Content Management System (CMS) – An Overview...

Why CMS?

Content plays an important role in determining any website’s popularity, that’s why it is known as “King of the web”. So it is very important for us to keep our website updated with the latest happenings of the company. Everyone is nowadays struggling to keep their websites up-to-date. Gone are the days when static websites were used. As more people are becoming familiar with internet, it has become very essential for us to revise our websites around the clock. To design the content for the website, we need to employ website designers and for further modification also we need to rely on them. As human-being always have some limitations. So it is not a good idea to rely on human being for something which can be easily done with the help of software (CMS).

With the advent of content management system it has become very easy to build and manage the content of our website without having any technical knowledge, which is otherwise a big task. CMS is equipped with lots of in-build libraries of graphics, affiliate program links, which can be utilized even by common man to build and manage the websites.

What is CMS?

According to Wikipedia CMS is a computer application used to manage work flow needed to collaboratively create, edit, review, index, search, publish and archive various kinds of digital media and electronic text. CMS are frequently used for storing, controlling, versioning, and publishing industry-specific documentation such as news articles, operators’ manuals, technical manuals, sales guides, and marketing brochures. The content managed may include computer files, image media, audio files, video files, electronic documents, and web content. 

What are the benefits of using CMS?

CMS provides flexibility and convenience for any person to design and manage their website on their own without actually relying on any technical people with ease. Content management system can be a great help for those consumers (school/ college pupil or housewives) turned into publishers also, who are trying to find out ways to manage their content output. These people don’t have time and money to spend for website designers or programmers but they want to publish their thoughts as soon as it strikes them and customize their websites frequently on their own.
There are various other advantages of CMS, some of them are:

Saves time: CMS greatly saves the time to publish the content; it makes you to publish content faster, which is very necessary in order to create value to the content in modern days.
  Simple & affordable to deploy : Many CMS like Joomla is open source CMS are coming for free and its portability between lots of versions and its scalability on different platforms makes it very simple to use.
  The CMS service can be delivered through internet. It doesn’t require any hardware to manage or software to install separately only for CMS.
  Easy to use and publish content online even without any technical knowledge.
  The handling and controlling of errors makes it very simple to use.
  It is equipped with lots of customizable templates which are ready to use and can be easily applied to the content.
  It can speed up the creation and maintenance of websites using web components and plugins.
  CMS can also keep you in touch with the social media by using blogs, message boards, RSS etc.
  It can be shared by multiple people having different user and administration rights in an organization because it establishes defined publishing processes.
  Reconstruct/Reuse the content: CMS is equipped with the feature of reusability of the content since the content is stored in database. It generates completely new output with the available content.
  Content scheduling: Content publication can be scheduled using CMS to keep track of who is publishing what, how quickly content is getting published, whether the publication schedule is being stuck to, whether out-of-date, content is being removed quickly enough, etc. In this way using CMS one can easily measure the success of your publishing efforts.
  CMS allows you to consistently manage the metadata through content template structures. Metadata plays an important role in SEO. Eventually it helps you to get good rankings in Search engines.
  Using CMS one can secure its intranet privacy of content, which is really an important thing as different people of an organization could have allocated different rights to view, edit and publish the content.
  Distributed maintenance: One can easily edit the content from anywhere, anytime using a common web browser which removes lots of bottlenecks.

Summary: CMS provides great comfort to the user to manage the content effectively and lucratively. CMS can also be helpful to those publishers who want to publish lots of content but don’t have technical knowledge. CMS also allows you to design common and consistent web content architecture, which is very essential to have a competent website. By using CMS user can get updated with the latest technologies of the world with ease. But before selecting any CMS, be mindful, as bad CMS can worsen your life.

Reviewing the All – New Akiles Alphabind ...

Plastic comb binding machines can be expensive, so when buying one, you want to be sure you select the machine that has the best features for the lowest price. One machine that’s affordable and is packed with first-rate features is the brand new Akiles AlphaBind-CM. This is a system that won’t cost you too much but it has a lot of the most popular features a comb binding machine can have. Here’s a breakdown of the machine’s strengths, as well as an honest look at its shortcomings.

Strengths:

This device is capable of punching and binding letter-sized documents (8.5″ x 11″). It has a 12-inch throat that is open so you can bind other sizes of documents, if necessary.

This device can work with binding combs that are up to 2 inches in diameter making it capable of binding both thin and thick booklets.

The punching mechanism on this device is really impressive: it can punch up to 25 sheets of regular bond paper per lift. With this kind of punching capacity, you will be able to finish your work a lot faster.

The CM has one of the most sought-after features a comb binding machine can have: disengageable dies. As previously noted, this device has an open throat so that combined with the fully disengageable punching pins, it is possible for you to punch and bind professional-looking documents with virtually any length of binding edge.

The adjustable depth of punch control is another popular feature and the CM has that one as well. This feature ensures that the punched holes are the correct distance from the edge of the paper. This feature comes in really handy when binding extremely small or extremely large documents.

The CM is made entirely out of metal so it can stand up to heavy-duty punching and binding. It has a rather roomy chip tray that won’t need to be emptied very often.

Akiles designed this product to be a smaller, lower-cost version of their Megabind machines. It’s great that a company would design a product with the goal of saving customers money. This CM goes for about $420.00 so it’s a very affordable product.

Weaknesses:

Although all-metal construction is a wonderful feature to have in a binding device, it does make the CM rather heavy. It weighs over 40 pounds so it is a little bit difficult to transport.

Also, the CM is rather industrial-looking due to its construction. It’s not ugly but it’s not really that attractive either.

This device lacks a U-shaped handle, which is not only ergonomically friendly, it enables left-handed users to use this particular unit more easily.

The CM is a manual device. If you need an electric machine with the same capabilities as the CM, you should look at the Akiles AlphaBind-CE, which is electric.

This system has a twelve inch punching throat. If you are going to need to bind very many legal sized documents you will probably want to consider stepping up to the Megabind series of machines. However, this system should be more than adequate for binding letter size, half size and A4 sized documents.

The Akiles AlphaBind-CM is a great product to get if you need a heavy-duty comb binding machine with high-end features such as disengageable dies. The price is just right and the device is so well-built, you will be able to punch and bind with it for years.

Affordable SEO Services...

If you are looking for an affordable, ethical yet effective search engine optimization service then your search is over. ISHIR Digital just provides the right mix of all these features and bring you the unbeaten ROI for your marketing dollars. Tell us your business requirements and we will come back to you with our best customized search engine optimization services plan which not only comes at a highly competitive price but also assures you high quality optimization work to ensure right traffic for your website.

ISHIR Digital is one of the best search engine optimization firms specialized in SEO services, pay per click (PPC) services, professional web design, ecommerce web design, SEO web design, CMS development and design.

Are you taking full advantage of your website or your website is beneficial for you to attract more online visitors? With millions of internet users searching on daily basis for information about product and relevant services and Its confirmed with internet research and web user analysis that 70-80% of prospective online customers who are looking for some important information or products use search engines or web directories to find relevant information and search engine optimization (SEO) is the most useful way of attracting visitors to a website.

Search Engine Optimization Services is a painstaking task of analyzing the website, understanding the gaps and prescribing it with right kind of onpage and offpage dose . All of it is a cumbersome task which also requires intelligence coupled with labour and due course of time. At ISHIR Digital we refrain from using one- size-fits-all approach and pay attention to details and requirement of each website and customize our processes and plan accordingly. For companies or individuals looking for full SEO service, we offer affordable search engine optimization packages that require your minimal involvement. We understand that your time is valuable and may be better spent elsewhere.

We give value for your money with high return of the investment (ROI) in the market by using the right combination of our SEO experience and tools which help in producing the best results. We also have built in effective and ethical search engine optimization techniques which have evolved based on past experiences by working on multitude of websites in different size, themes, technology and architectures.

In nutshell, we can prove to be a useful resource for your website’s search engine optimization at affordable price with high return on Investment.

Is your Cms Building Ramps to your Web Site?...

Visualize this: You’re driving to a friend’s place which has no road signs or distinct land markers. Your chances of finding this friend’s place without someone or GPS to direct you are probably none. Furthermore, should you be expected to find this same place in darkness, giving up to head home might not seem like a bad idea, right?

A Web site works similarly: if there are no clear directions on how to navigate through the site or it has poor visual cues on how to convey the content, then it will be given a low ranking and no accessibility. If this is the case for people with the gift of sight, imagine the plight of millions of visually challenged visitors who would want to access and locate content on your site.

An accessible Web site provides assistance in communicating effectively with the widest audience by flattening roadblocks in interaction. All it requires of the Web site owners is to follow Best Practices in site and content design principals to make the Web site easily reachable for all. The most common categories that hinder accessibility are:

• Blindness and Low Vision. A whole range of computer technology can provide assistance ranging from screen readers, refreshable Braille displays and screen magnifiers. Assistance in keyboard/ Web site navigation, scalable display font sizes, fuzzy searches, alt tags for all images and high contrast between the background and the text go a long way.

• Cognitive and Learning Disabilities. Simple and intuitive navigation, consistency in content presentation through out the Web site, clear labels and ALT tags, relevant and meaningful content, lengthy documents carrying executive summaries at the top and language understood by a wider audience.

• Impairment of hearing. Websites needs to be accessible with content captioning synchronized with multimedia and other manners of rendering content as well as interactive volume controls.

• Mobility and Speech Impairment. Technology providing assistance usually requires computer hardware at user site and assistive Web site architecture. This includes one-handed keyboards, head/mouth sticks and full eye tracking on user’s computer. Web site navigation using voice recognition provides an easy way to navigate through a Web site.

Access Ramp to your Websites?

Designing navigable sites for people with disabilities is not only federally mandated in some cases it is also socially desirable and makes good business sense too. The organization pursuing it comes across as one that has a strong sense of social responsibility, and sensitive to the needs of the otherwise challenged. It is also desirable because legislation like Section 508 (of the Rehabilitation act) mandate that US federal agencies have their Websites accessible for the blind and visually impaired with the help of screen readers.

Section 508, for those not conversant with the Act, requires “federal agencies to make their electronic and information technology accessible to people with disabilities…Under Section 508 (29 U.S.C. ‘794d), agencies must give disabled employees and members of the public access to information that is comparable to the access available to others.”

While this is not mandatory for private organizations, many have voluntarily made their Websites Section 508-compliant as such requirements may be enforced in the future. Census data points out that in 2002, out of 222 million Americans (15 years and above), there were 46 million with some form of disability (30 million severe). This number is expected to swell up to 54 million in 2007. It is only a matter of time before private organizations realize the importance of presenting their Web site in a manner that is fully accessible to visually challenged people. With such a huge base, smart private organizations cannot afford to overlook people with disabilities. Even with the annual mean earning of this segment was $23,034 against an average of $31,840 in 2002, it is estimated that they control over $175 billion in discretionary income.

Despite this not inconsiderable opportunity, most businesses have not actively taken steps to make their Web site Section 508 compliant. As with any other technology adoption, cost is undoubtedly one of the major factors that influences decision making. Developing, maintaining and repurposing content to conform to Section 508 guidelines is an expensive and resource intensive job. When guidelines change, the content or framework of the whole site needs to change too. When you consider that these changes have to be made to thousands of pages on a Web site, the effort is tedious and time consuming.

Requirements for accessible Websites

For a Web site to be easily navigable by visually challenged, screen readers are needed. Organizing content, appropriate titling and linking are critical sign posts that enable screen readers to access and read out content in the same way as a person with normal sight would interpret it. Designing such a Web site is no less challenging, as the screen reader needs to intelligently convey to the person on the site how to browse, communicate relationships between content elements, and the type of content. These requirements will be slightly different for a person who can see but has poor vision. Those falling into this category will need their content in large fonts, and visually bright colors and large image sizes.

When you consider that Web site content management itself is a challenge, Section 508 compliance requirements take this challenge to a whole new level. In addition to requirements of content, usability, design and information architecture – you will need to separate form from content, and do it to make it accessible for people with all categories of disability. This is not a task for faint hearted unless you have a comprehensive Web CMS system to handle content requirements.

Web site CMS can help Build the right Ramp

A Web site content management system is the right tool in taking over the task of creation, maintenance and management of a Web site. Most notably, it allows organizations to maintain consistency across all pages of their Web site – which is absolutely critical when it comes to a Web site which is going to be accessed by a visually challenged person.

A Web site CMS like CrownPeak can for instance, enforce design and navigation schemes, and the presentation of content through standardized presentation templates. These templates can ensure that the content presentation, titling and linking are arranged in such a way that it would enable visually challenged people to easily navigate the site using voice commands. As templates control how data is displayed throughout the Web site, subject matter experts can create content without having to worry about Section 508 compliance.

The company’s versioning and content monitoring tools can also enable government organizations to become instantly compliant with data archive regulations, as they are established.

Features like complete system auditing and reporting provide government organizations the ability to manage and track the history of all work easing adherence to compliance regulations. Files can be given a full document lifecycle, including check-in, check-out, versioning, rollback, approvals, and scheduling.

A Web site content management system also has intelligent workflow automation, ensuring that content passes through appropriate quality gates before being published. Additionally, completely configurable workflows enable organizations to assign tasks to any person, and scale up when defined thresholds are crossed. For example, e-mail alerts can be sent to content owners of specific sections on a Web site when these sections don’t get updated after a specific time period. This is difficult to do in a manual system.

To summarize, a Web content management system can provide the following benefits:

• Improving efficiency and maintaining consistency with respect to regulations

• Reducing non-compliant code violations

• Reduced maintenance cost.

Why should you consider SaaS Model?

While Web site content management systems help users manage content more effectively, government organizations will realize that most content management systems are expensive to procure, complex to implement and configure, and require more resources to maintain.

To address these issues, organizations can consider using Web site content management systems that are delivered through Software-as-a-Service model. By accessing ‘software’ as a service, organizations are spared the high initial cost of purchasing the license. Moreover, as the software is hosted, there is no hardware to buy and no software to purchase and install. The subscribing organization only pays fixed monthly or quarterly fees and leaves the task of managing, maintaining and upgrading the software to the vendor. This is extremely important for government organizations that have tight budgets and growing Web site related responsibilities.

Currently, CrownPeak manages Web content for the office of the US Trade Representative, helping America’s chief trade negotiator and trade policy advisor manage a continuous shuffling of Web site content, maintain indexing and categorization of various content types, and sustain accessibility and records management compliance.

CrownPeak also helps the Commonwealth of Virginia manage the Web site that serves as the gateway site to every Virginia government related resource, with information ranging from government elections data to travel and tourism. The vendor also provides a dedicated account manager, with an escalation path for support. By using a SaaS model, government organizations can also cut down on their risk, and choose different functionalities as the requirements grow. Further, as billing is on a monthly or quarterly basis, costs are spread across the lifetime of a product’s usage. This is an extremely attractive value proposition when compared to the traditional CMS model, where costs are paid upfront and the risk of product implementation and adoption rests totally on the organization.

That is not all. CrownPeak Lifelong Active Support ensures that content management Best Practices are available at all times. It has been estimated that 91% of all support requirements are unrelated to software and organizations deploying enterprise CMS have to make additional investments to cover this need. CrownPeak Lifelong Active Support covers these requirements automatically giving the true complete coverage of all support needs.

Accessible to All

The Internet is a powerful and influential medium. By enabling visually challenged people to access Websites, government and private organizations can take the lead in creating a future that allows every citizen to explore a vast world of information in an unhindered manner. While it is a mandatory requirement for government organizations, it is a highly desirable social responsibility for others as well; and CrownPeak Web content management system ensures that you do not have to make a large dent in your budget to achieve this goal.

Cms Solutions, are They Right for Your Business an...

What is CMS?

CMS stands for content management system.  It is basically a system by which you store and make files available to multiple users.  The files stored can be just about any type of file from documents to audio or video files to databases and images.  The purpose behind many content management systems is to enable collaboration.  For example, a content management system can store company documents maybe a proposal for a sale.

If a company has several branches, authorized people from any branch can access the file and make adjustments, comments, or simply view the file.  This works well for companies that out source projects as well as internal uses like legal documents, sales bids and proposals and even website development.

One of the basic strengths and uses of content management systems is that they facilitate collaborative environments.

Where can you find a Content management system for your business?

To begin, there are a large number of options from freeware to high end expensive solutions costing more than $15,000 on up.  Then there are also open source options which while free can take many many hours to set up yourself and may not be the best solution for a proper business.

Some of your open source options include:

• DotNetNuke which runs on an ASP.NET platform and supports Microsoft SQL Server databases

• Apache which runs on a Lenya Java, XML, or Apache Cocoon platform.

• Fedora runs on a Java and supports MySQL or Oracle database solutions

• WordPress runs on PHP  and supports MySQL

• PHP-Nuke which runs on PHP and also supports MySQL

There are of course more than 50 open source Content management systems.  Now not all open source solutions are created equal and each need to be evaluated by what they can do for you, note that their price tag of free doesn’t take into consideration your time on setup, fixing bugs and making them all fit together to run a proper business.

Experts agree that you will want to evaluate the following criteria:

1. Web application platform.  Look for a programming language that you are familiar with or that is widely accepted and easy to use. Additionally, the more operating systems and database solutions it is compatible with, the better for you and your business.

2. Software license.  If you are going to change the software and redistribute it, you will absolutely need to investigate the particular licenses attached to the software.  Don’t assume because it is labeled open source that it is license free.

3. Stability and development activity.  Many open source products are supremely stable because developers worldwide have the ability to improve, enhance, and strengthen the software without restriction.  That, in essence, is the core of open source products.  That being said, it would be foolish to assume that all open source products are stable and being consistently developed.  Some projects simply get abandoned.  Check to see when the latest version has been released and how many versions were released prior.  That is a good indication of the activity level.  Also, and active bug list on the website as well as a current list of bug solutions is a good indicator of developer activity.

4. User community.  The more people using an open source product, the better generally because this means people are actively striving to improve it and commercial enterprises are likely to partner with it to provide compatible software solutions.  For example, Google and Yahoo partner with Apache, the pioneers of open source.

5. Documentation and source code are also good signs of continuous development and a working and viable product.  The documentation also reassures you that if you have problems or questions, there is documentation to help you out.

6. Web standards, accessibility.  Yes, there are open source web standards and the World Wide Web Consortium is one of the governing bodies.  Visit the WWWC website and make sure the content management product you’re considering checks out.

7. Suitability and usability.  This shouldn’t be last on the list because if a product doesn’t offer the features you need, then it isn’t a product you should evaluate.  Make sure the content management system you’re researching meets your needs and provides the features you will need.  These may be accessibility features, tracking features, assigning tasks, formatting etc…

Outside of open source content management systems you will find some commercial options such as MemberSpeed.  These generally range in price from a few hundred dollars to a few thousand depending on their options.  Like open source options, commercial options support various platforms from PHP to web based content management systems and they support a variety of databases.  If you are considering an entry level commercial system you will want to evaluate them by the same basic criteria you’re evaluating open source options.

One factor that wasn’t mentioned in open source criteria is tech support.  This is often because open source tech support is not your standard call and get an answer type situation.  Open source products generally ask you to report a bug and a developer will work on a solution.

However, when you’re paying for a solution, tech support is a key component and something you will want to evaluate.  It won’t do you much good if your CMS goes down on a busy Monday morning and tech support isn’t answering your calls. For example, MemberSpeed has a fully dedicated support desk manned by experts who are ready to help its customers 24/7.

There are quite extensive CMS solutions offered by large companies like IBM and Oracle.  These products generally cost upwards of $15,000 on up and are extremely powerful and often beyond the scope of most small to middle sized companies.

However, there are many small to mid sized business CMS solutions like MemberSpeed that are very robust and powerful yet affordable for even a home based business to use.

If you outsource any aspect of your business, rely on employees working off site, or operate in multiple locations, a content management system will make your workflow more seamlessly.  It will enable people to collaborate quickly and easily on a variety of tasks and your production will increase.

While there are many commercial CMS options, the open source options available will likely meet most or all of your content management needs.  File sharing becomes as easy as logging onto the system and opening a document.  Collaboration is as easy as posting comments or making changes to documents, images, and even audio files.

Hosted Cms and the University: a Winning Solution...

In an era where digital content continues to grow at an exponential rate, organizations of all shapes and sizes struggle to manage and create content. Much like large corporations, Web sites play a vital role in the marketing and communications strategies of higher education institutions. As college and university Web sites grow more complex, it is crucial to have a site that is properly managed, easy to navigate, and powered by flexible, mature content management technology.

With the right Content Management System (CMS), universities can help optimize communication with students and faculties, enhance student recruitment and retention, and maintain relationships with alumni. Content management technology is already at the core of many higher education Web infrastructures – one of the most rapidly adopted technologies, in fact. A CMS can provide a number of benefits by facilitating the efficient creation and management of Web content (news and events, course catalogs, faculty profiles, and more) throughout the entire content lifecycle. This enables content to be published with greater speed and ease – making staff more productive, operations more efficient, and content more relevant and up-to-date.

CMS: Addressing Web Challenges

While the content itself might be different, the content needs of an educational institution are not very far removed from that of a corporation. A good university CMS must provide:

• The ability to maintain consistent branding across campus-wide sites.

• The ability to decentralize content management to enable individual departments and offices to manage content.

• The ability to empower non-technical users (i.e. administrators, faculty, and staff) to easily create and publish content through an intuitive interface.

• The ability to deliver timely, targeted, up-to-date information to various audiences such as prospective and enrolled students, alumni, faculty, staff, corporate partners, and the media.

• The ability to easily integrate with external applications including Course Management, Customer Relationship Management, Enterprise Resource Planning systems, and portals.

Typical challenges with university content management

• ‘Dreamweaver’ culture

• A hodge-podge of sites

• Varied branding

• Varied accessibility levels and content

• Finding the right CMS/CMS vendor to deliver the right solution

A recent survey conducted by the University of California, Davis, brought forward some interesting facts. Highlights include:

• 60% of the institutional respondents are already using a CMS.

• Open source, custom developed and hosted solutions are more popular than traditional installed products.

• There is no clear leader in terms of which CMS product campuses are using.

Does the installed CMS do the job?

There are several reasons why a traditional CMS might not be the best fit for institutional requirements. Consider:

• Budget

An installed CMS is usually very expensive because you have individual costs for the software, implementation and support. With the latter two typically costing two to three times the initial software investment, educational institutions seldom, if ever, have the budgets to afford them.

• Implementation

Implementation of CMS architecture across campuses is generally haphazard, and the level of customization is either very low or nonexistent. Given the complexity of a traditional CMS, it is nearly impossible for institutions to use a CMS on more than a quarter of their Web sites.

• Support and Training

Most educational institutions have very few staff (if any) supporting the CMS. There is also a large number and wide variety of non-technical users, reluctant to change or any formal training. Not many CMS vendors offer technical training to users – especially so for users who might have no technical knowledge whatsoever.

These factors invariably put traditional CMS at the bottom of the requirements list at university campuses.

The case for a hosted CMS

In the academic environment, a CMS must not only be cost-effective, it must also be quick and painless to implement, manage, support, and run. It must be kept in mind that universities also have a greater diversity of users connecting with the Web site – students (current and prospective), faculty, staff, parents, the community at large, alumni, and so on.

With a hosted CMS, infrastructure burdens are minimized. There is no hardware to buy, or software to install; you simply access the application through a Web browser. Hosted solutions also provide a set of standard modules and design templates, customizable according to organizational needs. Non-technical users will appreciate the convenience of this; they can focus on the content and its presentation rather than the underlying technology.

Universities have a gamut of user types, and getting them involved early in the decision-making process is an important step in choosing a CMS. Given that hosted solutions make it much easier for users to actually adopt the system, success rates are predictably higher. Most CMS successes can also be attributed to a ‘CMS champion’ – someone really motivated about using the technology, and telling everyone else how easy it actually is to use. Finding this ‘champion’ can be easier if the CMS is actually fast and simple to learn.

A large part of traditional CMS complexity is due to fact that these systems are designed for large transaction processing. With a hosted solution, the institution can have the option of using only the CMS components it actually needs.

Hosted CMS can also be up and running much quicker, with lower training requirements. The vendor has dedicated staff deployed to handle technical issues, and the institution does not have to take on the burden of finding or employing support personnel.

Conclusion

It is important to understand the role of content management in higher education to help define and prioritize requirements consistent with system-wide objectives. From schools to colleges and universities the right CMS can have a powerful impact by enabling users at all levels.

However, it is equally important to choose a CMS with the best combination of flexibility, control, and ease-of-use for the successful operations of institutional Web sites. Together, a CMS and a sound content management strategy can combine to address the complex, everyday Web challenges of higher education.