NOTE: The article below appears in Front Runner Training's February 2010 newsletter.

Your organization has a sound content reuse strategy in place. You've identified what content is going to be reused, who is going to be reusing it, and how this reuse is going to occur. Now it's time to start shopping around for a technology to support this strategy, but you don't know where to start.

Selecting the right technology isn't easy. There is no universal one-size-fits-all content reuse solution. There are countless vendor products, each differing in features, functionality, price, and complexity. With all these possibilities it's easy to get lost. However, by taking a well thought out and disciplined approach to evaluating these technologies, you can be sure to select the right solution for your organization.

As a first step, ask yourself the questions below. Use the answers to these questions to narrow the field and help identify which solutions merit further investigation.

• Does your organization have an existing DMS in place? Many reuse solutions mandate that you store your documents in a specific Document Management System (DMS). If your organization already has a DMS in place (e.g., FileNet, Documentum, LiveLink, etc), then you need to ensure that the reuse solution you select is fully compatible with your DMS.
• What is your budget? Reuse solutions vary greatly in price, with some of the high-end structured XML solutions starting at many hundreds of thousands of dollars. If you have a general budget in mind before you begin shopping, you can quickly eliminate any solutions that are out of your price range.
• Does the solution have the reuse capabilities you need? There are numerous ways to reuse content. Are you using conditional text to generate multiple outputs from a single document? Are you using reusable snippets to reuse rich chunks of content across documents? Your content reuse strategy identifies how you will be reusing content, so you need to ensure that the solution you select supports the reuse capabilities you need.
• Does your content reuse strategy call for structured XML authoring? Structured XML authoring is powerful, but it's not cheap. For some organizations XML authoring is the right choice, while for others it's not required and is overkill. Your content reuse strategy will identify if XML authoring is right for you, so be sure the reuse solution you select aligns with your XML strategy

Once you've narrowed the field, you can now start to more closely evaluate each technology to see which is the best fit for your organization. As you perform a more detailed analysis, be sure to consider the guidelines below in your evaluation:

• The solution must make reuse easy for your authors. Content reuse needs to be easy, otherwise over time your authors will resort to traditional "copy-and-paste" habits to recycle content. The solution you select needs to integrate reuse capabilities directly into your primary authoring tool and reuse functionality should always be just a mouse click away.
• The solution should support organic growth. Many reuse solutions require a "big bang" approach to implementation. These solutions require you to deploy to your entire authoring base at one time and do not allow authors and reviewers to freely collaborate on the same documents. This "big bang" approach is a recipe for failure. The reuse solution you select should allow you to start small and grow over time. You should pilot your reuse strategy and technology with a team of authors, and then expand your usage when your organization is ready and as your comfort level increases.
• The solution should centralize the storage of your reusable content. The reuse solution you select should allow for the creation of a centralized, authoritative repository of your reusable content. It needs to be clear to your authors where the "official" content is stored so there is no question where authors should go to get the latest approved content. This repository must allow for customizable metadata and a configurable taxonomy or folder structure to meet the needs of your authoring teams.
• The solution should support legacy documentation. If your organization is like most, you likely have hundreds or thousands of already authored and approved documents that you can draw upon. Make sure the reuse solution you select supports this legacy documentation and doesn't require an expensive document conversion process

There are a lot of great content reuse technologies on the market today, and each excels in its own way and has its own shortcomings. Before you begin shopping for the right technology, it's critical that you have a sound content reuse strategy in place along with a well planned, structured approach to evaluating these technologies.

While the questions and guidelines outlined in this article can help you identify candidate technologies, nothing is better than a hands-on evaluation. Once you've found one or more technologies that may work for you, it's time to roll-up your sleeves and get hands-on with these solutions to see which is the best fit for your organization.

Good luck in your search for the right technology to support your content reuse strategy!