Five great reasons to migrate your web site to an open source content management system (CMS)

by John Hacking

The evolution and availability of open source content management systems like Mambo, Joomla and Wordpress means that just about anyone can now have a professional looking, easy to manage, powerful and inexpensive web site to promote their business or other activity.

Here's five great reasons to consider migrating your web site to a content management system (CMS).

Speed of deployment - Many inexpensive web hosting packages now come bundled with open source web content management systems. For less that $100 per year it is possible to purchase hosting with a variety of features including e-mail, cgi support and CMS like Joomla, Mambo, Geeklog, Drupal and Xoops. It literally takes less than 60 seconds to install these CMS packages. This means you can concentrate your time on developing compelling and sticky content for your web site rather than investing tens of hours worrying about look, feel and structure.

Low maintenance cost - Once the CMS is up and running it's very easy to edit text, add pictures, reorganise menus and so on. With less than an hour of instruction most people can perform basic web site editing functions. If you can use a word processor you can certainly use most CMS packages.

Online support - Unlike propriety CMS and web development applications, there is a multitude of support options when it comes to open source CMS. And most of this support is free. There are freely available manual to download for the most popular CMS packages. If you look around you can also find excellent animated tutorials for the most popular packages.

Variety of designs - There are hundreds of free web site templates for the most popular open source CMS packages. A online search for free Mambo templates will give you an idea of the range and variety. The basic CMS provided with web hosting will include several templates that can easily be customised. And if you want something unique and special, there are commercial template development companies who can design CMS templates for you for very reasonable (< $150), fees.

Powerful features - Basic features included with CMS packages include: a basic administration panel, user level access control, add and delete pages, add and delete images, menu management, web site search, contact forms and rotating banner ads. More exotic components include weather and news feeds, wiki, media galleries, blogging, CRM, form capture databases and advanced SEO features. And that's just the start

The emergence of opens source CMS packages means that anyone can now have a professional web site that they can edit, manage and enhance at very little cost. Spend a day investigating CMS options, starting with Mambo and Joomla. You will not regret it.

About the Author

John Hacking is Marketing Manager for a Brisbane web design company and Product Manager for a Brisbane SEO company. Both of his business web sites use Joomla CMS with modified free templates.

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Content Management Systems - 10 Days Without Website Control

by Stuart Mortimer

If you don't think you need a content management system you may want to read this article. This article chronicles 10 days in the life of a website client working without the help of a content management system and points out the differences that employing a content management system would have had have to a routine website maintenance issue.

Your static website is online and working fine. A couple of days later there is some ground breaking news in your industry and you decide that you would like to put a new press release on your website to attract new visitors that are interested in the very same industry news.

Day 1 You spend the afternoon creating a news article to put on your website. And you spend a few hours sourcing some graphics to accompany the news article. You then type out an email to your web designer and remember to attach all the text and imagery attachments that he will need.

Day 2 The following day he contacts you with his quote for putting the press release on your website. You realise that as the work is an addition to the existing website it is chargeable on top of the initial development costs so you need to get an OK from your boss, but he happens to be out at a meeting this afternoon - it will have to wait until the morning.

Day 3 and 4 You take the web designers quote document to your boss first thing in the morning to get his approval. After mulling it over for a day or two you get the OK from your boss for the web designer to do the website addition. You type out another email to your web designer and wait for his reply.

Day 5, 6 and 7 If you're lucky you get a quick response from your web designer. He tells you the web page will take a day to design and build so he can get it live on Monday for you as he can't work over the weekend - he is going away with his fiancé for a short weekend break.

Day 8 The website designer contacts you at 3pm in the afternoon. The page is live on the website. You return his email and thank him for his help. You then go straight to the site to check the new page out. You're kind of busy so you give the page a quick scan and think to yourself - great, job done! 4:30pm you get a call from Jane in accounts letting you know that there is a typing mistake in the new news article. You call the web designer straight away but he's in a meeting with a new client and his phone rings onto answer phone.

Day 9 You manage to get through to the website designer and tell him about the mistake. He apologises and says he will get it sorted for you the same day.

Day 10 The press release is finally online for your customers to read and the search engines can now potentially spider the article in a few more days and the article stands a decent chance of being returned in search engine results.

The Difference a Content Management System Would Have Made With an online content management system you could have put your article together yourself. You could have gone straight into your website content management system using your username and password. You could then have pasted your new press release directly into your content management system and pressed the add button. This would have instantly created the new web page for you in real time. The press release would have gone live the same day and you would have been one of the front runners - publishing news about the latest industry developments and milking the rewards that having cutting edge industry news on your website would have brought. The problem with the spelling mistake could also have been fixed in minutes by logging into your content management system and updating the press release, rather than having to wait over the weekend for your website designer to make the text amend.

Conclusion: Although basic static websites are a cost effective solution for many small businesses, employing the use of a content management system means that you can update the text, images and documents on your website instantly - from anywhere you can obtain an internet connection. The ability to update your website content yourself and for free means that you can quickly react to sudden changes in your industry, which can make or break your online marketing success.

About the Author

Stuart provides content management systems for clients in Barnsley, Yorkshire, UK. Stuart runs a web design company in Barnsley.

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Content Management

By Barry Stein

More and more businesses are recognizing the importance of content management when it comes to their websites. Website content is more important than ever before, and as the Internet matures and changes, it is likely be become even more important. Many smart companies are beginning to make their website content the centerpiece of their Internet presence.

Content management means many things to different people, but it is generally understood to be the concept of separating the design and layout of a website from the actual content contained on that website. This allows a company’s web developer to do his job more efficiently and not get bogged down with endless requests for changes, additions and deletions to the content of the web page. More importantly, it allows employees who are not web developers to update the company’s web page.

When seeing the changes that have occurred to content management over the last couple of years, it is helpful to take a step back. The commercial internet is only about 10 years old. What began as a way for government researchers to communicate their findings with their peers has morphed into the giant commercial enterprise that is today’s Internet. With this explosive growth over the period of just a decade or so, it is no wonder that content management has changed and grown as well.

It may take another 20 years or more until the internet is fully mature, and many more changes are likely to be in store. Seeing those changes coming can put your business on the cutting edge and position you for success.

Putting content ahead of technology is the centerpiece of the content management concept. When designing and updating their websites, smart companies will put the reader first. Try to put yourself in the place of a visitor to your website.

- When a visitor first sees your website, what is their first impression?

- Do they see an easy to use interface?

- Is everything laid out clearly?

- Is it easy to find what you want?

Take an objective look at your company website and answer these questions honestly. If you find your website lacking, you can use content management techniques to make your website more intuitive and user friendly.

More and more companies are hiring professional writers and editors as part of their overall content management strategy. This is a strategy that I believe will pay big dividends as the internet further matures. The internet is already the number one source of information for many people, and as more and more people get comfortable with using the internet, those numbers are likely to grow. The companies that can provide the most useful web content, to the greatest number of people, are the ones that will thrive in the 21st century.

By now most major corporations and many smaller firms already have functioning websites on the Internet. This means that the demand for professionals to design and upload websites is likely to shrink in the future. On the other hand, the need for professionals who can update web content and make it useful to customers is likely to grow. The future of content management has never looked brighter.

You have permission to publish this article electronically, in print, in your e-book or on your web site, free of charge, as long as the author bylines are included with an active hyperlink to the aWebBiz.com website.

Barry Stein is the owner of aWebBiz.com where he offers cutting-edge tips on all aspects of business and a Free Newsletter on Internet Marketing. To find more advice, tools and resources to help you succeed in your business, visit: http://www.aWebBiz.com

Content Management for Small Business Website Marketing

By Alevoor Rajagopal

Marketing of small business websites online is as important as getting it listed at a higher ranking on Search Engine listings. Either you have to design or build your own website or you have to hire professional website designers to do the job. There are different types of marketing service providers available online to market your site, like submitting your site for search engines and providing search engine optimization report by an expert. There is also provision to advertise in the Online Internet Yellow Pages where professionals design and place an advertisement program in these yellow pages like Yahoo!®, Worldpages, Smartpages, and Yellowpages.com.

Then comes the email marketing. As email is the number one popular online activity among internet users, be at home or at work, this creates a prime marketing opportunity, for both large and small businesses. For small businesses it is also one of the most cost-effective ways to market products and services. In fact, you can professionally create and send e-mail newsletters, promotions, and updates to your customers in minutes, thereby increasing the web traffic to your site.

All this requires managing and maintaining your website content to a professional grade. That is where Content Management System (CMS) comes in. CMS is a web application used for creating websites and also managing the web content. It can also be used for storing and publishing documentation such as technical manuals, operators' manuals, sales guides, etc. It provides many software tools to enhance the look of your site. For example, attractive product display headings are a must for every site. Using CMS you can create customizable Flash Banners and Navigation. It also helps in creating standard visual templates that can be automatically applied to new and existing content, creating one central place and change that look across all content on your site.

They also have plug-ins that can be easily installed to extend your existing site's functionality. For example, if you wanted to add a product catalog or chat program to a website, one could easily install a module/plug-in to add that functionality rather than hiring a web developer to write code to that new functionality.

They are designed to receive regular updates that include new feature sets and keep the system up to latest web standards. These updates are usually designed for easy installation either on-top of your existing website or modifying it suitably. There are many open-source and paid CMS solutions available.

Alevoor Rajagopal is an MBA and advises on issues that concern small businesses. Fine tuning common but pesky issues to improve efficiency and ROI is what he specializes and writes at online earning. Find his eBay business coaching at eBay Made Easy.

Key Benefits Of Content Management

By Prabir Sen

Is your business running on that old static website? Are you still hoping to change your contents one day? Do you have HTML skill in your organization? No! Then go for the Content Management System to drive your website and take a break to watch your business grow.

If you do not have HTML or other relevant language skills in your organization, consider deploying a content management system. With a content management system, you do not require the skill of a skilled programmer to write your contents. Using the content management functionalities of the content management system, you can easily manage creation, modification, and removal of contents from a Web site, without any knowledge of HTML language, while the content delivery application of the management system would compile the information and update it to your website. The features of a content management system varies, but generally includes, Web-based publishing, format management, revision control, indexing, search, and retrieval.

A content management system does wonders to your business, by helping you to easily manage your business website information in line with your competitors. The information in your website is your asset and that needs to be managed. Keeping the contents updated is the only way you can put your business at the forefront of your competitors. These contents need inevitable changes, and your content management system allows you to manage these contents with perfect ease. Without a content management system and with none of the relevant skills available in your organization, your website would surely but steadily erode your business prospects.

A content management system provides effective media for managing the informative content, results in the management of the information content, which in turn generates generous return. The use of a content management system lowers the operating costs, there-by increasing the profits. The key benefits, achieved through the deployment of a suitable content management system, and weighed against your investments, may be considered as follows:

 The content management system renders easier and rapid management of your website information, letting you create, edit, and publish the contents on a website, without any technical programming skill what-so-ever. Such a management system has a direct positive implication on cost saving in your business operation.

 Your content management system allows you to set up a discipline amongst the individuals, responsible for each management activity of the system, and the departments responsible for disseminating the necessary information required for management of the contents. The process automates the management of your website, with proper check-points, and expedites the delivery of the newly created or edited content information to your website, intranet, and extranet. This makes the management of such sites more effective and efficient, changing the way you interact externally with your customers.  It is necessary that you maintain the accountability of the system that you are managing. A content management system allows you to track the changes that you are making and maintain a log of work history. This enables you to identify which specific content has been changed, and review the history at times to look at the specific concerned pages that have been changed.

 You can manage your work-flow through the inherent intelligent feature of such a management system. This will enable you to ensure that your contents are passing through a proper quality procedure before getting published. The process of internal messaging and tracking ensures a smooth work-flow process, which provides constant review and control of the management system in place.

 You will need to manage consistency through out the design of your website, and in that way controlling the branding. A content management system allows you to maintain such a consistency through out your WebPages, maintaining it to a desired level. This can be done regardless as to who is responsible for the management of the actual content. Your website gets a more professional outlook, and provides confidence to your clients.

 A content management system allows you to create a content once, which can be re-used many times. This facility provides the opportunity to deliver the same content to multiple locations in various presentation formats and multiple languages.

 Are you being able to keep pace with your competition? Your content management system makes it easy for you to keep your website updated through effective management of your contents, enabling your partners, customers, and your employees to find the correct information at any point of time. It is imperative that you manage your website contents to keep pace with your competitors in order to gain an effective outcome of your business activities.

 The search engines require your website to maintain consistency, in order to find relevant contents in your website rapidly and effectively. A content management system, manages the required consistency all through your website pages, making it search-engine friendly, providing a better visibility.

It is essential to be consistent in implementation of any design philosophy for a website to become successful web communication. It is entirely undesirable to have an ad hoc development of any website, having a manual editing feature, as associated with traditional static websites. This results in confused appearance of the site, in its appearance and navigation. Such designs inevitably lead to dilution of corporate image and branding, and require extreme supervision and control.

A content management system provides a way to establish consistent design philosophy and maintains uniformity in maintaining corporate branding and its identity. As one of the most important features, a content management system allows templates to be designed once, to be re-used through out. This, not only maintains the consistency of the WebPages, but also is far easier to implement and cost effective, allowing the corporate information to be presented in a suitable manner.

I am a post graduate in Computer Science and have been working as the profit center head of an international organisation. I look after 15 to 18 Oracle database projects in Europe.

As a hobby I have been writing for the last 10+ years on various subjet matters. I have expertise in project report preparations, preparations of technical tutoring documents, presentation preparations, writing of technical articles, technical documentations abstructs of various books, copy writing, reviews, articles, proof reading, news papers, magazines,presentations, including SEO articles, etc., and also contributed in writing press releases and various profiles. I have been writing for over 10 years. I have good experience in writing papers, including transcriptions on various topics with extensive research on the subject. I have also participated as a freelancer in online sales and marketing. All my works are quality orginals. I am generally involved with few but large continued assignments in writing technical & non-technical articles.

A Blog script can not only be used to post your opinions but it can be used as a content management system for your entire website. One such script is

By K. Mooney

A content management system enables you to update your own website without having to return to the designer every time you want to change some details. For example it would allow you to add new products, change prices or update a news section at no further cost. The content management system would be integrated into your site by the designer and would be specifically tailored to your needs. This is extremely useful as it gives non-technical staff the ability to maintain website content through an error-proof interface that can be learned very quickly. The following are features that a content management system could typically include:

Updateable image or product gallery
Discussion forum
Event management system and calendar
Updateable news or product information.
Define the business objective of your content management system


A content management system can be a very cost effective way of keeping your website updated and fresh. However it is important that before implementing a system, you are clear about its business goals. This will help you to determine what your specific requirements are. Think about how your staff will use a content management system, as well as how the end user will benefit.

At Deckchair UK, we will help you to reach an informed decision about what your company's requirements are and the best and most cost effective way to achieve these goals. We specialise in designing bespoke content management systems to meet the individual needs and business goals of each client. To see examples of content management systems, see our portfolio page.

http://www.deckchair.co.uk/content-management-system.php

WordPress - A Complete Content Management System

By Erum Munir

A Blog script can not only be used to post your opinions but it can be used as a content management system for your entire website. One such script is WordPress.

A detailed overview of what WordPress is capable of is as follows:

1. Customized Template
You can completely customize the look of your website by using your own custom template. You will however, need to know XHTML, CSS and some PHP in order to do this. It is recommended that you hire a professional web designer who specializes in custom blog templates. Once your template is set up, you can update your website yourself.

2. Pages
You can add pages to WordPress. That is pages like About us, Contact, etc. The content is added via an easy to use interface. It is easy to setup headings and bulleted lists by just clicking on already set buttons which generate the code for you.

Example:

Select your Text
Click on Heading
Your selected text will now be displayed as a heading (how this heading will be displayed will be set up in your CSS file by your web designer).

3. Categories
If you want to set up a category based blog, you can add unlimited sub levels. However, the recommended level is one level deep and at max two levels deep. Therefore your categories can be:

Articles (main category)
-- Web Design (sub category - one level deep)
----XHTML (sub sub category - two levels deep)


4. Archives
You can also choose not to add any categories. In this case, the default category (Uncategorized) will be used. You can then show the posts based on a time line. They can be archived according to the day, months or years. Example (monthly)


December, 2005
January, 2006
February, 2006
And so on…

5. Posts
This is what your blog is really about. The content! These can be articles, opinions, reviews, etc. Posts like pages are also added via an easy to use interface. They are then dynamically shown in your template design. Posts can be assigned to categories or as explained in ‘Archives’ above.

6. Comments
Interactivity is key to a Blog. You can turn comments on, off and on moderation. The latter is recommended.

7. Trackbacks
Trackbacks are like comments, except they are posted at the site of the person making the comment. Generally these are longer articles related to your post. A snippet/teaser will be displayed in your comments with a link to the full article.

8. Links
You can use the inbuilt Link Manager to exchange links with other blogs and websites as well as add useful resources.

9. Search Function
What use is a blog you cannot search thru? WordPress has a built in search function which searches thru posts.

10. RSS Feed
Feeds are read by programs called ‘FeedReaders’. You just need to add the feed URL for a blog to your FeedReader which then checks that blog for updated content. As soon as a blog has a new article, it is downloaded and displayed by the Feedreader. This way you do not have to visit all your blog websites to check up on new content.

WordPress has its own RSS Feed option. You can add RSS feed for your entire website as well as for individual articles for their updated comments.

11. Plugins
These are tools which enhance the functionality of WordPress. There are lots of third party plugins available, each with their own function. Some of these are follows:


Adsense Plugin: Easily add and save various Google Adsense codes. You can save different codes for the various sizes available. To add them to your posts/pages you just need to pick which one you want to add from a drop down.
Add Meta Tags: Add custom keywords and description to your posts and pages. Set defaults for each as well.
External Links: Automatically open external links in a new window.
Page Navigation: Use page numbers instead of the default WordPress navigation which uses Next/Previous Links.
Search: Search through the entire website instead of just posts.
Smart Update Pinger: WordPress automatically announces your website to Ping-o-matic every time you publish a post. This plugin makes sure that is done only when the article is first published and not every time it is edited.
Backup: Make a back up of your database from within WordPress admin. This is a default WordPress plugin and comes with the installation.
No of Posts/Page: By default you can set only one number and that holds true for your categories as well as search results. This plugin lets you set a different number of posts per page for each of these.
Polls: You can add polls to your blog.
Stats: Different plugins that show the number of post views and the current online users.

As you can see, WordPress offers lots of features that can not only help you put up a blog and interact with your visitors, but it also lets you manage your complete website yourself.

Website Content Management Software

By Kristy Annely

Managing your website can be as easy as pie if you hire professional help for the job - that is if you have the money to pay for their services. But surely, the time will come when you realize that you cannot keep your programmer or web developer on your tab because you have been paying them so much. Instead of helping you to make profits, they are actually an additional expense.

Removing them from your list and taking care of your website on your own is a wise move - but what if you have absolutely no idea as to how you can maintain and operate your website? Considering that the job of maintaining small to medium websites can be quite a daunting task, what if yours is of the multi- or large- scale website? What would you do? Invest in a website content management software.

Software Designed for Managing your Web Contents

Website content management software is the tool used to handle small and large-sized pages of contents of your website. They enable a non-computer-saavy individual (like you) to efficiently handle all aspects of your site content without having to learn HTML or Hypertext Markup Language, the programming language used for websites.

Basically, the software works by enabling you to create a web template for your site - and, with a little tweak here and a little tweak there, plus some functional buttons, texts and images are loaded into the template.

Software Sources

You can download website content management software from online sources that will suit both small-level and dynamic multi-level types of websites, either for free or for a price. It comes equipped with functional features such as: 1) interactive setups and configuration tools; 2) basic code editors in WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) format; 3) set font types and layout; 4) edit and change contents and images directly on-site from a web browser; 5) change pages and view before going live; 5) create your own templates for your site; 6) combine content and images through plain and formatted texts, audio and video clips, and animated effects; 7) maintain and edit your page links; and 8) obtain and handle large amounts of content data that you have for your website.

With the help of content management software, your creativity will surely go a long way. And just in case you haven't noticed, just by learning how to handle your web contents effectively, you are on your way to becoming a professional web developer.

Web Site Software provides detailed information on Website Software, Free Website Software, Website Content Management Software, Website Design Software and more. Web Site Software is affiliated with Free Shopping Cart Software.

For more great document management resources visit http://whatisdocumentmanagement.com where you can also find document management tool and informatio

By Alexander Gordon

Law firms need a good content management system to ensure that all of the generated content will be stored, archived, and delivered when necessary without wasting time. Bills, affidavits, wills, contracts, memos, and tracking billable hours for each client, are just a few of the numerous documents generated by law firms. Content management at law firms is, therefore, a specific goal that has to be carefully implemented.

Good content management systems are necessary for law firms because their entire operations depend on well-recorded and documented data. Keeping all documents secure and safe is of paramount importance to law firms.

Law firms have to select a content management system that takes into consideration their needs and the system’s affordability and scalability. Technological advancements have led to the creation of software that integrates with the existing software and does not require any user training. They are user–friendly, ensuring that navigation and operation are easy.

Law firms store data digitally by scanning. They need a good system that can retrieve the stored data as fast as possible by enabling keyword searches that accelerate retrieval. The system has to enable them to work without hindrance, allowing changes to be made in real time. The authorized personnel should be able to make changes and save the changes. At the same time, others should have access to a read-only format of the document while the changes are being made. These systems make sure that adequate security is available and that unauthorized people do not misuse data. They provide a usage log that can track the persons who viewed and changed specific documents, preserving the original as well as the changed document.

To save time, these systems should be easy to install taking up just a couple of hours, ensuring the content management is efficient and organized. They should be able to integrate with intranet, Internet, extranet and remote access systems helping effective control over documents and ensuring cost effectiveness.

Content management at law firms requires uninterrupted flow of accurate and current data stored in the repositories. These systems also have to be able to create, control, access, manage, and track documents. They must allow multiple users to access documents from anywhere as long as they are authorized to view the data.

Before purchasing a content management system, law firms need to analyze their need for a content management system, scout for good systems within their budget, check out the features offered, and select the system that is the most suitable as content management at law firms is a very crucial aspect that defines the way the firm operates.

Many firms offer services as well as products to help run a business efficiently.

Alexander Gordon is a writer for http://www.smallbusinessconsulting.com - The Small Business Consulting Community. Sign-up for the free success steps newsletter and get our booklet valued at $24.95 for free as a special bonus. The newsletter provides daily strategies on starting and significantly growing a business.

Business Owners all across the country are joining "The Community of Small Business Owners” to receive and provide strategies, insight, tips, support and more on starting, managing, growing, and selling their businesses. As a member, you will have access to true Millionaire Business Owners who will provide strategies and tips from their real-life experiences.

What Is Document Management? 9 Things You Should Know about Document Management

By Bill Cook

What is document management?

We need to know basic things about what document management entails, before trying to learn the secrets of document management.

DMS or Document Management System is normally either a set of computer system or a set of computer programs, meant to store and track images and electronic documents. DMS coincides with the term Content Management System and also seems related to Digital Asset Management.

Any DMS, will have some or all of the following features:

a)Security:
What security features are built-in the program to provide coverage against loss/destruction of information or against tampering with the documents. What are the safeguards for important information stored?

b)Work flow:
If the documents during work, are required to go to more persons, what regulations have been provided?

c)Retrieval:
Mode, time and technology used for retrieval of the documents.

d)Filing:
What organization and strategy has been adopted for filing?

e)Archival:
What protection has been provided against fire, flood and other natural disasters. Will the documents be perfectly legible on archival.

f)Distribution:
The distribution of information will be meant for how many people and the cost of such distribution.

g)Retention:
What all information is possible to be retained, up to what period and the procedure for removing the information.

h)Creation:
Number of people required and the logistics support needed for such collaboration.

i)Approval/Authentication:
What will be the procedure required for obtaining mandatory government approvals and private certification etc?

Document Management System – A brief background
From the early days, documents whether hand written or typed were nicely filed and stored. The information was retrieved when required. But over a period of time, the paper used to get corrected and precious information was lost. Therefore, a need arose for electronic storage and retrieval systems.

A few vendors in the beginning of 1980, started to develop a system meant to manage paper based documents, which will have capabilities of storage, indexing, image level capture and retrieval etc. There were further developed to cover electronic documents, collaboration tools, audit capabilities and security features. The expertise of a few companies in this field are given below:

a) Net Document:
This has a special feature of web-centric S-a-a-S (Software as a Service), which has all types email, document and records management service. It also includes extranet service: clients and other persons can easily share these documents. The documents are securely protected in super-specialty data centres and make sure that they offer a built-in business continuity.

b) HP document and content management solutions:
This organization offers hardware and software, document scanning systems, routing and process software, servers, storage printing and also data output devices. Broadly speaking, it provides everything required for managing, capturing and running any business.

c) Ademero Document Management Software:
Its unique feature of Content Centre business concept, makes document capturing, retrieving and management very easy. This browser based software ensures Accuracy, Speed and Faster Access for any type of business.

d) Laserfische document management:
These versatile platforms provide through the entire organization high volume, distribution, retrieval and information capture feature. Misfiling of documents in reduced and also saves on costly photocopying and paper distribution costs. This system can adapt itself to the needs of multi departments.

For more great document management resources visit http://whatisdocumentmanagement.com where you can also find document management tool and information on the document review process.

What to Look for in a Content Management System (CMS

By Judith Stolpner

Content Management Systems are a great way to maintain the integrity of your web site by allowing you, not a web designer, to have control of your content.. When you look for a CMS, look for one that is designed to provide a user-friendly environment that can accommodate multiple users with varying skill levels. Some CMS systems are designed as software that installs on your servers or your PC, while other CMS’s are hosted by the system’s developers and accessed over the Internet via a browser. This type of CMS is generaly less expensive than those installed on your server. Not only will they be less expensive in most cases…you should shop around…but many are suppied as “software-on-demand” and are priced per session. That means you only pay when you use it.

Another thing you should look for is the features of the CMS. It should have all the features of MS Word and be so simple to use that your content developers will be able to begin creating and editing content with ease. CMS systems come in multiple flavors and can be deployed for both small and large companies.

Many of the better-designed CMS’s are based on authentication level, which means that content developers are granted permission to access the authorized areas within the system. This permission-based content access management utility is very popular and is designed and developed for creating, accessing, and managing menus, submenus, hyperlinks, new page creations, etc. It should offer authorized content developers the ability to navigate quickly and intuitively, using pull-down and drill-down menus to get to specific areas of your web site. Most CMS’s have an auto-log-out procedure that can be implemented if a content editor leaves an active session open without making any changes for a certain predetermined length of time. In such cases all unsaved work should be queued for immediate review once the content developer logs back in.

Find a CMS that is designed with no restrictions on page lengths and quantity of content, and allows your content developers to preview new or changed content easily. Users should be able to make multiple content changes that will be made immediately without extensive wait or reload time.

Pictures and images are extremely important for some companies web sites. They may need to upload new photos often, or remove them when they are obsolite. Therefore you need to find out if that option for your photos is avaialbe in the sytem you choose. An important question to ask is, how much control will you have of where and how your pictures appear within the layout of your web pages? This may seem like a very simple question, but you would be surprised how many people do not ask it. Another question is, how easy are the tools within the CMS to use and how much training, if any, and support you will get from the CMS’s developer?

Your web site is a critical connection between your company and your customers/visitors. Keeping your content up-to-date can be the most effective way to sell your products and services and ensure that your web site works for you, not against you.

Judith Stolpner is the Director of Marketing at Blue Robin Inc.-Blue Robin is recognized as experts in building customized eBusiness Infrastructures. Blue Robin also designs web-based solutions for small to mid sized companies including cost effective Content Management Systems. Judith has been involved with web marketing since 1995. http://www.bluerobininc.com