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When Everyone Writes for the Web
6/29/2004
Evaluating content management systems can be confusing. There are a lot of vendors and the range of systems varies greatly. We looked at how the CMS would help us reuse and reformat content, workflow and user management, and publishing capabilities. We also studied the vendor’s technology approach: Did the company adhere to open standards, or were the technology and file formatting proprietary? We were wary of systems that could lock us in or make it difficult to migrate content to new systems. Lastly, we evaluated business questions, such as the vendor’s viability and success in our market. Any product we chose would have to earn high marks in all of these areas.
Content Management In Practice
How is it working? The staff was trained on the system in January. Within 45 days they had built, edited, organized, and published more than 2,500 pages of Web content.
The Ingeniux tool provides an HTML editor that enables our staff content authors to work within a simple word processing template, with the same functions and buttons that they use in their everyday work. Ingeniux also supports drag-and-drop importing from MS Office and other applications. Since most content published on the Web originates from other systems, the ability to easily import information is extremely important.
One of our key tasks in implementing the CMS was to develop a schedule for updating and maintaining the site content. To do this, we needed to identify the sections that frequently require updates: who should edit the content and approve the updates, and how often each section should be updated. The workflow system that is built into the CMS enables us to track who each page is assigned to, the workgroup that they belong to, and the status of the page.
By allowing content authors to make their own changes, NACUBO now has a site that is robust, frequently updated with fresh content, and fully integrated with all back-end operations. Using Web services, Ingeniux CMS integrates fully with our membership database to create database-driven pages for eCommerce and to deliver products, programs, and services. The CMS also allows NACUBO to password-protect the site on a page-by-page basis for our membership.
Our staff is working well with the CMS, and we update our site daily. The site has never had more content or functionality. We have learned from experience that we could not support the quality of Web site that we currently have without a content management system.
Mark Olson, NACUBO’s executive vice president and COO, points out a bonus to the CMS implementation: “With our IT team now free to focus on new projects rather than on supporting Web authoring, NACUBO can develop a more ambitious roadmap and better use technology to serve members.”
David D. DeLorenzo (david.delorenzo@nacubo.org) is director of Distance Learning and Web Strategy for NACUBO.
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