Paul Boag on Smashing Magazine has a great article on the common mistakes that large organizations make running their Web sites. It includes 10 points. I've highlighted one below.
1. You Need A Separate Web Division
In many organizations, the Web site is managed by either the marketing or IT department. However, this inevitably leads to a turf war, with the website becoming the victim of internal politics.
In reality, pursuing a Web strategy is not particularly suited to either group. IT may be excellent at rolling out complex systems, but it is not suited to developing a friendly user experience or establishing an online brand.
Zeldman urges organizations to create a separate web division. Marketing, on the other hand, is little better. As Jeffrey Zeldman puts it in his article Let there be Web divisions: "The Web is a conversation. Marketing, by contrast, is a monologue… And then there’s all that messy business with semantic markup, CSS, unobtrusive scripting, card-sorting exercises, HTML run-throughs, involving users in accessibility, and the rest of the skills and experience that don’t fall under Marketing’s purview."
Instead, the website should be managed by a single unified team. Again, Zeldman sums it up when he writes: "Put them in a division that recognizes that your website is not a bastard of your brochures, nor a natural outgrowth of your group calendar. Let there be Web divisions."
Even better, manage Web sites, online and offline marketing as one integrated marketing strategy.
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