One of the major problems of managing a static website is the amount of work involved which often frightens many web developers away. The key problem is that each page needs to be manually updated and the sheer number of updates required take up far more time than is necessary. Time that can be used better elsewhere, possibly conducting site-wide surveys, polls and backing up all content.

Enter CMS

A content management system or CMS is a software system, which facilitates the creation, management, distribution, publishing and discovery of information. Since one of the major functions is that it manages web content, it is also known as a Web Management System or WMS.

It covers each stage of your website, from inception (creating content) to completion (distribution and archiving). The functions of any basic CMS can be broken down into the following four subdivisions:

• Content creation
• Content Management
• Publishing
• Presentation

Content Creation

At the front of any CMS is a basic, user friendly inteface resembling MS Word used to create pages or update new content. The benefit of this is it can be used without any knowledge of HTML.

The CMS also allows you to create a structure for your website, allowing you to specify where each page goes and how it is linked (to other pages). It is this tool that is key to any CMS because it allows you a simple mechanism for maintaining the site, where each department or user can manage their own information easily.

Content Management

Once a page is created, it is stored in a central repository within the CMS, which stores all primary content is kept and maintained. This central repository provides the following benefits:

• Keeps track of all changes in a page.
• Ensures that each user can only change the section of the site they are responsible for.
• Can be integrated with existing information sources and IT systems.

Most importantly however, the CMS provides a workflow. For instance consider the following example:

When a page is created by an author, it is automatically sent to the manager for approval from where it is passed to the central web team for approval, before being sent to the legal team for the sign-off and automatically being published to the site.

The CMS automatically manages the status of each page, notifying users as the work progresses and escalating job responsibilities where required. In this way, workflow capabilities bring organisation to what would be a very chaotic, not to mention, tedious manual process.

Publishing

Once all content is stored in the repository, you can publish it to your site with the publishing tools of a CMS. These tools allow you to create a set style and layout which will then be applied to each page, providing consistency to the entire site.

Many CMSs also allow you to publish the same content to multiple sites. But since each website differs from another, these tools provide web developers and designers provide a specific design which is then applied to the entire site.

This allows the authors to completely focus on the content leaving the look and feel of the website to the CMS.

Presentation

A CMS can boost presentation providing a unique set of features to enhance the quality and effectiveness of your website. For instance, it can build the site navigation by reading the page structure directly from the central repository. Additionally, it can provide easy accessibility to users across multiple users.

It can be used to make your website dynamic and interactive, hence improving the user experience.

Why go for CMS?

CMSs can provide a host of benefits, as outlined below:

• A streamlined authoring process
• Fast turnaround for pages with new content and pages
• Consistency
• Improved site navigation
• Increased security
• Greater capacity for growth
• Increased site flexibility
• Support for decentralised authoring
• Reduced duplication of information
• Reduced cost of maintenance.

Where can I get me some CMS?

In an age where there is an increased awareness of open-source software packages, there are a host of CMS providers and developers each with their own set of features and capabilities.

Don’t be hasty in choosing a system and remember: there is no quick fix solution. Each firm requires a different set of requirements for what they need to get the CMS working for them, so be sure to comprehensively test each software (noted examples include Joomla and Mambo) before making a final decision.

Concluding, CMSs have the power to not only simplify the manageability and accessibility of your website but of your existing intranet infrastructure as well. In this day-and-age of cutthroat competition, not having a CMS is having your work cut out for you.