Content Management Systems
Use of Content Management Systems (CMS) has grown rapidly over the past few years. Along with that growth has come a dissatisfaction with expensive, bloated systems that are beyond the reach of the average business owner.
For large commercial websites CMS is a must. Consequently large businesses and their managers initially accept the costs that accompany such systems. According to a 2002 report by the Yankee Group, 80% percent of businesses with more than $10 million in annual revenues used content management software for their website. These figures show the extent to which CMS has emerged over the past ten years. However, the much-hyped technology promising to simplify the way companies organize, create, publish, use and reuse content is struggling to show a return on investment (ROI). Although CMS can strengthen operations, the proper balance between cost and features must be maintained especially for smaller businesses.
Deploying CMS on your own can be a massive undertaking. You face an array of technical and business issues that set the stage for disappointment. Another recent study, this time by Jupiter Research, found 61% of companies that have deployed a CMS have reverted to manual processes for updating their web sites. Jupiter also found that one in 20 companies surveyed planned to use another system after failing to achieve a ROI with the first. Obviously, there is divergence between expectations and outcome for CMS. “This is an area of technology in which people overspent and found themselves over deployed,” says Jupiter’s Matthew Berk. “The need is still there, it’s the question of how to meet that need cost effectively.”
SO, do YOU need content management features for your website?
Our experience shows that it is seldom an emergency to build a website. But when it comes to changing or updating the content of a website it always seems to elevate to emergency status. Think about it. How fast might you need to update the price of a product, or change the members of the management team? At times like these, you can not afford to wait for some engineering change notice (ECN) to be drafted, then sent to, and finally accepted by your off-site web development team. And finally when your ECN bubbles to the top of their priority list the change might get done correctly the first time. NO! You need to have the power to click a couple of times with the mouse and type a sentence or two and presto, the content is updated.
Feature to demand in a CMS
Say No to Bulky Narrowing Systems
Many CMS vendors develop have solutions with a bigger-is-better psyche. The results is a costly, bulky system that is more isolating than anticipated. We have found that businesses want a simple to use system without useless features that they are not ready to handle. Let’s face it, do you know: XML, XSL, CSS, RTF, CVS, HTML, Javascript, Flash, .Net, ASP, ASPX, and SQL? Are you planning on learning any or all of them any time soon? Well then, you too are looking for a less is more CMS solution for your website. Find a CMS that has focused on developing website content management systems for the small and medium sized business that are easy to:
• Understand
• Afford
• Customize
• Use
• Scale
Familiar & practical tools for authoring and editing web content.
Web Access: With a secure Username and Password so you can securely add, edit and delete content on your website, from any computer connected to the web.
Work Flow: You can begin adding a new menu or paragraph without having it show it on the web until you are ready to have it shown.
Simple Forms: Using forms just like any other form you have already filled-out online, we have developed a paragraph centric publishing system. You type in the information you want displayed on the website in the field with intuitive word publishing features. Next you click a submit button. Presto! The content is captured into a database and published on the web in seconds.
Graphics: You can upload images and include them along with paragraph content. With the click of a mouse you can place the image on the left, center, or right of the paragraph text. Custom solutions also allow flash to work in place of any graphic.
Training in 30 Minutes. If you cant learn how to use it… well its trash.