Content Management System Overview

The aim of this document is to describe and outline the benefits of a Content Management System, CMS.

What is a CMS?
A Content Management System is a tool that enables technical and non technical staff to create, edit, manage and publish a variety of content, whilst being restrained by a set of centralised rules and workflows that ensures consistent website appearance.

What are the Core Benefits of a Web Based CMS?

Enables non-technical employees to create web content without learning HTML Content Reuse - Separation of layout, content and website logic Promotes content sharing Web Based Interface - No need to install software locally for each content editor Central repository for various media types Enforce consistent look and feel across intranet / web site Enables multiple content editors Dynamic website Up to date content Enforces content publishing business logic through workflows/approval systems

Examples of Web Based Content Management Systems

Plone / Zope Typo 3 http://plone.org / http://zope.org/ http://typo3.com/ http://typo3.org/

Kentico http://kentico.com/ Umbraco http://umbraco.org Rainbow Portal http://rainbowportal.net Interwoven Vignette WebGUI http://interwoven.com/ http://vignette.com http://plainblack.com/webgui

Who uses them?

Various government, NGO and commercial organizations use Content Management Systems. Below are a few examples of Zope and Plone based websites.

NATO
NATO uses a Zope-based solution for distributed coordination and communication.

NASA / Jet Propulsion Labs

NASA uses Plone for their WITS project and also their popular Mars Rover site.

Brazilian Parliament
Recently released a new website using Plone