Your Online Presence > Managing Content
Knowing When You Need a CMS
Basic
By Rob Prideaux, TechSoup
A CMS won't do your work for you, but it can be a great tool for helping you get it done. This article in collaboration with TechSoup will address how you know when your organisation needs a CMS.
Content Management Systems
The phrase "Content Management System" means different things to different people. Within the context of this article, it is defined as a set of processes, applications, and databases that help an organisation create, store, co-ordinate, and publish information in a useful format, in a timely fashion, and with a consistent method. "Content" can be confusing too.
In this article, "content" refers to meaningful information, established in a context and formatted for consumption by an audience.
Types of CMS
Within the CMS world, there are several different types of products, and different styles of each. Elements of various CMS styles can even be mixed and matched. This article will focus on Web content management, since that's what most nonprofits appear to need the most.
Web Content Management Systems (WCMS)
This subset of CMS emphasises managing only Web content. Products vary in functionality, complexity, and range (you can read more about WCMS in the knowledgebase article "Web Content Management Systems").
Enterprise Content Management Systems (ECMS)
ECMS emphasise comprehensiveness. They are used to manage all aspects of an organisation's content publication processes, including Web, print, and any alternative outputs. The products offer a good amount of functionality, complexity, and range.
Document Management Systems (DMS)
Technically, these are parallel to CMS, but they focus on documents (such as Microsoft Word files), and are more for internal use than for presenting content for public consumption. They vary broadly in functionality, complexity, and range.
Digital Rights Management Systems (DRMS)
These are also parallel or complementary to CMS. These systems only manage intellectual property rights information for any content that exists. They vary broadly in functionality, complexity, and range, but tend to specialise in areas where Digital Rights are a priority (such as music or video).
Asset Management Systems (AMS)
These are also parallel to CMS. These systems manage so-called content "assets" (images, video, audio, and other binary, non-textual content). They vary broadly in functionality, complexity, and range, but tend to be used in organisations where assets like these are numerous (such as photo agencies or graphic design firms).
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