Content Management Systems

Overview

A content management system (CMS) is used to create, manage, edit, and publish digital media and electronic text on a website. You develop a content management system to work in conjunction with your website. You create a design and plan for how you want to structure your content. Once you've established your site, you can use a content management system whenever you need to update media files, photos, electronic documents, and web pages. You can use CMS tools for web based publishing, indexing, searching, format management, and data retrieval. You can even use content management systems to adjust your fonts and themes.

There are three kinds of content management systems. An enterprise content management system can be used to manage information within a company. If your company has an intranet or internal page, it is likely to use a content management system. Web content management systems are used to publish content for personal or business websites. Component content management systems are used to conduct searches within an organization's documents.

CMS software can be downloaded free of cost. A list of free content management system tools can be found here. Usually the cost of content management system depends on the website's needs. Some programs are very expensive. For example, Oracle's enterprise content management software, Fusion Middleware, can cost tens of thousands of dollars.

Benefits

Content management systems can run on a variety of server and database platforms. CMS tools can be used to streamline a variety of processes including document management, digital asset management, knowledge management, management of communication, and other related activities. Companies can earn huge profits by using content management systems to streamline tasks that would otherwise require extensive labor. To optimize your results with CMS tools, you should integrate your day to day business activities with your website.

CMS tools are also user friendly and require minimal user training. Even if the content manager does not know Hypertext Markup Language (HTML), he/she can still update the website. The author can create, modify, and remove content without the help of the website developer.

How It Works

CMS incorporates templates, wizards, and other tools to create and modify websites. A streamlined content management system enables many collaborators to edit a website. CMS creates a work flow process so that the right people work on the right projects. Content management tools will automate file conversions so that you can create relevant HTML and PDF files. CMS tools have a revision control feature that tracks changes made by writers. You can catalogue your archives into indexes. You can also organize data through an indexing process.

Companies/Brands

Oracle develops content management system software. Soft Web Solutions, Kanga Internet, and Gatesix are other companies that develop CMS tools.