CMS (content management systems)

Installing and configuring a Content Management Systems(CMS)  needs a lot of background knowledge on

• webservers (Apache, IIS)
• databases (MySQL)
• programming languages (PHP, ASP)

Added concerns are

• increasing security issues
• layout and user perspectives
• increased access of mobile users (smartphones)

There are hundreds of CMSs out there for all possible needs. Not all of them are suitable (for your situation).

• If you already have a basic idea of the features you might need you might want to look at the CMSMATRIX. Cmsmatrix lets you compare many features so you are able to narrow your search.
• Another helpful website is CMSwatch.They might want to sell you books that are helpful.
• For education purposes I have developed a PPT-show CMS (sorry only available in German at the moment)

Looking out for something suitable you might want to ask yourself the following questions:

• Is it Web-Content or the traditional business papers that I mean ?
• Do I want to merge inhouse databases and webpresence to a webstore ?
• What kinds of documents are my main issue, what formats are concerned (.doc, .pdf) Can the system convert / import them. Should I convert everything to one basic format. (As a rule of thumb half of the costs of introducing a new system come from documents that need to be converted)
• How many companies use the intended system , do I know any of these, what are their experiences, references ?
• What kind of support is there the system(professional, users, forums) ?
• What third party modules are available / necessary for the desired task ?
• What languages are neede, is Arabic RTL necessary ?

Generally it may be advisable to use a system that is prominent in the market.


Planning a system you might follow these guidelines:

• The software and server costs are the lowest budget item. Depending on the size of the system the following may be a realistic guess: From your planned budget you may spend
• 25 % on a solid planning which includes
• market research
• consulting by  a good company (consider us !)
• setting up and testing on a test system
• 25 % on software and servers including 3 year support by the product supplier
• 25 % on introducing the new system, training your users and documentation
• 25 % on data / document conversion, (re-)indexing , dupe-removal etc.

You will also have to consider that you will have to stick to the system for a long time the more money you invest here.

So setting up a new system is rather a question of several rounds of planning.

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