content management guide: content management software & programs

Content Management systems are popular in large corporations who need to present volumes upon volumes of online content. For a small to medium or even to rather large businesses, it's still a luxury, rather than a necessity. Speaking plainly from my personal experience, I've seen the leader in this field, Vignette, charge $500,000 per deployment of one version of their system. Yes, that's half a million!

The question then arises, why would any company pay so much for a solution, if they can just hire programmers and manage the groups of websites on their own, without a puppeteer, a computer behind the curtain?

The way these contracts are usually structured is this: you buy a version of software, which you pay for. You may buy an add-on support contract, which may not be necessary. You train your programmer to operate this sophisticated software, and then, you're off and running.

In my view, the answer is simple, content management software simplifies incredibly complicated web sites, seemingly unmanageable by IT people alone.

Vignette Logo: Content Management and Portal Solutions

Think of this for a second: you want to multiply 4,134,567 by 345,987. Would it be easier to do it by hand on a piece of paper, or to use a calculator? Of course, a calculator! Well, it's the same with content management. It makes complex operations simple.

Content Manager, like Vignette, can handle design elements, forms, user databases, views and displays based on site-section, prior revisions of text over layers of pages, different languages, and the list goes on and on.

Let's say you have a technical website with 1,000 PDF data sheets? How will you manage them? What if your company is global and needs to have 5 language sites? It becomes a mind-boggling problem only this type of system can manage.

As a side note, I've worked with Vignette in my career, and i can simply say that it is the best.

OK... so let's say you don't currently have access to $500K, how can you get the same benefit as these powerhouses? Well, there are actually a number of great, small content management programs out there! In fact, they cost thousands less than the market leader. Of course, you're not buying a Mercedes Maybach here, it's just a Toyota Corolla, BUT!!! even Toyota will get you where you want to go.