Let’s face it Content Mangement Systems (CMS’s) are the holy grail of web software development. Almost every site needs one yet it seems as web professionals we can never seem to find just one that works for all the different types of sites we’re expected to create.
There are the big boys like Interwoven and Ektron that work fairly well for big commercial sites to hacked up installs Movable Type and Wordpress for the smaller to medium size sites.
The problem is nobody seems to get them quite right. They’re either fairly easy to setup and work with but frustrating limiting, or a behemoth of a system costing the organization hundreds of thousands of dollars for features even the web team doesn’t know about.
In this series I’m going to take a look at content management systems from the “Holy Trinity” of web design and development perspectives: the users, the business, and technical issues. Within each article I’ll highlight the different values, costs, and risks associated with each element. Up first, the User Perspective.
The User Perspective
It’s a seemingly simple problem: users want to update their website and they don’t want to have to call the firm that built it every time they need to change a phone number or update Bob’s title.
Value
There’s huge value in setting up a content management system for end users (and by users I’m talking about the people in the company who will be updating the site). It keeps you from nagging ongoing maintenance and it empowers your clients to keep their site fresh and up to date. There’s huge value for your users here and a big value to the company since it helps keep your in house technical resource free to work on other projects.
Cost
The cost to the user is usually weighed with the cost of how much some sort of maintenance retainer they might want to setup instead. If they see how paying for a $10,000 content management system will be offset by some monthly fee they can easily compare the costs and see value. There’s also the large time savings to be gained by not having to go back and forth with the firm to get the content just right where instead they can just tweak the content themselves.
Risk
The risk from the users perspective is simple: it just might not work and they’ll end up having to call you anyway. It’s why finding just the right system is crucial. Trying to find something that avoids being unnecessary complex but still providing enough robustness to get the stuff done is tricky and shouldn’t be taken lightly. There are a lot of options out there so take your time to find one (or a method) that really fits the organization.
Conclusion
It’s easy to see how there’s great value to be gained from a users perspective with a content management system. The client can update their website without having to contact the firm eliminating the need for costly maintenance fees with the added benefit of freeing up the agency to focus on other projects.
Sounds like an interesting series. One reason we’ve had problems with blog software is because it wasn’t intended to function as a fullscale CMS.
I’m curious about how does <a href=”http://www.expressionengine.com/” rel=”nofollow”>ExpressionEngine</a> rates as a CMS in your opinion. It’s clearly more robust than Movable Type and Wordpress but with a higher learning curve (and cost).
We’re currently evaluating a number of content management systems for a client of ours, not only for the reasons mentioned above but also for accessibility of the content authoring interface.
In my experience ExpressionEngine, Moveable Type, Wordpress and other similar tools aren’t as useful and robust for a website as say something like, plone, drupal, Interwoven, Jadu or similar larger scale products.
They’re fine for very small sites, but once you want to start doing anything clever with your information architecture or information design the limitations of the systems become very apparent, and it’s a case of hacking them to fit, which causes problems for upgrades and software patches.
For the content author the most important piece is the WYSIWYG editor, and making sure it works well and outputs clean code.
Yes, I’m in agreement with you that hacking tools just isn’t the way to go. With this series I’m trying to more or less highlight the problems, challenges and goals of the whole CMS issue before trying to jump into all the different technology pieces. That’s for a part 3.
I’m not sure ExpressionEngine fits in the “need to hack” category. It’s more of a CMS then most blog tools such as wordpress. I used to use wordpress exclusively but only recently have been using EE for some clients and redesigns of my site.
I really enjoy the possibilities that just couldn’t happen with wordpress without opening it up and taking it apart.
Would be interested in hearing what other people think.
I have to agree that Expression Engine does not fit into the “need to hack” category. It’s extremely flexible and has a lot of add-ons that negates the need to hack much at all.
Here’s a site gov.ca.gov that uses EE and as you can see (http://gov.ca.gov/index.php?/press-release/3916/) it also takes advantage of content relationships and is almost entirely content managed. Even that Flash gets run through the CMS. And I’ve used Interwoven - that’s what was replaced with EE - and this kills it every day of the week including Sunday.
For our clients we usually propose CMS with limited abilities with pre defined set of styles and font sizes to protect design of the site from big red fonts and other ‘crazy’ stuff. For serious projects we recommend use our company. Because we can do updation work faster, professional and with “design view” on a content.
Could you give me any URL where I’ll be able to see it.