Joining Lionbridge Global Marketing Operations
Happy New Year!
2012 is going to be a big year for me. Starting in January, I will be a full time employee of a new business unit of Lionbridge called Global Marketing Operations (GMO). The best way to describe GMO is that it is a service that helps global companies execute their global content strategy. We take great content that marketers and designers produce and make it available to the intended audiences. This includes:
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preparing and instrumenting content for publication in the customer’s content delivery systems (web content management, email campaign management, advertising, etc.)
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Operating those delivery systems.
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Localizing (translating and adapting) content for local markets.
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Helping customers understand the effectiveness of their marketing campaigns.
GMO becomes the arms and legs of the marketing organization to close the gap between strategy and results. My new title within Lionbridge will be Global Marketing Operations Solutions Manager. In the near term, I will be optimizing tools and processes to help scale the offering as well as working with GMO clients to help them maximize the value they get from the service.
I have been working in content management for over 15 years. Over that time, I have come to realize that technology is usually not what prevents companies from being successful with content. Yes, better tools increase efficiency. But that doesn’t mean having the right tools will lead to success. In fact, I have been noticing that many compelling CMS features are under-utilized. The capabilities are there; the capable people to use them are not (or they just don’t have the time).
With the emergence of content strategy as a main-stream discipline and the pressure on marketers to show quantitative results, this execution gap will only widen and become more visible. And that’s why this opportunity with Lionbridge GMO is so exciting to me. This is where I can have the most impact in helping companies be more successful with content.
In practical terms, some things are going to change and others will stay the same.
First, the changes....
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I will no longer be accepting consulting projects through Content Here. Lionbridge offers a Global Digital Benchmark and I will lead the internal component of that offering. I will also consult with GMO clients and prospects to evaluate their tools and processes.
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I will write and speak more on the operations, process, and analytics of content management.
But these things will stay the same....
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I will continue to post to this blog and tweet. Some posts will be re-posted on GMO blog.
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I will continue to track the content management software industry. Lionbridge and its clients need to stay up to date with the latest technology developments that improve efficiency and increase reach.
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I will continue to be vendor neutral. The success of GMO will depend on being able to help customers regardless of their platform. When it comes to choosing a new platform, Lionbridge is aligned with the customer. We want to choose the most suitable technology because we will be using it.
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I will continue to attend content management conferences and engage with the content management community. I have great relationships in this community and I think that my work at Lionbridge will provide insights that we all can learn from. I also look forward to connecting my clients to trusted companies and practitioners that provide tools and services that Lionbridge does not offer.
As you can see, I am pretty excited by this new chapter in my career. With that, I will wrap this up by wishing everyone a very happy, productive, and rewarding new year.