1.1 Need for an Effective CMS

Most of the above mentioned problems with content management can be solved by using a content management system (CMS). A good CMS allows the content authors to create content in the form of articles through some pre-defined templates. The content author simply needs to provide content (plain text, pictures, etc.) in the template fields. The content management system then uses some pre-defined rules to style the article, thus separating the actual content from its display/layout structure. The author needs to be concerned only about the core content and not about its look-and-feel and formatting, thus saving loads of time and pain. Some content management systems also optionally require the author to enter metadata for content, for example creator name, keywords, etc. so that these can be associated with the content and be used for indexing and searching the website.

Unlike the traditional content management approach of an author manually getting the content/ articles approved by editors and senior members from business content approval divisions, a good CMS has an automated workflow mechanism. The author simply specifies the sequence of approvers to get the article approved and the automatic workflow does the rest of the work. It ensures that the content does not get published to the website until and unless the sequence of editors and approvers approve it via the automated workflow.

This requires the IT staff (web developers) to prepare the templates and associated rules as a one-time activity, along with stylesheets that format the entered content articles and are responsible for the look-and-feel of the website.

The IT staff additionally needs to configure and establish the CMS software once and from then onwards the content authors simply use the system and templates, getting rid of future dependency on web developers.

Figure 1.2 simply gives a graphical perspective to the benefits of using a CMS.

The one-time effort that a web developer puts in creating templates/rules so that later content creators can use it going forward is a good money-saving approach.

The automated workflow available in a CMS routes the content through its different lifecycle stages finally getting it approved and publishing it to the business website.