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Content Management Systems Why You Need Them And Are They Enough?
Use of Content Management Systems (CMS) has grown rapidly over the past few years. Along with that growth has come a dissatisfaction with expensive, bloated systems that are beyond the reach of the average business owner.
Large Commercial Websites need CMS, consequently large businesses and their managers initially accept the costs that accompany such systems. According to a 2002 report by the Yankee Group, 80% percent of businesses with more than $10 million in annual revenues used Web content management software. These figures show the extent to which CMS has emerged over the past ten years. However, the much-hyped technology promising to simplify the way companies organize, create, publish, use and reuse content is struggling to show a return on investment (ROI).
Although CMS can strengthen operations and save you money, the proper balance between cost and features must be maintained especially for small to medium sized businesses.
Deploying CMS on your own can be a massive undertaking. You face an array of technical and business issues that set the stage for disappointment. Another recent study, this time by Jupiter Research, found 61% of companies that have deployed a CMS have reverted to manual processes for updating their web sites. Jupiter also found that one in 20 companies surveyed planned to use another system after failing to achieve a ROI with the first. Obviously, there is divergence between expectations and outcome for CMS. "This is an area of technology in which people overspent and found themselves over deployed," says Jupiter's Matthew Berk. "The need is still there, it's the question of how to meet that need cost effectively."
Do you need content management features for your web site?
Our experience shows that it is seldom an emergency to build a web site. But when it comes to changing or updating the content of a web site it always seems to elevate to emergency status. Think about it. How fast might you need to update the price of a product, or change the members of the management team? At times like these, you can not afford to wait for some engineering change notice to be drafted and accepted by your off-site web development team, and finally when your notice bubbles to the top of their priority list the change might get done correctly the first time. NO! You need to have the power to click a couple of times with the mouse and type a sentence or two and presto, the content is updated.
No Time for Bulky Narrowing Systems
Many CMS vendors develop solutions with a bigger-is-better psyche. The results is a costly, bulky system that is more isolating than anticipated. We have found that businesses want a simple to use system without useless features that they are not ready to handle. Let's face it, do you know: XML, XSL, CSS, RTF, CVS, HTML, Javascript, Flash, .Net, ASP, ASPX, and SQL? Are you planning on learning any or all of them any time soon? Well then, you too are looking for a less is more CMS solution for your web site.
Basic Features of a Good Content Management System
Web Access: With a secure Username and Password, you can add, edit and delete content on your web site, from any computer connected to the web.
Work Flow: You can begin adding a new menu or paragraph without having it show on the web until you are ready to have it show.
Simple Forms: Using forms just like any other form you have already filled-out online, we have developed a paragraph centric publishing system. You type in the information you want displayed on the website in the field with intuitive word publishing features. Next you click a submit button. Presto! The content is captured into a database and published on the web in seconds.
Graphics: You can upload images and include them along with paragraph content. With the click of a mouse you can place the image on the left, center, or right of the paragraph text. Custom solutions also allow flash to work in place of any graphic.
Implementation Time: When your content is ready, you can usually have a website up and running in 4-7 business days using a pre-developed template. Semi-Custom solutions can usually be completed in less than 45 days.
Training and support: Most customers should only need about 1/2 hour to become masters of the system. A few could need as much as two hours.
Return on Investment
Many large scale CMS products can cost $250,000 to $500,000 initially, followed by costly maintenance charges. Even the so-called cost effective CMS solutions initially run $150,000. Depending on the customization of the website design, a well priced solution will run for half those costs.
BUT - Are Content Management Systems Enough?
Again from our experience. NO! Content Management Systems are not enough. You need them it is true! But, alone they are not enough. It was established yeas ago - Content Is King! AOL bought Time Warrner for its content. Microsoft bought NBC for its content. Google's powerful position on the web is based on its index of content. In short, if you do not have content to be managed, you have nothing.
Users visit your site looking for something. They will return to see what's new. If your site is not changed on a regular basis according to your customer's expectations, it is stagnant and you website will lose its appeal. Some websites change content by the minute. Most sites need to change their content somewhere in between every minute to every year. If you developed the website yourself you know how time consuming that can be. On the other hand, if you paid to have the site developed, you know that constant changes are going to be expensive.
Content Management Systems solve the time consuming and expensive nature of changing content on a website. But make no mistake content must change. Where that content comes from and how often in changes depends on how fast you want to realize a return on your investment. Additionally, it is here where a website leaves the domain of IT professionals and enters the realm of Marketing. Be prepared to put your marketing hat on, to say the things you want to say, in just the right way.
About the Author Dean Arrow & Assoc is a denver website development company. We specialize in website solutions for small and medium sized companies with big company features. Including SEO in Denver Gary Hall is a freelance writer.
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