A global brand faces one challenge not applicable to others, content operations run 24/7. North American teams could be working on the same initiative as European and Asian ones, just three sometimes more hours apart. Without the correct systems in place, duplication occurs, and timelines fall by the wayside and into disarray. A headless CMS provides the infrastructure for effective around-the-clock content operations so that global teams can remain on the same page while operating at different times for greater efficiency.
Collaboration Barriers Created by Time Zones
One of the biggest collaboration barriers is time zones. A marketing campaign launched in New York may not be seen by the London team for several hours; by the time the international team in Sydney is ready and able to engage, the New York team has gone home for the day. These gaps form bottlenecks with approvals, publishing delays, inconsistent and frustrating access to anticipated workflow. For those enterprises that utilize enterprise content solutions as a means to ramp up content creation, time zone issues naturally lag the speed and agility of results if not resolved.
Manual Callbacks Between Regions Create Risk
Without a universal content solution, global teams need to rely upon manual callbacks via email, shared drives or even chat threads. Suddenly, every project is at risk for versioning confusion, who is doing what and when things are due. Blind CC’d messages can go unnoticed, and subsequent creators may redundantly produce work or publish pieces out of alignment. Storyblok’s visual editor for marketers addresses this by giving teams real-time collaboration tools that reduce confusion and ensure accuracy across projects. For companies operating in strictly regulated environments financial services, healthcare, compliance-based and retail, for example this creates compliance concerns or lost sales opportunities. There is no margin for human error when 24/7 operations are at stake.
A Headless CMS Enables Always-On Workflows
A headless content management system embraces the concept that content can act as structured data; it’s no longer reliant upon an individual channel to survive. When one region kicks off a campaign, other teams can jump in regardless of the time differences; in fact, teams can operate on different schedules without overlapping efforts. Version control and audit history ensure all contributors are working off the latest draft, and workflows can automatically export what’s next to be done. This allows enterprises to truly follow the sun.
Approvals and Governance Are Seamless Regardless of Time Zone
One of the biggest barriers to global content operations is approval processes. Yet a headless CMS can eliminate this obstacle entirely by embedding workflows that designate who must approve specific content, predetermined rules, instead of waiting for a manual sign-off. For example, compliance officers could be approving content while Asia Pacific teams are offline this ensures the approval process will never falter. Role-based governance keeps content compliant and coherent, and the business can run at-real-time speed and real-time operations necessary for international efforts.
Enabling Timely Multilingual Content Creation at Scale
Timely content creation becomes even timelier with multilingual efforts. Without a systematic solution, translations occur in siloed areas; it’s only after the fact that people realize redundancies or mistakes made in hybrid versions. A headless CMS connects to translation management systems so that content can be pushed out, translated, and pushed back automatically into the same stream. As one team creates the originating version, another, working in a different time zone, is proofreading the translation, ensuring the pipeline never gets stagnant. There’s no need to halt or stop a process to await something to return in another language; global campaigns can go live as multilingual efforts simultaneously across all channels.
Enhancing Collaboration in Spite of Fractured Time Zones
Collaboration works best when everyone operates within the same hierarchy. A headless CMS becomes a single source of truth where all global stakeholders can access information, assets and methodologies. The team in Tokyo can see what the London team has already executed, ensuring no redundancy. In-platform commenting, assigning tasks, and version control enhance collaborative efforts without needing to meet face to face. Even if teams are separated by distance and operating time, they work together, not in fractures.
Leveraging Analytics for Transparency of Global Workflow
Analytics can reveal how and when content travels across the world and through varying time zones. Enterprises will understand which regions take longer to review or which teams never miss a deadline to publish on time. This data can help improve workflows and resource allocation for those findings. If others discover that Asia teams come to a standstill for one campaign, additional resources can be diverted there, or responsibilities adjusted so as not to hinder progress. Analytics allow for 24/7 operations to ensure all workflows are up and running for maximum efficiency.
Supporting Omnichannel Global Efforts Without Hassles
Campaigns are omnichannel in nature; they’re not merely on a website but require cross-brand efforts with apps, emails, and social media channels. A headless CMS ensures that once content is created, it can be dispatched to all locations via all channels globally. Regional teams can establish their versions in their operating hours without disrupting the overall flow. Thus, regardless of when content is created or how adjusted for all access points across international markets, consumers will always receive the same quality effort even if it was generated during different times of the day.
Trust is Established through Transparency and Accountability
When companies expand globally, there’s too much time zone delay involved to distrust headquarters and regional efforts. A headless CMS builds trust through transparency in content creation and collaborative efforts. Audit trails indicate who did what, who approved it, when and where. The accountability is transparent across time zones about who’s responsible for content and who is to respond to it. Conflict is less likely when there’s an understanding of what everyone else should be doing via transparent goal setting; the culture of transparency fosters ease of operation for cross-border teams and alignment with others.
Redundancy is Reduced with Reusable Content Modules
One of the greatest perils of having a distributed team is redundancy. Without the visibility of seeing what others are doing, other regions create the same assets over and over again. A headless CMS protects against this peril by allowing the reuse of content modules.
For example, a campaign module created in Europe can be edited slightly in Asia overnight so that it does not take more time to create something that’s already been done. It can take off right where someone else left it in another time zone, creating synergistic efficiencies and consistent branding across the vast enterprise.
Enhanced Knowledge Transfer Across Time Zones
A business that never sleeps can only continue to run if knowledge is transferable across time zones with limited hands-on communication. A headless CMS uses libraries of campaigns, assets and workflows that all global teams can access. If a successful campaign launches in one market, the scaffolding of that campaign can be transferred and remixed in another market without detailed, hands-on, slow communication. The more knowledge can be transferred virtually without re-reminding or rebuilding the more an enterprise can benefit from best practices before the entire business stops for lack of awareness across time zones.
Responsive Ability to Local Market Needs
Some events are time-sensitive and require quickly responsive messaging. When teams are connected through decoupled processes but with a headless CMS, teams can publish for local events during their business hours while still maintaining alignment with a larger global effort. For example, the Asian team of a retail brand can publish campaigns highlighting their local holidays during their workday, while the European and US teams aim to create supporting messaging while they sleep. This way, the campaigns are time-sensitive when they need to be even if they’re not for the entire enterprise all at once.
Year-Round Operations with Scalable Systems to Future-Proof
As companies grow, managing teams will become even more complicated across time zones. A headless CMS future-proofs year-round operations because it’s flexible, scalable, and channel-agnostic. Whether companies need to deliver content to web properties or mobile applications (or future AR interfaces and voice apps), the same workflows can be applied across the globe. This scalability allows organizations to step into new markets without having to reinvent the wheel, allowing content operations to do what they’ve always done and be sustainable as the global enterprise grows.
Measuring ROI About Always-On Global Operations
Enterprises must analyze if operations 24/7 are worthwhile in order to better assess business impact. Content operations are measurable and can showcase reduced time to market, derivative cost savings from lost duplications and increased engagement from simultaneous launches in all necessary locations. For example, an enterprise virtual reality company may discover that leveraging the “follow the sun” model reduced campaign launch timings by 30% and duplicate assets by 40% in its digital streaming platform. This fosters not only ROI but the guaranteed knowledge that 24/7 operations serve the company’s best interests.
Standardizing Workflows for the Greatest Integration
When you’re working across time zones and with international teams, there’s no doubt confusion can arise as to who does what when. A headless CMS relies upon environments that necessitate standardization to keep every market in sync for asset creation, approval and distribution workflows. Instead of leaving it open to chance where multiple interpretations of similar guides can occur, content operations can rely upon the same process seemingly developed in one time zone that will be effective in another hours later. For example, a global insurance company can have one compliance-driven review queue so that assets created in New York or Hong Kong are held to the same global standard.
Turning Time Zone Challenges into Opportunities
Enterprises can turn time zones from problems into possibilities. With planned content workflows through a headless CMS, content creation can be an always-on operation. As one team finishes for the day, another can begin so that pipelines are continually moving forward. A global media and entertainment company can create assets during UK operating hours, pass them off during the NY business day to iterate upon, and have them released by the time Asia wakes up, granting them a speed to market advantage over companies with siloed teams.
Local Empowerment Without Compromising Global Control
A fear for HQ is losing control as regions grow independently. A headless CMS with role permissions can remediate this; local teams can create and publish on their schedule. Globally locked down requirements, brand identity or legal disclaimers remain in play. This allows local marketers to operate nimbly without fear of tarnishing the brand. It’ll build trust, enable easier collaboration, and eventually, campaigns will be managed on a global stage yet for local approved audiences.
Building Resiliency in Distribution
Everything is centralized; international content operations can easily come to a standstill with unplanned disruptions overnight, a regulatory update or war in the country where the headquarters are based. Distributed teams with cross-responsibilities across time help. A headless CMS can tie this together to ensure everyone gets what they need without delay. Instead of all teams working on one project at one time, it’s more of a relay race where teams pass the baton to one another. Therefore, if one region goes dark, another is up and running, never losing momentum. This redundancy not only helps with efficiency but provides success 24/7, knowing that outside disruptions will not deter success.
Conclusion
International content operations need to be supported 24/7, with more than mere intentions and manual processes. Natural friction exists with time zones; however, with the correct solution, this can be switched to an opportunity. A headless CMS can facilitate the structure, workflow and governance needed to keep everything running 24/7 across the globe.
Internationally trained approvals, multilingual capabilities, handoff functionality, and analytics to create the relevant context for creation in the future all keep content operations running 24/7. Transparency keeps trust high; efficiencies reduce redundancies and extensibility plans for future growth of the organization. For those overly ambitious about global growth and welcoming new markets, the opportunity to present 24-7 international content operations through utilizing a headless CMS won’t be a technical necessity, but a strategic one.