Why do I need a Content Management System?

You need to publish your content on your website.  In fact, you might have several sites, including intranet and extranet sites as well as public websites.

Do it right - Get the experts in

Of course the creation and development of the actual site(s) is crucial.  Although you may have people in-house who have specific expertise, you will require the expertise of a specialist web company to ensure that you have properly addressed all of the following:

• Web design
• Information Architecture
• Usability
• Accessibility
• Search Engine Optimisation
• Hosting
• Online Marketing

There is one other key component, arguably the most important. 

• The Content Management System. 

Use your Content

At the end of the day, it’s your content.  You know your organisation, your services and products, your suppliers, your customers.  You have the experts who will know the content better than anyone else, you need to harness this knowledge and bring it to your site.

With vast amounts of content there is often a problem bringing it all together to make it available on the Internet. 

• Whilst experts in their own fields, do they have the technical knowledge to understand how the Internet works? 
  
  
• Can you rely on your web agency, or in-house web team to update your site and the content in a timely manner? 
  
  
• Is there content that you’d like to appear on your sites, but it’s in the wrong format, and the time and the effort required to convert it to HTML means that it’s never published on your site?
  

You need a Content Management System.

You need a Content Management System

A Content Management System provides central control of design and structure, whilst decentralising the management of the content. 

Consistency is maintained across your site, or across multiple sites, through the application of templates and defined branding that is maintained by the Content Management System. 

Ownership of content

At the same time as having control over the way the site content is displayed, the content itself is updated by the people who own it. 

• No longer does the HR department have to provide detailed briefs to the web team to ensure that the job advert appears on the right page on the site, at the right time, with the right information.  
  
  
• Your Marketing department no longer has to hassle the web team to ensure press releases go onto the site at exactly the right time. 
  
  
• You spot an error in the price of an item in your online shop - you no longer have to wait for the webmaster to come back from his holiday before the costly error can be corrected.

A Content Management System means that your web team do not need to go through the process of making numerous small changes to pages because the content owner has changed their mind again about what they want to say on the site. 

Instead, your web team can add value to your site; you can get the most out of their skills rather than have them spend the majority of their time on data entry.

Content Management - made easy

Of course, you don’t want to have to train all your content authors in the finer points of HTML, and neither do you want to have to make your authors dedicate large amounts of their time to managing their content – you want them to be doing their jobs – what they do best! 

A Content Management System allows authors to edit and publish their content with the minimum of fuss.  Training can be completed in a morning, and by the afternoon they can be using the Content Management System for your live sites. 

Your authors do not have to be technical; in fact the Content Management System removes the need for any previous technical knowledge of HTML, or of computers in general.

Control of published content

Your Content Management System will also ensure that the right content is right place at the right time.  User-defined roles and permissions can ensure that authors only have access to their content, on their section of the site.  Workflow processes will ensure that content does not go live to the world without first being moderated and authorised by the right person.  You will be able to keep your content under control.
 
Not only do you want your content to be saying the right things, you also want it to reflect your brand identity.  You want to maintain consistency throughout your site, and your Content Management System can ensure that budding desktop publishers are not able to produce pages in their favourite colours and a multitude of fonts. 

The level of control is up to you, and your Content Management System can ensure that the look and feel of your site is consistent, across a single site, or across many sites.

Your Content Management System will enable you to reversion content in the appropriate format.  Design, content and structure are dealt with individually, enabling a single piece of content to be made available in the most appropriate format without the need for additional time and effort. 

• HTML and low-graphics HTML for your website
  
  
• PDFs created on the fly for your website visitors to download and print
  
  
• Special versions of your pages for mobile devices such as PDAs and mobile phones
  
  
• and other output formats, such as CD-ROM and WebTV.
   

Rebuild without the need for planning permission

Changing the site navigation can be done in seconds via the Content Management System, again without the need to involve any programming.  The site design may need to be changed, and again your Content Management System can enable you to change the whole look-and-feel of your site(s) in minutes without the need for lengthy and expensive intervention from your web agency. 

The other benefit provided by your Content Management System in terms of design, is the freedom to have radically different sites, with different designs and structure, all managed by the same Content Management System.  You have the ability to separate the management of the sites, or to bring them together to share content.  The Content Management System gives you the control.

With large sites, the wide range of content, from a wide range of sources means that holding it all together manually becomes an impossible job.  The Content Management System ensures that links are validated – no more dead links means no ‘page not found’ errors for your visitors, your customers.

A Content Management System enables you to create the right content, and provide that content to your customers at the right time, in the most appropriate format.