Posted on December 15th, 2010How is your website working these days? In a perfect world of course your customers are getting everything they need, your information is up to date and accurate, your archived records are immaculate and easily attainable, and everyone can create, upload, transfer, publish, interface, edit and store anything they want with the greatest of ease!
Whether you’re in the business of selling pianos, building skyscrapers, accounting for international corporations, or manufacturing copper plated widgets, a smooth running web site, and every task it is supposed to provide, is essential. There is always a gap between the perfect world and reality. Having the right CMS in place can hopefully bridge that gap. Here are a few key points to remember:
Functionality
Before you conquer the world with your CMS make sure the basics are covered. Depending on your needs of course the right CMS can do everything you want it to do. At a minimum make sure that the system you choose allows you to create, delete, edit and organize. Typically these are the four main tasks at hand when managing content. You might see a CMS that has the ability to create, organize, and conquer the world. What about deleting and editing? It is always a good idea to cover your basic needs now in case you need all of them in the future.
Control
How many web masters does it take to screw in a light bulb? Maybe that should be changed to ‘screw up’ a light bulb! With content providers, user interaction, and customer communication there is potential for quite a few attendees to come to your CMS party. The last thing you want is a loss of control over your web site. This is where the importance of roles and permissions come into play. You want your CMS to give you the ability to assign certain roles to certain content providers. In other words you can limit their power to the level it needs to be and not beyond. Too much power often means loss of control. At the same time you can implement permission controls where a user may not proceed without being approved first. You may have the need to set up a checkpoint system where the content may not proceed to the next level or department until it has been edited, reviewed, tested etc.
Asset Management
Now that every thing is functioning properly and every one is under control, what do you do with all of this information? Depending on your needs a good CMS should have the tools to move, distribute, store, secure or archive your precious information and should do so without compromising anything. In other words you don’t want your copper plated widget to turn into an aluminum coated yidget by the time it gets to its final destination.