Force 5’s arsenal of tools that we use to plan, build and measure websites expands daily. It’s the nature of the industry – growing and adapting to the industry as needed. One such tool is growing to be an essential part of our web offering; the CMS or Content Management System. We have implemented numerous CMS sites on the web within the last year and in doing so, learned to appreciate some of the benefits that using a CMS framework has to offer. Our top reasons are not only help our clients, but help our development efficiency as well.
Synchronous Workflow
Content Management Systems (CMS) store the content in a database, completely independent of the site design and layout. A site’s content can be entered via the CMS administrator interface while the site structure is being built. This is a huge timesaver that before, depended on the site structure and layout to be established before content could be placed and styled. What results is a more efficient workflow.
Client Empowerment
Many site owners could probably attest to the fact that content management is a science. A painful, agonizing science. Often content changes are involved and are moved through a process with many steps – often complicating the process with additional changes and additional time. With a CMS based site, clients have the freedom to login from any web accessible computer and make changes to the site themselves. Whether it’s a hotel lobby or using your smartphone while traveling, clients have the freedom to make changes to the content of their site. This level of freedom is not only empowering, it brings smiles to client’s faces – which of course makes us happy.
Cost Effective
Compared to the typical workflow of updating your site’s content, the steps involved in updating your site can be numerous. Using a CMS not only cuts the number of steps, but it cuts the amount of time needed to update the content. Any manager would be thrilled to manage less steps in any process.
Security
A diverse community of developers focused on Drupal and WordPress security exists to seek out vulnerabilities and patch them before they are exploited. The development community are very reactive to any vulnerabilities. We monitor the security threats for each of our CMS sites to ensure the software is up-to-date to limit threats.
Extensibility and Flexibility
The ability to grow with the goals and objectives is important to the longevity of the site. Being able to keep up and change with trends and the ever changing web industry is a huge advantage. Making sure it is able to handle feature changes and additions is also important. Both Drupal and WordPress are able to grow with the majority of the sites we employ, marking the CMS as a crucial part of our toolset at Force 5.
Force 5’s CMS’ of choice: Drupal and WordPress
Why does Force 5 use 2 different content management systems? We’ve found each have their own strengths and weaknesses. We’ve found that Drupal has a higher “feature” ceiling and is overall more customizable and flexible while WordPress shines on smaller sites where blogs and static content are the main focus. We match up the right CMS to the long-term objective of each site. Do you have any experience with either Drupal or WordPress? Leave a comment below.
