What is a Content Management System?

A content management system is software that keeps track of every piece of content on your Web site, much like your local public library keeps track of books and stores them. Content can be simple text, photos, music, video, documents, or just about anything you can think of. A major advantage of using a CMS is that it requires almost no technical skill or knowledge to manage. Since the CMS manages all your content, you don't have to.

The business problem

You have a website, or intranet. It has grown organically over time, and while it is very useful, it is far from perfect.

Much of the content is out-of-date or inaccurate, it’s hard to find things, updating the site is complex, and the appearance is becoming dated.

Worse yet, you’ve lost track of all the pages on the site, and by having all the changes made by your skilled webmaster, the updates are piling up in their in-tray.

What was on the site last week, or last year? You couldn’t say. In the back of your mind, you know that this could leave you in a difficult position if a customer sues, but there is little that you can do.

If this sounds grim, you are not alone. In fact, it’s the natural by-product of maintaining a site using manual tools such as Dreamweaver or Frontpage.

Thankfully, these problems are what a content management system is specifically designed to solve.

CMS: A working definition

A content management system (CMS) supports the creation, management, distribution, publishing, and discovery of corporate information.

It covers the complete lifecycle of the pages on your site, from providing simple tools to create the content, through to publishing, and finally to archiving.

It also provides the ability to manage the structure of the site, the appearance of the published pages, and the navigation provided to the users.

Note that we are focusing on the most common use of a CMS: to manage web content. In some circles, these systems are therefore called web management systems (WMS).

Content management systems can be much broader than this, but we won’t touch upon these aspects until later.

Business benefits

There are a wide range of business benefits that can be obtained by implementing a CMS, including:

• streamlined authoring process
• faster turnaround time for new pages and changes
• greater consistency
• improved site navigation
• increased site flexibility
• support for decentralised authoring
• increased security
• reduced duplication of information
• greater capacity for growth
• reduced site maintenance costs

Beyond these, the greatest benefit the CMS can provide is to support your business goals and strategies.