Content Management Systems Basics

WHAT IS CONTENT? Content includes all forms of information, structured or not, and is intended for one or more target groups. Content can consist of text, images, audio and video material. In the case of a content management system, it primarily means content in the form of text: publications, news articles, product descriptions, user manuals, descriptions of operating procedures, etc.
HOW DOES CMS WORK?
CMS solution will separate the layout ('look and feel') from the actual content using a series of layout templates that are used every time a page is created. The main benefit of this type of page creation is that it becomes very easy to re-design/alter eg. altering one template (changing the look and feel of it) can have an immediate impact on several thousand pages. You may want your site to have a different look during Christmas, Easter, or other festive periods (this will be possible but will depend on how many templates you will have installed in your CMS). We charge only $550 for any additional layout you request for your site. It does not matter how many pages you have - the change will occur across your entire site as soon as the new template is installed.
WHAT IS CMS?

Like many buzzwords that take the IT industry by storm, 'Content Management' is currently THE hot topic.

Content Management Systems (CMS) come in all shapes and sizes. Chances are, if you've put up a web page on a free web page server or ISP you've had access to a content management system.

Content management brings web access direct to content owners.
In most companies, the web developers don't write the content for the pages - they simply put it up in a format that is web ready. With a content manager, the content owner can access the parts of the site they own and publish to them, often directly to the web site or staging server.

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A CMS is a database which organises and provides access to all types of digital content: files containing images, graphics, animation, sound, video or text.

A CMS is usually used to manage digital assets during the development of a digital resource, such as a web site. It might be used by staff digitising images, authors and editors, or those responsible for the management of the content development process (content managers).

CMSs range from very basic databases, to sophisticated tailor-made applications. Managing a web site with even a few pages is a time-consuming task when updates are required, perhaps when a page is added which requires the navigation menu to be updated on other pages, or when a logo changes which then needs to be reflected on all pages. For this reason, the use of templates which draw on content held in a database, is a vital management tool.

Without this type of application, the web site would either fall out of date very quickly, or would require ever greater staff resources to retain its currency.

WHAT CAN CMS DO FOR YOU?

Within a corporation, a content management tool does a lot of things:

  1. Provide web access directly to web page content owners.
  2. Allow for faster updates of web pages.
  3. Provide an easy-to-use interface where content owners don't need to know HTML.
  4. Create accountability, as most content managers can track log-ins and changes to various pages within the site.

The CMS you select will need to assist you in the management and/or delivery of digital resources, depending on the scale of your project and existing systems in place. Your business case will help you decide the scope of the system you need and the functions you require. You may need to consider the following areas when deciding on what your content management system should do:

  1. Scope of system (eg. online publishing or integration with other systems.
  2. Data structure (including the ability to record your required metadata, to hold links to digital assets and to hold text which can be edited and published.
  3. Templates (including design, layout and accessibility for different types of page; also your ability to update templates).
  4. Security and access (including access rights for different types of users, eg. editors, publishers, web manager, administrator or users of your services with restricted access.
  5. Workflow management and process control.
  6. Ability to integrate databased information, either for publishing on-the-fly or in batches.
  7. Ability to generate navigation and links between pages automatically and consistently.
  8. Ability to interoperate with existing systems and to comply with data standard.
  9. Ability of database to search across metadata and narrative text content.
  10. Ability to archive data, and to output reports in digital and printed form.
 
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