A content management system or CMS enables the user to administer, organise and publish content to various platforms such as Internet, Extranet, e-mail (newsletter), print, PDA and mobile phones ( SMS, MMS, EMS, WAP)

The CMS is controlled flexibly by roles and rights management and therefore integrates seamlessly with the organisational structure of both small and large organisations. A flexible search engine, flexible menu administration, built-in statistic functionality, support for Dublin Core metadata, improved media browser, discussion forum and improved stability and faster file upload.

The CMS makes it easier for companies to update their online communication regularly. In contrast to traditional static web-solutions where all updating must be done manually and often requires assistance from skilled personnel, publishing and updating information with The CMS is as simple as writing a document in Microsoft Word. The graphic user interface (GUI) in CMS is based on "Human Interface guidelines" developed by Microsoft to ease the learning curve for users already familiar with Microsoft Windows and Microsoft Word.

The CMS ensures security, scalability and flexibility with integration towards third-party systems, and should include features like:

Multi-site administration
Provides the option to manage several websites from the same administration interface, including any number of public facing websites and Intranets and Extranets. All the sites can have different design, structure and URLs (web address). Administrator access to the various websites is controlled by the CMS roles and rights management.

 

Multi-language sites
Multi-language websites, supporting all languages and characters (for instance Chinese). Data is stored as UNICODE in the database.

 

Cross-publishing
Cross-publishing of content. In one operation an article can be published to several areas of the same website, as well as to different websites. Any modifications to the cross-published article will be reflected in the all instances.

 

Caching
Built in caching functionality which supports simultaneous usage for heavy traffic web sites.

 

Automatic template selection
Can be set up to have different display templates depending on properties like: Language (displaying the appropriate language to the user) Browser support (Internet Explorer, Netscape, Opera)
Client (PDA, WAP, WEB) Time (e.g. for products launch, seasons such as Christmas, Easter etc.)

 

Dublin Core
Dublin Core metadata framework and DLC (Document Level Description).

 

Roles- and rights/ user administration
The administrator can easily set up roles and rights management for both individuals and groups. This will control what functionality the user has access to as well as what is displayed on the screen.

 

Built-in functionalities to transfer access control to a 3rd party program like Microsoft Windows NT, Active Directory or LDAP (e.g. Novell).

 

Media library
A media library for storing mediafiles such as video, sound, pictures, and documents. The user can organize the media library in folders and sub-folders. When uploading files, the user has the option to attach different keywords so the file can easily be found and used in an article. A change to a media file will be carried forward to all the articles in which it is used.

 

External media storage
Supporting the possibility of storing media files on separate file server (s). In solutions with frequent display of video, it is recommended to stream this from a separate computer with, for example Microsoft Media Server, as it places a heavy load on server resources and bandwidth.

 

Content publishing
Publishes content to any platform, including web-pages (Internet, Extranet and Intranet) and handheld devices (PDA, SMS, WAP and MMS). The Direct marketing (DM) functionality in the CMS also enables content to be published via e-mail (newsletter).

 

Workflow
Workflow management is modelled on that of a newspaper with privileges allocated between authors and editors. Users with "author" roles can only submit their articles to the "editor" for approval, and have no access to publish directly. Submitted articles will be listed in the "editor's" inbox where he or she can read, edit, approve or reject each article. The workflow can be modified and tailored to fit with the internal structure or business logic of any organisation.

 

Revision handling
All changes made to an article are stored in the article's own revision history. A user with the necessary rights can see what changes where made, when and by whom. From the revision history the user can then reactivate, deactivate, archive, store as a rough copy, or resend the document for approval or rejection.

 

Searching in articles
Full searching features; searching within all articles, or within one article only. Searches can be specific to article status and the number of results displayed can be modified.

 

Article relations
Article relation enables the user to relate one article to another (For instance, linking product descriptions with further information). These relations are administered in article relations with the option to relate both ways.

 

Menus
Menu items in the CMS can link directly to one article, to a set of articles, to an external web address, or directly to a file in the media archive (image, document, video etc). The number of menus, menu names and what each menu item will point to is administered in the CMS. There is no limit to the number of menus or sub menus.

 

Questionnaire
"Questionnaire" is a functionality which enables the user to create forms on the website. This can, for instance, be used to give front-end users access to publish content, sign up for events, post comments etc. These forms are set-up in the questionnaire manager.

 

Statistics
Experience shows that 3rd party programs are unsuitable for tracking user statistics in CMS based solutions. On sites that involve heavy user personalisation or targeted market promotions and e-campaigns, data-mining on such activities within the site statistical reports can be provided.

 

Audits
The audit functionality tracks all 'events' done by the CMS administrators, and can be sorted by name, date and action.