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Features
When Everyone Writes for the Web
6/29/2004
How do you include non-technical staff in the ongoing development of 2,500 Web pages? Believe it or not, you do not have to turn these staff members into Webmasters. A content management system (CMS) makes it fairly easy for staff to create and update Web content. At the same time, the system provides the tools that administrators need to control Web development and protect information. As the National Association of College and University Business Officers (NACUBO) has found, a CMS is not only a good idea when managing a content-rich Web site, it is indispensable.
In the redesign of its Web site, NACUBO considered content management to be one of the most challenging and important parts of the development strategy. We carefully evaluated several leading content management systems in the association market and within higher education. Ultimately, we selected the Ingeniux CMS platform on which to build our new site. We launched the new NACUBO.org site on March 8, 2004, and appreciate the benefits of using a content management system.
The Need for Content Management
Like many other organizations, prior to using a CMS, NACUBO realized that its Web site often contained out-of-date or obsolete information, possibly dissuading visitors from returning as often as we would like. It is no secret in today’s virtual world that visitors might be turned off or confused by seeing information on a site for an event that has already been held, or reading about a discontinued program, product, or service. NACUBO’s original process for content development involved 20 to 30 staff members from a variety of areas sending requests to two technical staff members, without any priorities, workflow, or strategy. This created a bottleneck effect that frustrated those on both sides of the process.
Maintaining accurate, relevant, and error-free Web content is critical, because the site is a direct reflection of the organization. NACUBO decided that the best strategy for ensuring that members and partners view us at our best was to implement a content management system, enabling each staff member to maintain his or her own content.
Selecting a System
The key for NACUBO was to find a content management system that the staff would find easy to use. We did not want a system that would require the content authors to do HTML programming or learn complicated new systems. To get total buy-in, we needed a system that would be understandable and that would incorporate the tools our staff already worked with.
Some organizations build their own “homegrown” CMS or co-opt an open source solution. However, building a CMS was not even an option for NACUBO. From cost, risk, and functionality perspectives, it was clearly better for us to purchase a commercial CMS. We chose to focus our technical resources on extending and integrating the CMS, rather than reinventing it. Taking this approach, the Ingeniux platform enabled us to develop and integrate our member management system, and still hit our launch date.
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