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A content management system (CMS) is critical to the success of almost every business website online today. The business problem You have a website. It has grown over time, and while it is very useful, it is far from perfect. Much of the pages are out-of-date, it's hard to find things, updating the site is complex, and it now appears outdated. What was on the site last week, or last year? You couldn't say. In the back of your mind, you know that this could leave you in a difficult position if a customer sues, but there is little that you can do! Thankfully, these problems are what a CMS is specifically designed to solve. CMS: A working definition A content management system (CMS) supports the creation, management, distribution, publishing, and discovery of corporate information. It covers the complete life cycle of the pages on your site, from providing simple tools to create the content, through to publishing, and finally to archiving. It also provides the ability to manage the structure of the site, the appearance of the published pages, and the navigation provided to the users. Content management systems can be much broader than this, but we won't touch upon these aspects until later. Business benefits There are a wide range of business benefits that can be obtained by implementing a CMS, including:
Beyond these, the greatest benefit the CMS can provide is to support your business goals and strategies. For example, the CMS can help to improve sales, increase user satisfaction, or assist in communicating with the public. Click Here to read about the Anatomy of a CMSRead the rest or SKIP TO THE CONCLUSION from here :) Enterprise content management There is also a relationship between content management systems and other information systems within an organization, including:
At present, these are typically sold as separate systems, and achieving interoperability between them is not easy. Some progress is being made with the creation of so-called enterprise content management systems (ECMS), which combine together a central content management system with other tools to manage the full range of content that exists within your organization. These systems are relatively immature, however, and there is not much agreement about what they should encompass. This is certainly a market that will evolve rapidly over the next few years. Take the time to pick the best product to meet your needs CMS marketplace This article has presented a general overview of typical content management system capabilities, and how they can be used to benefit your business. In the marketplace at present, there are literally hundreds of content management systems, all having different capabilities and strengths. This is the nature of a rapidly changing marketplace: while there are many very good products, there is little consistency between vendors. Our single best piece of advice: take the time to determine your business requirements, and then comprehensively evaluate the products on the market against them. Every organization has a unique set of requirements for a content management system, and there is no 'one-size- fits-all' solution. By allocating sufficient time and resources to selecting the CMS, you can be confident that you have the best possible solution. Conclusion Content management systems have the potential to dramatically simplify the maintenance of both websites and intranets. About the author James Robertson is the managing director of Step Two Designs, a knowledge management and content management consultancy based in Australia. James specializes in intranets, content management strategy, information architecture and usability. Printed version of this article (PDF)
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