One on One with Molly Wenzler of MeadWestvaco

Molly Wenzler is the Director of Electronic Media for MeadWestvaco Corporation (MWV). She has 10 years of experience managing the strategy, planning, usability and implementation of web technologies. Her areas of focus include knowledge management, web content management, digital asset management and intranet portals. Prior to joining MWV, Molly worked for Capital One, Anthem Blue Cross Blue Shield, Sapeint (formerly iXL), and Dominion Power. We asked Wenzler about her experience implementing a web content management system at her firm.

FCM: You work for an established manufacturing company with roots dating back more than 100 years; as a B2B company, what is the goal of your website?

MW: MWV partners with consumer packaged goods companies to design and manufacture packaging solutions. The MWV website is a critical channel for us to communicate both who we are and what we do to a variety of audiences (investors, government officials, communities, customers, peers, and employees). Because the website is oftentimes the first point of contact with these audiences, we have to ensure it provides information about our capabilities, values, products and services, as well as conveys our expertise in the markets we serve. The ultimate goal of the website is to communicate, to educate and to inspire stakeholders to engage us in a dialog about their needs.

FCM: You recently went through a website redesign. What was wrong with the old site design, and what prompted you to change it?

MW: The company has a long history in the paper industry; we're over 100 years old. But our core business has evolved as we've deepened our service offering for our customers. This transformation included a number of mergers, acquisitions and divestitures, and from a web perspective, we had to address a lot of inconsistency, both visually and in our messaging. The website was a reflection of how we had done business in the past, but didn't reflect where we were today, or where we were going strategically. We had over 100 websites, many of which had grown stale and outdated. And we lacked the tools we needed to run a well managed web program.

Change was necessary, but building momentum within the organization and securing financial support to implement a new technology platform took time. We started by having conversations across the organization about the impact of perception and how the current website failed to communicate MWV's story. I was able to validate through web metrics programs that our target audience was indeed using our website as a primary source of information. As part of this exercise, I asked individuals around the company to tour the site through the eyes of a potential customer and see for themselves what story it told about MWV. It was clear to everyone that we were inconsistent, and it was difficult to understand who we were and what we could do.

FCM: You used an unusual method to convince upper management they needed to spend money and upgrade the site. Can you tell the story?

MW: We kicked off a rigorous research project to build the case to redesign our site. We analyzed web usage data, we performed a competitive analysis, we interviewed customers, customer service representatives and sales consultants about their challenges and needs, and we performed usability testing and heuristic evaluations on the site. We also analyzed the risk associated with having content dispersed across so many different technology platforms. Not only were we managing multiple instances of the same content across a variety of sites, but the content had become outdated, and was often inaccurate.

I wanted to create some momentum and energy around prioritizing this effort. I believed that the decision makers would need to experience the site from the perspective of a user to understand the disconnect between who we are and what our website communicated about us.

We planned briefing meetings with business unit leaders and executives to present our case for change and ask for their support. While the research spoke volumes about how underutilized our website channel was, it failed to convey what a user was experiencing on the website. To illustrate our point, we asked leaders to attempt basic tasks on the site, such as perform a Google search to find MWV, search for a job, search for a product, contact a sales consultant. As you can imagine, the tasks were difficult, if not impossible.

FCM: What vendor did you use for the CMS on the redesign, and why did you go with that vendor?

MW: We conducted a thorough vendor selection process to select the right content management system. From a short list of top-tier programs, we selected Oracle's Web Content Management system because it best matched our needs and provided a robust technology platform. The system has been in place for a year and a half and we've had great success. Oracle's tool is intuitive and usable, and inherent in the program are all of the tools we need to manage content according to best practices. Our platform is very stable and we've got plenty of opportunity for continued growth.

FCM: Have you had ROI discussions since completing the redesign? How are you measuring success? Is it purely monetary, or are there less tangible things you look at?

MW: We have a solid metrics program in place and we continually build and improve upon it. We demonstrate our success by showing how we're creating efficiencies in our processes, reducing cost (by moving print material online), and generating viable sales inquiries. Measuring success in purely monetary terms is a challenge, so we include visitor loyalty and visitor feedback as evidence of whether we're delivering value for the company.

We have big plans for the remainder of the year, and I look forward to continuing to drive our web strategy forward.