Overcoming Legacy Barriers to CMS Use & Adoption

If you are migrating to Cascade Server from a legacy system such as Serena Collage, there are several factors to consider. One important factor, is identifying what features are needed in a new system to improve adoption and use of your organizational CMS. Because we have worked with many organizations migrating from Serena Collage to Cascade, we are keenly aware of some of the obvious deployment and usability barriers faced by those previously using Serena Collage.

To-date, we've helped more than 10 organizations successfully migrate their website content from Serena Collage to Cascade Server, and we've gained some valuable insight in doing so. Below, we've listed just a few of the ways in which Cascade Server facilitates a smoother organizational deployment:

No reliance on client-side Java: One of the most common complaints we get from those organizations previously utilizing Serena Collage is the system's reliance on client-side Java. Many organizations, such as institutions of higher-education, use restrictive permissions to grant users only the access-levels they need on school machines.  However, because Serena Collage requires that Java be installed on any machine on which it's being used, a serious barrier to use is posed. In other words, on each machine on which Serena Collage should run, the user of that machine must have administrator level access just to install Java to permit Collage to run. You can imagine, that when it comes to large and decentralized deployments, getting access and enabling Java on hundreds of machines would become a terrible burden.

However, with Cascade Server, users are able to leverage the flexibility of the system's zero-footprint client, which means all they need to access Cascade Server is a cookie and Java-enabled (no special permissions required) web browser.

Intuitive user interface: We realize the importance of an easy-to-navigate user interface. After all, if your users can't use the system with ease, they won't use it at all. The engineers and developers behind Cascade Server have made our user interface a huge priority. For example, our annual development theme for the Cascade Server 6.x series is "improving the user experience." This means that throughout development of the 6.x series, our engineers are focusing on major product upgrades, but also the finer points in navigating the system (i.e. - less clicks, faster load times, etc.). A CMS that's not accepted and well-adopted by end-users will not benefit an organization. For this reason, we are constantly working to improve Cascade Server's ease of use for end-users and administrators alike.

Easy-to-use editor: One of the biggest frustrations we hear from those previously using Serena Collage relates to its cumbersome system editor. In some cases, it's very difficult to set-up structured data fields, and end-users are required to enter content into one long WYSIWYG editor to add content to pages. Furthermore, Collage's use of Assistants often requires contributors to go through a lengthy set of steps before completing even the most minor tasks (i.e. creating a table). Aside from draining time and personnel resources, this puts a huge burden on end-users to ensure they are properly formatting content to maintain consistency with the rest of their site's content. With Cascade Server, users are able to create structured Data Definitions that can be endlessly customized and are an extremely flexible way to control the look and feel of your website content and ensure consistency across your site's pages.