Web Content Management with Sitefinity CMS
As the web becomes ever more important to businesses, the demands on websites are increasing, too: content is not merely put on the web anymore and left there but it has to be updated frequently, often by several departments of the company. Contracting an external service provider for every single change can get costly very soon and may lead to an unsatisfactory situation for everyone involved.
The product specialists in your company know your products inside out and know how to talk to your customers. However, they can't talk to them directly because the service provider is managing the website and all the communication has to go through them. The service provider, on the other hand, is specialized on implementing complex technical solutions but is required to update marketing texts on the website, which may or may not get done in time depending on their work load. Delays and disagreements on both side frequently ensue.
Content looking for a manager
One possible solution for this problem is the implementation of a browser-based content management system (CMS). This enables company employees to quickly and easily update the content of the company's website – without requiring deep technical knowledge and by simply using their familiar web browser. The service provider, however, can concentrate on their specialty, translating technical requirements to program code. As each party concentrates on what they can do best, the quality of the site improves – which in turn attracts more potential customers to visit it.
Sitefinity CMS – simple and powerful
We have examined a number of content management systems in the last couple of years and have decided to base all future CMS-projects for our customers on Sitefinity CMS by Telerik. Here are some of the reasons:
Strict separation of roles for content editors and the developers
This means that the content editor has access to all the functions that are needed in his or her daily work while advanced system customizations and extensions are implemented by the developer who has a powerful platform at his disposal to realize even the most complex requirements. There are CMS products on the market that offer such a vast palette of functions to editors that they either take very long to learn them or, even worse, they surrender to the complexity of the system and ask the developer to update the content. Yes, we've seen this happen ...
Simple handling that can be learned quickly
Training the editors on the use of the system is a quick affair as the user interface is largely self-explanatory. Developers can reuse their existing ASP.NET skills and get quickly up to speed with extending the system. Web designers with a working knowledge of ASP.NET will have no difficulties with the application of their existing skills to the system as Sitefinity supports the creation of standards-based websites very well.
Based on ASP.NET
We're working with Microsoft's ASP.NET technology for years and obviously want to apply our experience to our CMS-projects, too. Sitefinity's architecture is well thought out and the system offers many extensibility points for us to apply customer-specific changes.
Created by Telerik
For several years we've been using Telerik's excellent user interface controls and by doing so have gotten to know and respect both the products and the company itself. Telerik's support is excellent and the products have a very high quality level without exception. This demand for quality shows in Sitefinity's development, too. The product is poised to be developed and supported for many years to come – Telerik's own website runs on it, too – so it is a good bet as a development platform for us.
So what does this mean for you?
Due to the comprehensive extensibility of Sitefinity there should be few requirements that can't be implemented with it. This extends beyond the mere management of text and includes business data you may want to display, collect or manage on your website. As one of many examples, the website of Vancouver International Airport (which wasn't done by us) allows visitors to check the arrival or departure times of current flights. This is an arbitrary example but it serves to show the potential of the system.
Contact us to discuss the requirements of your project.