If you’ve been a reader of this blog, you know it’s often stuffed with strategy and analysis. Sometimes, however, it’s nice just to provide something that is simple but eminently helpful. That’s what today’s post is all about - a solution to a common problem I have seen clients run into: locating access credentials for their site.

In woking with clients over the years, we have often had to do a little dance around locating the proper credentials to get access to the right components of the site so work can be done on it. A common scenario goes like so:

“We need to make a copy of the site to do work on it.”

“Ah - I will email you the CMS login.”

“Well, that will be helpful, but we need file and database access as well.”

“I'll have to track down the FTP access.”

“That will let us get the files. We will also need to get the database.”

“I’m not sure who has that login.”

Often, the various credentials required to access the necessary components that relate to a website (everything from logging into the CMS, to working with databases, to accessing DNS controls to repoint a domain) are scattered across various locations and with various people. This doesn’t prove problematic until someone needs several of these at once, and then suddenly, it requires far-flung coordination and a bit of a manhunt.

The solution I put together (version 1.0 - I look forward to your feedback) hopes to make this whole thing easier by collecting all pertinent information in one place - a simple PDF guide that can be filled out. It even comes with concise explanations of all of the various items so you have a better understanding of the overall whole as well as the individual parts. It’s not meant to be an all-singing, all-dancing automated solution - just a short, annotated digital notebook where you can jot your info.

Next time you need to give someone access, you’ll know where your keys are (and have a better idea of which keys to give them).