable insights in other peoples jobs and reasoning.

Coming from the technical side and with a lot of experience in setting up systems and also information architecture and DTD design, for me this book contained several new insights and some very helpfull checklists.

Customer Reviews:

Good wireless programing book; ok treatment of other topics.......2001-10-06

"Wireless Internet & Mobile Business How to Program" contains a good discussion of the various elements of programming for wireless devices. The reader will come away from the programming chapters with a solid understanding of how to implement simple structures. The chapter that introduces algorithms is clear and concise; the chapter that introduces control structures is easy to understand (if somewhat odd in its ordering). The chapter that introduces Object Oriented Programming provides a clear introduction to objects. This approach, using several real-world examples, is a good way to orient the non OO-minded to the use of objects. It covers the different aspects of objects in the abstract well. However, it could use a clearer explanation of why developers should use objects instead of the regular, top-down structured programming they've (possibly just) learned. For those new to programming, this is essential.

Book Description

The friendly, tutorial style of Sams Teach Yourself E-Commerce Programming with ASP in 21 Days empowers you to create your own online stores quickly and easily. Using online-proven methods, Stephen Walther, an expert e-commerce developer, provides you with an understanding of online commerce applications, then guides you through the use of VBScript and ASP's built-in objects, enabling you to create your own dynamic, database-driven e-commerce solutions. This book does not stop at just creating the online store. The author teaches you to create order tracking systems, manage advertising, create store reports, personalize the shopping experience and much more.

Customer Reviews:

Its What You Need. Seriously!.......2004-11-11

I have been a Web Design and Developer since 1998. I picked up this book in 2002 because I wanted to learn how to create an online database program and a e-commerce store. I picked it up at my local book store and found that it was very easy to read.

Today, creating an online store in less than 21 days for any of my customers is not a problem.

I highly recommend this book for anyone wishing to get their web development career started.

Use it for any type of online application.

Great book!.......2004-08-21

Very useful book with great code samples. Defiantly buy this book if you are looking to do some e-commerce programming with ASP 3.0.

Good book...great Instructor.......2003-05-11

Good book...great instructor. I bought this book a while back and since I've gotten so much from it, I figure I'll give it a plug.
If you've programmed in VB and have some ASP experience, then this is great book. A lot of the programming I've done has been within the context of a programming team. So, most of the time, I would work on a specific, limited portion of a program. For me, this book was great in that it guides me through the ENTIRE process of building a website by myself. Through working on the project in the book, I gained a good understanding of how to set up navigation for a website and also little tricks on state maintenance. (Coming fr. mainly a VB and SQL Server background, those were my weak points.) There are other little points that are too numerous to mention here. The style of the writing is clean and easily understandable. The author also gives alternative solutions to a single problem. An example, is the shopping cart. You are shown the implementation of a session cart and a database driven cart, and the pros and cons of each solution is discussed.

Anyway, to cut this short, I've built a number of websites all based on the code in here but fleshed out with SQL Server (instead of Access) and broke the implementation up into n-tier by implementing classes and objects. But that really is easy once I got the understanding and foundation of E-Commerce websites fr Stephen Walther's book.

I'm just wondering when Stephen is coming out with E-Commerce Programming with ASP.NET ... I'm sure it would be a blockbuster.
(hint hint)

Good book to get the idea.........2003-01-21

This book is not an ASP reference, but rather it's an application of ASP programming: e-commerce. If you want to build an online store and want to learn the basics buy this book. After getting the idea you can improve upon it by reading some other materials.

I teach using this book.......2002-07-29

I teach ASP in the California State University system and my students are generally happy with this book. It provides enough source code you could make a shopping cart and catalog and understand what you are doing and why you were choosing to do it with Session variables or not. There is definitely some annoying errata, and the source code doesn't match entirely with the source on the CD. I was disappointed in it's coverage of password protection. So, this is far from a perfect 5.

Someone could get up to speed with ASP pretty quickly with this book. I use it to teach ASP to a cross-section of students with moderate computer backgrounds--not computer science majors. It does not cover the basic functionality, like loops and variables, so a better book for beginners may be one such as Learn ASP in 21 Days. That is if you are still teaching or learning ASP rather than dot-Net. And I honestly don't know which is best to learn at this transitional point. I find ASP very simple to learn and teach from books like this that just tell you what to do, show you, and let you do it.

Average customer rating:

Surprisingly good and very informative

Amazon's improving usability renders this book unnecessary

Nothing special

Waste of Money

A super guide to Amazon!

Amazon Hacks: 100 Industrial-Strength Tips & Tools (Hacks)
Paul Bausch
Manufacturer: O'Reilly Media, Inc.
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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Mining Amazon Web Services: Building Applications with the Amazon API

The Web Developer's Guide To Amazon E-Commerce Service: Developing Web Applications Using Amazon Web Services And PHP

Amazon.com: Get Big Fast

Spidering Hacks

Google Hacks: Tips & Tools for Finding and Using the World's Information (Hacks)

ASIN: 0596005423

Amazon.com

At its core, Amazon.com is a great big database concerned with lots of stuff--books, of course, but also tools, clothing, films on DVD, kitchen equipment, and lots and lots (and lots) of Harry Potter paraphernalia. Want to wear an Anna Kournikova exercise brassiere while juicing celery (presumably with considerable vigor)? Amazon can help. Need a cricket bat, radar gun, dietary fiber supplement, or vibrasonic molechaser? Amazon has what you need. Which is all great, but the real value of Amazon.com isn't that these things are in the database. The real value of this site lies in the information about all that stuff--reviews, sales rankings, recommendations, and the like--and the large number of ways to access it. Amazon Hacks explains how to get the most out of Amazon.com as an ordinary customer with a Web browser and as a software developer interested in the site's considerable collection of Web Services.

In Amazon Hacks, Paul Bausch documents most of the avenues Amazon.com has opened up for exploration of the database. A lot of his coverage borders on the obvious: Sections on how to "Power-Search for Books" and "Put an Item Up for Bid at Amazon Auctions" aren't too different from Amazon's own explanatory articles. Coverage of how to add an Amazon search box to your own site, and add Amazon Associates item links to various kinds of Weblogs (including Blosxom and Moveable Type) are much handier. Bausch really shines when explaining Amazon.com's Web Services (AWS), the remotely accessible software interfaces that enables programs to search the database. He includes AWS-enabled programs in PHP, Python, and Perl. --David Wall

Topics covered: How to use Amazon.com as a Web surfer, Web site publisher, and software developer. Detailed coverage goes to advanced product search techniques, managing the characteristics associated with your Amazon login, selling through Amazon Auctions and zShops, and the Amazon Web Services (AWS) API for Perl, PHP, and Python.

Book Description

Amazon Hacks is a collection of tips and tools for getting the most out of Amazon.com, whether you're an avid Amazon shopper, Amazon Associate developing your online storefront and honing your recommendations for better linking and more referral fees, seller listing your own products for sale on Amazon.com, or a programmer building your own application on the foundation provided by the rich Amazon Web Services API. Shoppers will learn how to make the most of Amazon.com's deep functionality and become part of the Amazon community, maintain wishlists, tune recommendations, "share the love" with friends and family, etc. Amazon Associates will find tips for how best to list their titles, how to promote their offerings by fine tuning search criteria and related titles information, and even how to make their store fronts more attractive. And the real power users will use the Amazon API to build Amazon-enabled applications, create store fronts and populate them with items to be picked, packed and shipped by Amazon. And just about anyone can become a seller on Amazon.com, listing items, deciding on pricing, and fulfilling orders for products new and used.

Customer Reviews:

Surprisingly good and very informative.......2006-09-18

I've been using Amazon for years and am an active poster of reviews. I was astounded to see just how much I didn't know about Amazon's resources and capabilities.

Even if you're not interested in programming hacks or using Amazon's API, this is still an extremely informative book for any Amazon user.

It provides excellent insight into how Amazon works and the wealth of information you can derive from Amazon.

Jerry

Amazon's improving usability renders this book unnecessary.......2006-08-18

When this book was first published, it might have been somewhat relevant. However, Amazon has continuously upgraded the usability of its site to the point that where the answer to any question you might actually have about its features is now on the website, including forums where you can discuss individual books, and even a forum where users discuss the well guarded formula for ranking Amazon reviewers, which one clever person came up with via experimentation. Also, Amazon's interface and features are constantly being changed and upgraded, so that some of the specific information in this book is no longer correct. I give this book two stars only because it is well written, but I strongly advise against buying it.

Nothing special.......2006-02-28

All of the information in the book could easily be obtained (for free!) from the Amazon Web Services website. In fact, all I learned from this book was that Amazon's online documentation was VERY complete!

Waste of Money.......2005-11-12

I can only assume that the positive reviews were written by relatives and friends of the author. This book is only useful if you are totally unable to search a database by typing in "rolling pin", and if you are interested in doing a lot of programming to accomplish simple and mostly useless tasks. As a seller on Ebay, I found nothing of use in this book, and, as a purchaser, I am capable of finding a "flashlight" without doing a lot of programming. This book is highly oversold. Save your money.

A super guide to Amazon!.......2005-07-26

This book covers a wide range of tips and tricks for using Amazon. These include at the beginning a range of advice for people who want to know more about shopping on Amazon and using the Friends and Family area and Wish Lists, but you will get a lot more out of it if you have an Amazon Associate account and Developer token with web hosting which supports the use of PHP, as many of the scripts provided only work if you're able to upload them and use them online.

I am a little puzzled that nowhere in the book is it stated that you should not direct link to Amazon's images - all the hacks around the use of images involve direct links even though it states clearly in the Associate terms of service that you should upload images to your own server rather than linking directly to images on Amazon.

Many of the tips are aimed at amazon.com but most will work on all the Amazon sites.

It's a great book and well worth keeping to hand even if you're just browsing around adding to your shopping cart and/or Wish List!

Affiliate Selling: Building Revenue on the Web

Average customer rating:

Don't Waste Your Money
I have found the Bible on the business
Incredible book!!
A Good Place To Start
One of the first and still possibly the best

Affiliate Selling: Building Revenue on the Web
Greg Helmstetter , and Pamela Metivier
Manufacturer: Wiley
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

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ASIN: 0471381861

Book Description

Discover how you can take advantage of the most rapidly growing form of e-commerce.

Created by Amazon.com in 1996 as a way of generating sales through referrals from linked Web sites, affiliate selling has quickly mushroomed into one of the biggest sources of e-commerce revenue. In fact, experts predict that, within the next few years, affiliate sales will account for as much as 25 percent of all retail e-commerce. A major reason for this is that anyone with a Web site can start earning commissions by becoming an affiliate, and directing visitors to other sites that actually sell something.

Written by pioneering experts in the field, this comprehensive guide clearly shows how to plan, implement, and manage a successful affiliate program on the Web. Helmstetter and Metivier detail the various types of affiliate programs and explain how to choose one that fits your goals. Individuals will learn where to register for free Web pages, how to build a virtual storefront, and how to add affiliate links to their sites. Merchants will discover how to start an affiliate program, extend their marketing reach, utilize third-party tools, and much more.

Get hands-on advice and guidance on how to:
* Select the right affiliate program
* Implement the required technologies
* Manage content development
* Analyze traffic trends and drive traffic to a site
* Avoid pitfalls and costly mistakes
* Maximize commissions by refining the product mix, placement, and display

Customer Reviews:

Don't Waste Your Money.......2006-08-06

This book is copyright year 2000. Think about it! I just bought this book and I threw it away. I can't belive other people are selling this book on amazon. The title should be History of Affiliate Selling pre-y2k. There is No usable information in this book,Unless your are a history buff.

I have found the Bible on the business.......2005-09-05

Ignore all naysayers. This book is a comprehensive resource and the perfect introduction for those of us new to the industry. Well done!!

Incredible book!!.......2003-06-30

This is one you cannot miss! Well written, easy to digest, and so very eye-opening. It makes you want to read every book Helmstetter writes.

A Good Place To Start.......2003-03-21

I have to say that I had high hopes for this book. However, once I received it, I was dissappointed. Everything that is in this book can be found on the Internet.

While this book does provide a lot of information, if you have researched Affiliate Selling at all...anywhere else...you probably already know what's in this book.

Having said that, if you are looking for a place to start to learn about Affiliate Selling, this may be it. This book is written for the person who knows absolutlely nothing about Affiliate Selling. It goes over places to sign up with and defines what Affiliate Selling is.

One of the first and still possibly the best.......2002-09-28

Released in early 2000, this was one of the first books about affiliate programs and it still sets the standard. While it didn't predict the demise of the dotcoms, this book is still very relevant. For the beginner, its basics and useful tips are exactly what you need to get started. But for the advanced reader, its unique and prescient predictions about where things where things are going are VERY interesting. (If you replace some of the book's references to no-longer existing companies with the newer term "XML Web Services," you have what amounts to a book that was written 5-8 YEARS ahead of its time! For instance, the authors were completely accurate in their prediction of the return of the importance of the individual/small site, a notion which was heresy in 2000 when the web was totally dominated by massive funded companies competing using millions of dollars from their IPO war chests. I credit the authors with this foresight and find their other 50,000-foot-level insights to still be fresh, insightful, and completely unique among the books I've seen in this category. This aspect makes the book required reading for anybody who thinks they know anything about affilate programs today.

Book Description

Much of the business transacted on the Web today takes place through information exchanges made possible by using documents as interfaces. For example, what seems to be a simple purchase from an online bookstore actually involves at least three different business collaborations -- between the customer and the online catalog to select a book; between the bookstore and a credit card authorization service to verify and charge the customer's account; and between the bookstore and the delivery service with instructions for picking up and delivering the book to the customer. Document engineering is needed to analyze, design, and implement these Internet information exchanges. This book is an introduction to the emerging field of document engineering.

The authors, both leaders in the development of document engineering and other e-commerce initiatives, analyze document exchanges from a variety of perspectives. Taking a qualitative view, they look at patterns of document exchanges as components of business models; looking at documents in more detail, they describe techniques for analyzing individual transaction patterns and the role they play in the overall business process. They describe techniques for analyzing, designing, and encoding document models, including XML, and discuss the techniques and architectures that make XML a unifying technology for the next generation of e-business applications. Finally, they go beyond document models to consider management and strategic issues -- the business model, or the vision, that the information exchanged in these documents serves.

Customer Reviews:

I didn't get the info for which I was looking out of it.......2007-09-28

I was lured by the title and reviews hoping to get insight on how to generically define large documents that could easily be extended as requirements change and consumed by a wide variety of clients using different arbitrary programming languages. I didn't learn anything new about extensibility, and programming languages are absent from this book.

Instead the book seems to be a somewhat dated look at a high level process for using documents in a service oriented architecture. The calendar example application seems too simple to translate into a more complex real life application. The approach described for "document engineering" is much more reminiscent of waterfall style development approaches rather than lean/agile techniques.

I also found the text very difficult to read; it's very dry.

Perhaps this book is useful for some, but it certainly isn't helpful for everybody.

Very relevant for anyone designing Web Services.......2006-08-04

Component modeling, analysis of information exchanges, and
application services usage patterns are critical areas to focus
on in designing internal and external interfaces exposed by
enterprises, ASPs/SaaS, and other consumer-oriented internet
services. We have many good examples of scalable, evolvable,
easy to integrate and interoperable Web Services API in the
consumer-oriented internet industry currently. The areas
covered in the DOCUMENT ENGINEERING is very relevant to
architects, product managers, developers and technology
executives. I especially found the design patterns and process
discussion helpful. I would recommend this book to anyone
interested in services oriented application platforms, internal
and external enterprise integration to employ in the design
phase since it covers an effective methodology of designing
interfaces based on the document-centric component model.

Zahid Ahmed
San Jose, CA

explains well SOA, Web Services and semantics .......2006-06-20

The book is a refreshingly understandable approach to explaining Service Oriented Architecture, Web Services and the Semantic Web. Other texts often drown the reader in hugely verbose XML examples. But here, the authors achieve clarity in discussing the essence of the above concepts. The XML snippets are clear, without being overly long.

You can also see why interoperability issues might inevitably arise in a loosely coupled Web Services environment. Often due to differing semantic meanings attached to the same fields in a common document structure. The book touches upon hard problems of ontologies and how the different meanings might be accomodated in a realistic deployment of distributed Web Services.

Comprehensive and Practical.......2006-03-29

Document Engineering is a practical exploration of the role documents play in the nexus of contracts that drive modern businesses. The interdisciplinary approach put forward here, taking document engineering out of the realm of pure software engineering, is eye opening and provides some real insight into what it takes to make Service Oriented Architectures work in the real world. This is an absolute must read book for anyone seriously considering developing an XML based document integration strategy.

A Roadmap for How To Upgrade All Businesses to the Internet Era.......2005-12-28

At the end of the day, business success comes down to three things: a product, the market, and the business processes. The business processes consist of people, tools and workflow. You can have a great product in a great market but if you have bad business processes...you can forget about it. Many organizations have tried to implement Six Sigma to ensure highly effective business processes. The key to six sigma is data. Data tells you how effective your processes are. For example, data will tell you things like: how many parts per million are defective, how many invoices per million were inaccurate, how many orders shipped late, how long it takes to execute an order once a contract is signed, how long a customer support rep spent on the phone, etc......Once you have the data, evaluating the problem and recommeding a solution is easy. The hard part however is getting the data. You can either collect the data manually over time or if you have the infrastructure you can collect it electronically through software. Unfortunately if you have to collect the data manually, it takes a long time, effort and money. If you collect data electronically it enables no additional time and provides real time visibility and the ability to implement positive changes on the fly. So how do you go from a manual data collection process to an automated data collection process? That's what this book, Document Engineering, will help you figure out. I have owned this book for about 2 months and it has been on my desk since. I continuously refer to it for insights on how to develop a clear plan on how to implement a data collection infrastructure that will help to more effectively manage business processes.

Business Process Change: A Manager's Guide to Improving, Redesigning, and Automating Processes (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems)

Average customer rating:

Good Software Book, Bad Business Process Change Book
Good seller.
Very good book from Paul Harmon
Business Process Change
This book needs update

Business Process Change: A Manager's Guide to Improving, Redesigning, and Automating Processes (The Morgan Kaufmann Series in Data Management Systems)
Paul Harmon
Manufacturer: Morgan Kaufmann
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Strategy & Competition | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Decision-Making & Problem Solving | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Management | Management & Leadership | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Organizational Change | Organizational Behavior | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Entrepreneurship | Small Business & Entrepreneurship | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

All Amazon Upgrade | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Business & Investing | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

Computers & Internet | Amazon Upgrade | Stores | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 1558607587

Book Description

Every company wants to improve the way it does business, to produce goods and services more efficiently, and to increase profits. Nonprofit organizations are also concerned with efficiency, productivity, and with achieving the goals they set for themselves. Every manager understands that achieving these goals is a part of his or her job.

In the wake of the dot-com collapse, managers are trying to figure out how they can take advantage of email, the Internet, and the Web to improve their business process. At the same time, managers are interested in developing business process architectures and measurement systems that align business processes with corporate goals. Managers face many options in approaching these problems. Business Process Change provides an overview of the options and describes a variety of business process techniques proven by successful companies over the course of a decade.

*Focuses on the process change problems faced by today's managers.
*Summarizes the state of the art of business process analysis & improvement, including the basic vocabulary of modeling.
*Presents a methodology based on the best practices available that can be tailored for specific needs and that maintains a focus on the human aspects of process redesign.
*Offers detailed case studies showing how these methods are implemented.

Customer Reviews:

Good Software Book, Bad Business Process Change Book.......2007-07-15

This book is geared too much towards IT process changes and can never escape its software base of knowledge to address general business process change in a meaningful way. It was required reading for a business process improvement class and I never went beyond the required reading because it just wasn't useful. This might be useful for an IT project lead but anyone else would be better served by any one of the many books on Toyota, Six Sigma, or Lean.

Good seller........2007-04-03

It came in on time and in the condition stated. Would buy from this seller again.

Very good book from Paul Harmon.......2007-03-09

This is a very good book. I am a Data Warehouse / Business Analysis Architect and one of the keys to my profession is maximizing technology in order to solve business problems. Harmon writes about how IT is a key enabler of BPM.

Harmon really does a good job of documenting the importance of BPM and process redesign, rather than wholesale reengineering of processes through the implementation of ERP systems. Harmon writes about how business processes can be considered assets of a corporation. This is important. Another key thread in the book is that all processes in an organization should map back to the value propositions of the company and therefore map directly to strategic goals.

Mapping all processes to the value propositions of the company is important to ensure that nothing the company does is done solely for the sake of the institution, but maps to a business goal.

Business Process Change.......2006-12-29

This book was recommended by several of my lean consulting friends, who specialize in agile project management, as an excellent source for documenting and analyzing process workflows in complex environments. I agree, this book is a must read for people tasked with redesigning informational workflows in service systems. I have read it twice and continue to learn new ways to analyze business processes.

This book needs update.......2006-07-28

When I purchased the book early 2003 I agreed with most of the reviews.

However, having it read again. It really shows that a lot of stuff has been outdated and certainly requires updating.

Especially on the new trends like Six Sigma, compliance and innovative technology solutions.

New Perspectives on Data-Driven Web Sites with Microsoft Access 2000: Tools for E-Commerce

Average customer rating:

Data Driven Web Sites with Microsoft Access 2000

New Perspectives on Data-Driven Web Sites with Microsoft Access 2000: Tools for E-Commerce
Lisa Friedrichsen
Manufacturer: Course Technology
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Paperback

Database Design | Databases | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Databases | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Software | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

E-Commerce | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books
Similar Items:

ASIN: 0619019484

Book Description

Part of the New Perspectives Series, this innovative text is perfect for a class on building databases to drive electronic commerce Web sites, or as a companion to any Microsoft Access text.

Customer Reviews:

Data Driven Web Sites with Microsoft Access 2000.......2001-02-07

From the moment I opened this factual, precise and yet self- explanatory work of intellect, my answers to problems in the world of information technology were all fulfilled. Surely, the world of technology changes at the speed of light and so does the world of business. The author has fully incorporated this approach in creating a holistic work which embodies the concepts of the Internet and the World Wide Web (yes, they are in fact completely different), tying into the literature screen shots and sequential series which polish the seasoned user of Microsoft Access and I suppose, enlighten the skills of the novice.

Book Description

Introduces business and technical managers to the exciting new frontier in database technology
Web sites gather a lot of detailed information about customers. Unfortunately, most companies lack the means to use that information to improve their marketing and customer support functions. Considered by most experts to be the new frontier in the database and data warehousing fields, Web mining solves that problem. Coauthored by two bestselling data mining authors, Mining the Web explains, for corporate decision makers, IT managers, and database marketers, how data mining principles and techniques can be applied to various types of Web sites. More importantly, they describe techniques for using the resulting goldmine of business data to develop more effective advertising campaigns and better customer service.

Customer Reviews:

Mining the Web.......2003-01-18

I found this book to be most helpful and thorough, I was immediately inspired to practice these useful tips and easy to intuit instructions.

I continue to use it for reference as a resource manual. I highly encourage anyone just getting interested in the concept of data mining, anyone in sales, marketing, public relations, and analytics to start with this book first. After reading this book you will have a strong foundation into data mining applications and a vivid sense of direction on how to make it work for you personally!!!!

Cutting Through the Hype.......2002-03-07

We're just starting to look at mining the clickstream, and this is the first book I've found that cuts through the hype and really comes clean on what works and doesn't work. Good, solid techincal information, but better is their coverage of business issues. I love all of the detailed cases. Great job!

Another winner from a great team.......2002-03-07

I own Berry and Linoff's first two books on data mining (Data Mining Techniques and Mastering Data Mining); they're the best, and this book lives up to their standards. All three are great for not just teaching the technical stuff, but how and when to apply it to solve problems I really face at my company.

Average customer rating:

Web Services Security and E-business

Manufacturer: IGI Global
ProductGroup: Book
Binding: Hardcover

General | Business & Investing | Subjects | Books

Web Services | Web Development | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Privacy | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Manager's Guides to Computing | Business & Culture | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

Network Security | Networking | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

General | Computers & Internet | Subjects | Books

All Titles | Qualifying Textbooks - Fall 2007 | Stores | Books
ASIN: 1599041685
Release Date: 2007-01-15

Product Description

Many techniques, algorithms, protocols, and tools have been developed in the different aspects of cyber-security, namely, authentication, access control, availability, integrity, privacy, confidentiality, and non-repudiation as they apply to both networks and systems. Web Services Security and E-Business focuses on architectures and protocols, while bringing together the understanding of security problems related to the protocols and applications of the Internet, and the contemporary solutions to these problems. Web Services Security and E-Business provides insight into uncovering the security risks of dynamically created content, and how proper content management can greatly improve overall security. This book also researches the security lifecycle and how to respond to an attack, as well as the problems of site hijacking and phishing.

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