Content Management Systems for the Public Sector
Government has unique requirements and regulations. Managing a government’s content is achievable through MHC content management.
Content Management Built for Government Needs
What Is a Content Management System for Government?
First, let’s start with defining what a Content Management System (CMS) is. A CMS is the platform or software used by an organization to manage, store, and publish digital content online. You can see why content management systems are so essential to government systems: it’s their lifeblood. Government entities use their CMS to manage, store, and publish content online. Teams use it to plan, draft, schedule, and publish information into the public record and for public use.
The public sector is unique due to the regulations surrounding information that is made available to the public it serves. A public sector CMS must meet rigorous compliance standards since one error made public for just a few seconds has to be archived and held accountable.
With so much depending on how well a public sector’s CMS works, MHC is the right provider to support and implement government entities with the tools they need.
Features of a
Government Content Management System
Document Automation
The public sector produces content en masse for hundreds of thousands, or even millions, of constituents in their region. When customized templates are coupled with the power of document automation, the CMS can generate the critical content at a pace only dreamed of if everything’s manual.
Omnichannel Communications
Any business realizes that delivering content that works on any electronic device is important for effective communication. For government entities, it’s a mandate. That’s why a CMS that supports omnichannel delivery of content is so crucial.
Large Scale Document Generation
Due to the high volumes of content produced by the public sector for diverse audiences, compliance with public standards ensures that input and output of documents remains flexible yet consistent across a wide variety of formats. This is one crucial feature a solid CMS should have, especially for government content.
Personalized Communications
When everyone is your customer, it’s easy to fall into communicating as if each customer is the same. A content management system in the public sector needs to prioritize personalization in communications for the best results.
Document Template Management
The last thing the IT department wants, especially in a government entity, is to focus on building customized communication templates. With document template management included as a feature in a CMS, teams throughout the business are empowered to configure the templates they need without pestering IT.
Correspondence Management
When sending communications out to the masses, applying individual preferences to each piece can feel impossible. By using a government CMS that features correspondence management, the impossible becomes possible and communications go out to a person’s preferred channels.
Workflow Process Automation
When maintaining version history and control of your documents is a top priority due to regulation, a government CMS relies upon workflow process automation to ensure visibility and tracking of every piece of content.
Shipping and Receiving Documentation
When government entities must have every “t” crossed and every “i” dotted, tracking and fulfilling orders while maintaining receipts is a must-have feature for their CMS. Documentation software for shipping and receiving is yet another feature that supports the public sector’s need for eliminating discrepancies.
If your business is in the private sector and you publish new content to your website, the consequences you face for errors can span from minimal to costly. Typically, the fallout is based on the size of the error alone and the appropriate teams can manage any follow-up needed once the error is discovered and corrected.
A government CMS faces the same obstacles, yet with the additional weight of strict regulations. As the saying goes, “with great power comes great responsibility.” When the entire population of a region, state, province, or country are your customers, the features you need from your CMS are a bit broader than for a typical business or organization.
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Benefits of a Government Content Management System
With the appropriate features in place to connect content to customers, the benefits of a public sector CMS are experienced internally as well as externally and to everyone’s satisfaction – including regulators.
Manage Every Scrap of Content
Whether you’re building a document for public distribution or a text alert series for public safety, a CMS ensures that each individual piece is stored, retrievable, trackable, and ready to send. Whatever file extension you’re handling, your CMS helps the entire team manage it, coordinate it, and easily create timely new content without searching for hours or reinventing what’s already in use.
Level up from Legacy Systems
Government is one of those industries that can often lag behind technological advancements, putting off useful or even required upgrades due to budget or resource constraints. By advancing to a CMS, your public sector entity leaves behind systems that no longer work as well or as broadly with today’s technology. Instead, you and your customers experience new flexibility and capabilities of today.
Comply with Stringent Regulations
In some industries, every time you turn around there’s a regulation or mandate that requires strict compliance; failure to do so results in steep fines and penalties, not to mention adverse results for the customers you serve. Public sector CMS provides a failsafe to content managers and their audiences to ensure that regulations are always incorporated into communications.
Be Easy to Use by Anyone
Did you know that content intended for the general population should target someone with an eighth-grade reading level? Your CMS aligns with that goal by providing a system that, for both end-user and internal-user, is easy to navigate, easy to use, and easy to comprehend. Imagine the time and cost you’ll save by serving up a smooth experience that removes frustration and fosters appreciation.
Unify Your Team’s Efforts
In any industry, working in silos causes friction, inconsistency, and confusion on your best days. Disjointed work is not something the public sector can afford, thanks to regulations and the nature of the content you provide. A CMS for your public sector organization enforces synchronization of content and processes across departments, teams, and individuals, and the result is effective collaboration that your customers will be able to see.
Control Your Data
Version history, publish and unpublish dates, exact wording in communications: all of these are examples of data that a government organization is required to track, report on, or present in an audit. Thankfully a CMS provides the level of accuracy and recordkeeping needed to fulfill this requirement, freeing up team members to continue focus on their tasks at hand while the content they manage is constantly tracked.
