by Brandon Holcomb, Account Executive, Dalton Agency
Recently, I’ve been involved with several website development projects, ranging from content and imagery updates to full-scale website redevelopment campaigns. The ever-increasing importance for businesses to actively update, maintain, and refresh their website is further evidence that a company’s website is its most important customer-facing sales tool and the overall hub of its marketing efforts. A key component of most websites is CMS, Content Management System, the element that creates the ability to develop and actively manage and maintain website content.
Just because a CMS works well for another company does not mean it will work well for your company. The right CMS solution requires a good understanding of the capabilities needed to meet your organization’s current and future operational needs. Knowing how and when the site should deliver content, and to whom, can guide the creation of clear front-end site requirements. Additionally, site deployment, management, maintenance, and infrastructure requirements should also be met, as the back-end of the site has to be considered as well.
When evaluating CMS solutions, consider the following aspects of the system:
- Integration – Ease of integration
- Administration – Ease of administration
- Content Publishing – Ease of creating and editing pages and content
- Digital Asset Management – Ability to manage images, video, etc.
- Multisite – Capability of managing multiple websites
- Multichannel – Compatibility with multiple devices (PC, BlackBerry, iPhone)
- Multilingual – Capability to translate into multiple languages
- Multi-Browser – Compatibility with Web browsers
- Architecture – Compatibility with existing architecture
- Cost – Overall cost of integration
Finally, choosing the right CMS solution can be overwhelming, but the main purpose of a CMS solution is to make creating and editing content on your website simple and easy. Nailing down the specific operational needs of your company’s website before you begin the evaluation process will help you save time and control costs.
