Enterprise Content Management Systems/Content Management Systems (CMS), including Web Content Management Systems (WCM or WCMS), are systems (usually web based) that facilitate the creation, management and delivery of information (content and documents), typically via corporate web sites, portals, extranets or intranets.
Content Management Systems can be used for corporate websites, secure extranets for trading partners or online communities and intranets. Content Management Systems in large organisations are often referred to as Enterprise Content Management Systems (ECMS). Web Content Management Systems are a subset of the Enterprise Content Managaement System.
A CMS enables content creation, reviewing and publishing. This user security level enables the editor and reviewer to manage content using a web browser with the content stored in a web database.
In its simplest form, a user logs securely into the CMS through a web browser, creates and edits content use an in-browser editor to create and edit content, and may forward it to an authoriser to approve the content to be published in a live environment. All of this interaction is controlled through security, workflow and audit trails and all of this is stored and tracked in a database.
Originally, what is now described as a Content Management System or CMS was custom developed by internal programmers or external contractors. Multibase has extensive experience since 1996 in developing custom content management systems of various kinds, and in evaluating and implementing third party content management systems. Importantly, we also have extensive experience in actually using content management systems for many years in real life contexts to manage web sites, intranets, extranets, catalogues and shopping carts, and many other applications. Further than that, we have also built numerous extensions to existing content management systems and integrated them into external systems.
Buy, don't build a Content Management System
Currently the trend is to purchase Content Management Software, whether outright or through Software as a Service (SaaS) because, depending on the vendor, organisations have faster access to benefits such as:
- Extensive pre-built features
- Upgrade path
- Scalability
- More functionality
- Increased security
- Fewer software issues
- Improved useability
- Mature product
- External support
- Integration expertise
- Resources to develop additional functionality
- Lower total cost of ownership
- Training availability
- User and technical documentation
- Application help
- Problem knowledge base
- Not reliant on employees with an organisation
- Modularity
- Product roadmap
- Application Program Interface (API) available
- Compliant with standards such as W3C
Hosted Content Management Systems
Increasingly, the trend is for Content Management Systems to be hosted in a data centre, providing benefits such as:
- Better, faster performance
- Higher security
- Universal access wherever there is Internet or VPN access
- Easier to keep up to date in the latest version
- No hardware maintenance or maintenance costs
- Better business continuity and disaster recovery practices
Content Management System applications
Content Management Systems are now being used to deliver faster on requirements such as:
- Online commerce
- Knowledge management
- Document management
- Information management and dissemination
- Integration with accounting, distribution or business systems
- Seamless login to the CMS from the network, such as Microsoft Active Directory
- Moving business processes online
- Business process engineering
- Interaction with community, whether staff, customers, suppliers or other trading partners
- Self- service capability, providing a more effective and lower cost of service
- Compliance
Multibase now deploys and support Elcom’s CommunityManager.NET Content Management System is used by a range of small to medium enterprises, large multi-nationals and numerous government agencies.