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Would a CMS be appropriate for their needs?
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You have not provided nearly enough detail. "Updates" is probably -- in many senses of the word -- not what you want a CMS for. Second, you violate the
prime directive of my post -- talking about web sites and not
Information or
People.
The default "no" serves in this case. Despite the hype, most CMS packages are not user friendly. This will get strenuous objections from developers -- but not the people who use the CMS. For all the 'friendly' this and 'usability' that, they haven't sat next to nontechies and
observed them using the CMS -- I have.
"Knowledge about HTML" is an immediate wrong turn. Think reengineering workflow, communication, coordination across departments. Use a CMS to coordinate human communication -- not html code.
I've switched a programmer off PHPnuke after they were specifically drawn to it. Why? The guy was
neglecting writing the code he earned his living with to mess with the CMS. (and this was someone with much more than HTML knowledge). I don't often recommend PHPnuke. PHPnuke turns you into a PHPnuke developer, whatever your previous vocation was.
Anyone to takes so little information and then blurts out "joomla" or "wordpress" ...walk away from that person. Guess what. I really meant what I wrote:
-- What do you want to accomplish?
-- Who will produce what kind of content?
-- Who will the users be?
-- Do you need to refine or refocus requirements?
One CMS we did matched up capital sources with entrepreneurs seeking venture capital. I sat down and, in short order, worked out a flowchart of the potential users and basic architecture.
Then, and only then, we started looking at technology.
Postscript: Links on CMS Usability
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A CMS is one of those applications like a word processor where many users, often non-technical users, need to become proficient with no little or no training to get their job done. Frequently CMS users are under time pressure and, if it is quicker to misuse the tool than to use it properly, the tool will be misused - or, if possible, not used at all. Content Management is a very broad term but I think this applies to everything from this blogging software that I am using right now, to a Web CMS, to a document management application. A CMS user wants to publish what needs to be published with as little overhead as possible. As a matter of personal pride, author's want their content to read well and look good. But other than that, the less time spent with a CMS, the better.
-- CMS Usability
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Adaptive Path's Jeffrey Veen is less sanguine...
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Sounds good, but just try putting it into practice. In a report published last year, Jupiter Research uncovered some startling findings. “Of just under 100 companies … only 27 percent of companies surveyed planned to continue using their Web content management systems as they do now.”
So why do these CMS projects almost always fail?
-- Why content management fails
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And guess what Veen's conclusion was: It's Not A Technology Problem. It's an information managment problem. And step one is realizing in all this "html knowledge" nobody ever sat down and figured out what information drives the business, and what gets in the way. Again, most companies don't even know, really know, what information even
is.