Empower Web clients, Increase your profits
Static Websites, Static Content
In the early days of websites and webdesign, if (when) there was
a need to change, add or modify published information on a
clients website we'd get a call (or email) from the client with
a markup of proposed changes. Simple stream of workflow, Client
to us, us to web.
Dynamic Websites, Fluid Content
The days of static HTML pages has pretty much passed, and that's
a good thing. Today, there's a much greater amount of, and need
for "fluid content" on the web... Targeted "fresh" information
is today's asset, and web-enabled business needs the abilty to
keep that content current and relevant. Here's where content
management comes in...
Real-World Business uses Content Management
The working model for just about any conventional business with
more than one employee already uses a content management
structure in real-world, day to day business.
As an example (unless you are a sole proprietor), when your
company sells a product or gets an order;
* You get a paper trail upstream from sales * Revisions and
approvals are made by you (or lower management) and are passed
back downstream to sales and accounting.
Your employees don't physically move walls, change or add
doorways or build new additions to the building, they work only
with assets, not the physical structure of your business.
Employees + Inventory = Yes Employees + Building = No
Same Story, Different Media
Online Content Management works along similar veins by assigning
administrative priorities and permissions to all content data
available on your website. This structure enables anyone with
permission to access, modify and add content to your website
within administration guidelines without the need to change
global website structure. Content can be anything you currently
publish or would like to publish on your website; inventory
(catalog/e-store), articles and business information are all
considered content assets.
Separation of Church and State
The real strength behind most content management applications
isn't the ease of content manipulation but rather, the complete
separation of the "content" layer from the "application" layer.
In the old days, when we developed a static website, content and
interface were assembled together, page by page. Client content
(articles, pictures and business information) were designed
around navigation menus and the internal structure of the
website, therefore, each time we were asked to make a
substantial change to the clients content, someone here had to
go under the client's hood and change or modify the application
layer to reflect the new additions. On some the large sites,
changing or adding a menu item or new content section required
hand-coding hundreds of pages and took days, sometimes weeks.
Billable yes, cost efficient to client, no... From a design shop
standpoint, static content maintenance was not even marginally
profitable.
That