A CMS for the CMO: Day Gets Creative With CQ5
By Kinley Levack – November 2008 Issue, Posted Oct 16, 2008
Content management systems often require, at best, a convoluted set of steps and, at worst, a team of IT professionals and two Excedrin to make real changes to a website. Enter Day Software Holding’s Communiqué v5.0 (CQ5). Designed to enable chief marketing officers and other creative personnel to have more ownership and management of their products, CQ5 seems downright intuitive.
ccording to Santi Pierini, Day’s SVP of marketing, clients began coming to the company saying they were suffering a bit as markets became increasingly global. To compete in Russia, the Middle East, and Asia, clients need access to the appropriate characters for those languages while maintaining a brand integrity that may be managed from another country entirely. Pierini describes the need as “freedom within a framework,” where overall integrity is preserved while allowing for localized content to meet the needs of a particular market.
“Think of the conductor orchestrating a large group of creative professionals; the CMO is keeping a cohesive brand throughout the company, as business goes more and more global,” explains Jean-Michel Pittet, SVP of engineering. “It is about providing a technology to facilitate that process. It’s not just about ease of use, but a tool where the creative person is being supported—not just annoyed—by technology.”
The interface for CQ5 incorporates drag-and-drop functionality, so components of a page appear to the user as blocks surrounded by a blue line, indicating the element being worked on and where it can be moved. WYSIWYG features maintain a word processor-like feel, and spell check and preview options add a reassuring touch.
Continues at E Content Mag