Going Native—Franklin and Marshall Implements Ingeniux Content Management System for Apple OS X and Xserve Server
Franklin and Marshall (F&M) is a leading liberal arts college located in
Lancaster, Pennsylvania with an enrollment of approximately 1,800 full-time
equivalent students. F&M (www.fandm.edu)
has a rich history originating with its founding in 1787 by five of the signers
of the Declaration on the Independence--including Benjamin Franklin. Appropriately,
a spirit of independence and innovation is still reflected in all aspects of
the colleges, including its choice for an all-Apple computing environment that
includes Apple Xserve servers and the Macintosh computers used by students,
staff, and faculty.
For F&M, Apple computers provide good total cost of ownership, computing
power, and ease of use. However, when it came to managing the Web site and its
more than 5,000 pages of content, F&M was challenged. Like most colleges
and universities, F&M knew they needed a content management system to manage
their Web site and content contributors. However, a new system would need to
support their existing Apple Xserve Web servers and provide end users with an
intuitive authoring client that ran on Macintosh OS X.
"Choices were limited," said F&M Web Manager, Chris Weaver. "We
were not willing to settle for a system that did not provide the functionality
that we needed. Shifting to a different platform was out of the question. Everything
we run and have developed is on Apple. Ingeniux offered the best of both worlds,
a full-featured content management system that runs natively on our Xserve G5
and provides a really straightforward authoring client for our desktop Mac users."
Besides supporting the Apple platform, F&M needed a system that addressed
several business concerns. They wanted to enable departmental staff to create
and publish content without relying on technical staff or needing to know HTML.
Prior to a content management system, departments had either hired students
to hand-code HTML pages or relied on the College Communication group to update
information. This was an expensive and inefficient process, and it created a
bottleneck that burdened the College Communication Group and led to occasional
outdated information on the F&M Web site.
The CMS also had to ensure consistent design and branding for the Web site.
This was of prime importance to Marketing and Admissions. Manually enforcing
use of HTML templates had been ineffective. The new content management system
had to provide an easier way to ensure consistent design.
F&M chose to implement the Ingeniux Content Management System. Although
the college had concerns about being the first campus to implement Ingeniux's
Apple edition, Ingeniux had two key advantages: The company had considerable
experience deploying Web content management solutions in higher education institutions,
and Ingeniux CMS offered a Mac OS X software client and publishing server that
ran natively on Apple computers. Although the development server, a key component
of the Ingeniux system, was not yet Xserve-ready, the fact that Ingeniux is
an Apple technology partner and Apple Computer is a reseller of Ingeniux CMS
confirmed Ingeniux's long-term commitment to the Apple platform.
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The Ingeniux CMS provides a very intuitive Web Authoring Client for Macintosh
OS X. Although the Mac Authoring Client previews in a Safari Web browser, it
operates as a desktop application that is downloaded as a DMG file. Using Ingeniux,
CMS the College Communications group, which manages the F&M Web site, set
up the school's administrative and academic departments to publish Web pages
without any technical oversight.
The F&M team used XSLT stylesheets, an open standard that works with Ingeniux's
XML format, to ensure consistent design and branding. This approach also made
it easier to create Web pages. Content in Ingeniux CMS is created separately
from its layout. To create a page, the author simply adds text and pictures.
A stylesheet created by the Web team determines what the page will look like
when it is published. In XML, the Web pages are also easy to re-use. F&M
can instantly publish multiple versions of a page, including one optimized for
Microsoft Internet Explorer Web browsers, one for Apple Safari Web browsers,
and one for printer-friendly pages.
When it became time to deploy the Web site, F&M installed the Ingeniux
CMS Publishing Server on an Apple Xserve G5 server. With Ingeniux CMS running
on Xserve, the Web team has a native Apple publishing solution that showcases
Xserve's best-in-class performance and scalability.
By deploying Ingeniux CMS, F&M was able to bring content management on
campus and keep using their existing Apple computers. As Chris Weaver said,
"The Ingeniux system provided us the solution we wanted and saved us from
having to invest in and support a PC operating system just for content management."
The combination of the Ingeniux CMS ease-of-use, editorial, workflow, and collaboration
capabilities have given departmental staff freedom to create and manage their
own content. Departments at F&M no longer need to hire students to update
pages or lobby the Webmaster for resources. It is a win-win situation. Technical
staff now have time to focus on value added projects in line with their skill
level and frontline staff in departments have the ability to freely add and
update Web content.
Ingeniux CMS also has provided the College Communications Group a way to administer
Web site development. Using Ingeniux CMS, System Administrators can grant individual
users or groups of users granular access to information and system features.
For example, when a member of the Admissions department logs into the system,
they are only given access to pages within their section. Other sections of
the site are read-only. The CMS can also limit which product features are shown,
providing users a simplified version that matches their needs and technical
ability.
The long-term goal of unifying the site design has been achieved. Templates
ensure all pages adhere to design and brand requirements. This has dramatically
improved the look and feel of the site and clearly conveys the appropriate messaging
to all of the important constituent groups, including prospective students,
current students, and alumni.
