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Strategy and Resource Considerations in Selecting a CMS Vendor
Strategy and Resource Considerations in Selecting a CMS Vendor
Susan McEvoy, Western New England College
Background
- End of the Webmaster era.
- A CMS will change the way business is done on campus.
- Admissions led the way in choosing a CMS.
Directives
- Faster turnaround.
- Improved navigation.
- Content consistency.
- Web site cohesiveness.
Requirements (Information Technology)
- Extensibility and flexibility.
- Integration with legacy systems.
- Workflow management.
- Security.
Approach
- Creation of Web Services group.
- Oversight by marketing.
- Decentralized administration of content (site “champions” owners).
- Design template and restrictions.
- Access to code.
Vendor/Solution
- Chose Cyclone CMS.
- Queued pages are published nightly (not immediately).
- Distributed content module used for news.
Modules Available for Future Implementation
- Calendar management module.
- Forms management.
- Account management.
- Job management.
Managing Content (Potential)
- Web site content management.
- Course catalog.
- Digital course content.
- Phone directory.
- Faculty database.
Other Factors (In Hindsight)
- Ease use of interface (Graphical User Interface was too complicated; liked the RedDot GUI better).
- Restrictions imposed by design template.
- Formatting for publication in print would be nice (HTML only).
Summary
- Changes required in business environment.
- Forerunners in bringing institutional change.
- Goals defined by senior administration.
- Technical requirements.
Questions
- Cost? $100,000 to $1,000,000. Three people (Webmaster, site developer, programmer with ColdFusion).
- Training? Ninety minutes for training, then retraining. Help Desk doesn’t deal with CMS.
- Policies for content updates? Handled on a case-by-case basis.
- Promotion? E-mails. Announcement meetings.
- Users? About 40.
- Use of the CMS is mandatory for departments.
- Is there a line of demarcation between formal and personal? No, only faculty can have their own sites.
- Does this application integrate with legacy data? ColdFusion can be used to integrate with legacy data.
Document: 6/15/04 (JC)
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