Our main company, which mainly offers various services to our customers online, is considering moving from the current content management system to either Alfresco, which is part of the enterprise content management system (ECMS), Joomla, or CMS made simple. The current content management system has grown considerably, and therefore it is not as effective as it used to be. It is also not safe to retrieve information from this system sceptically when it is needed on time. This system has also become buggy. Due to the challenges posed by the current content managing system, even marketing our services online has become a challenge. Other alternatives will help our company to streamline its authoring process, update its website remotely, reduce the cost of website maintenance, and customize our site to meet various needs of our business. It will also ensure consistency in the appearance of our website, and lastly, it will make it easier for the company to use non-technical staff in making updates in the website. After meeting our various teams in the company together with the chairman of the board of governors, multiple alternatives have been raised concerning the content management system.
The IT department is in charge of the communication department in our organization. After it held a few discussions with various staff members concerning the current content management system, it came up with new ideas, which it proposed to the CEO of the company. The marketing department was also contacted to recommend the best CMS. Our IT director, who has got perfect experience in content management systems, remembered that he once made two websites using Joomla. He proceeded to choose various individuals to help him conduct the research on the best CMS to use. The team mainly conducted its study on companies which are doing similar business. The team also connected with various other organizations in the company to identify the multiple functionalities they wished to have. This is through considering numerous aspects like how the site is to be updated, retrieval of information, and how the website can be used on different devices.
Criteria
The selection of the new CMS will ensure our company’s challenges are solved and also it will perform some critical jobs. It will have to follow various processes before it is accepted for initiation, development, selection, and implementation. Many software vendors tailored to the pressure that a company must adopt new technologies choosing the best CMS is very much critical. A good software system ensures the success of a company, but it is still tough to have a good software system (Maass, 300). Research has shown that many enterprises are always unable to make the best selection of CMS that fits their company needs. This has been attributed to the failure in analysis during the period of selection. Based on our company requirements the best CMS should have the following attributes.
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It should be easier to use
CMS is meant to be used by all the staff in the organization. The team includes managers, supervisors and all other subordinates.
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It should be flexible.
Flexibility here implies that templates from the software can be changed. This depends on how the CMS is simplified as compared to the rest. This is because the more significant a CMS is, the more a designer likes creating a template for it. Taking a close look at CMSMS and Joomla, we can identify that Joomla is more popular than CMSMS, and therefore, it has more sources of the model. The same difference is observed in companies using these two types of CMS.
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Extensibility
The fact that our company has outgrown the current CMS, the next to be adopted, must not become baggy. On the other hand, our company’s website must look different and unique as compared to the rest of the websites. Therefore extensibility will help address these issues. The CMS to be used must have a lot of components and can be used when needed. This will make our company useful, especially when it wants to add e-commerce, blog, newsletter, and forums to the website future.
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Security
Information from the CMS must be secured. This is because the company’s websites are at risk primarily from hackers and viruses. Therefore the CMS to be adopted must have a system which can deter any stranger from accessing any information. It also needs to have a limitation when accessing it.
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Usage and Accessibility
This means that our company’s website should be accessed when needed by customers. Also, the CMS should ensure that information is retrieved when needed. This is why website content makers must be well informed of the characteristics of the CMS that a company needs. Website administrators need to have control over all other users. Therefore, every other company needs to consider the usage and accessibility of a CMS.
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Community
Through CMS, a community is created that provides guidelines, documents, and support for the work that the company cannot handle because of a lack of knowledge.
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Optimized Performance
CMS should be able to make our server and web pages accessible at high speed.
Research approach
Various types of CMS were studied before deciding which one was the best for our company. This included the CMS made simple, Joomla and ECMS. Also literature that concerns this CMS was also studied to identify the best CMS that fits our company’s needs and construct a framework. This included the general factors and steps that affect change in the CMS. Later an interview question was developed based on the context. After the interview, the information was categorized using the coding method. Finally, the conclusion was made out of the interview questions.
Through website research, four companies were also selected there were contacted for their opinion based on the three types of CMS. It was discovered that a company that runs it website having its server could have more information compared to a company that runs its site through a different server. Those who were interviewed must have had various experiences with the CMS. They also needed to be part of the IT team in their companies that selects CMS. These interviews were conducted through chat messengers, and sometimes questions were sent through emails.
Classification of the CMS
In recent times there are very many CMS that is being used. In total, there are about 160 CMS that are based on different platforms. However, content management systems can broadly be categorized into two one that is based on the license, and the other is based on functionality
By Functionality
Classification based on functionality tries to identify the goal and the platform that a CMS uses. We have three categories of CMS based on the feature.
Web CMS
It is the most popular CMS because it uses various languages for storing, maintaining, creating and publishing website content. It gives authority to the clients to have control over files, content, web hosting plans and documents which are based on HTML.
There are three types of WCMS. This is offline processing system, online processing system, and hybrid system. The main advantage of this kind of CMS is that it is usually made for non-technical users. It is preferred by organizations where employees are required to work through the website. These types of CMS include Joomla, WordPress; CMS made drupal and straightforward Enterprise CMS
This type of CMS is used by the organization in organizing, sharing substantial content and coordination. The material defined in this section ranges from files, images, and texts (Barker, 367). It becomes easier for businesses to handle a significant amount of content. ECMS uses different other tools like the media manager, content organization, and WCMS. The primary objective of this system is to enable employees to get company information quickly instead of them searching through various software applications (Barker, 278). Through this, the company can simplify the business processes which saves time and money. This type of CMS can store information without it running out of date. Various kinds of ECMS include SharePoint, IBM Lotus, RedDot, and Alfresco,
Mobile CMS
The recent innovations in the mobile industry have given birth to new mobile devices like smartphones. It is not a surprise for as having a CMS which is based on mobile phones. The fact that this type of phone is usually in high demand, and to have every kind of user it becomes necessary to have a CMS on mobile phones to help in the management of ringtones, text messages, news and even games. Mobile CMS range from small ones to large ones, which can hold more substantial content of information. Others are just portrayed as features or ads. The main advantage of this kind of CMS is that it is easier to use and easier to read and navigate through because the mobile phone is small in size.
Component CMS
This type of CMS creates documents from component parts. It mainly deals with links, graphics, complete paragraphs or even words. The main advantage of this type of document is that it can use content in various documents
CMS classified according to the license include
Commercial CMS
This type of CMS is usually owned by a person, and one must ensure a license to use it. It includes Amazon and site core.
Joomla
Introduction
Joomla is one of the most popular content management systems with a robust extension system which is mainly used to develop other different applications on the website (Barker, 100). Recently it has become one of the top three commonly used CMS globally, together with word press and Drupal.
Joomla has two versions of the software. The first version is 2.5x, which most of people are recommended to use. The second one is 3.0x, which is supported by developers and users because it has more features as compared to the first one. The number of times Joomla systems get to be downloaded is 2.5 million. It happens to be the second most used CMS. Joomla content management is classified under open source software license (Maass, 46). It means that an individual can develop CMS software for a company without being charged anything (Addey, 32) .since it is free, one can easily access its source code, and one can quickly make changes. Joomla is made up of HTML, CSS, SQL, PHP, and MySQL.
Technical Requirement
It very significant for an individual to understand technologies that are associated with Joomla (Maass, 112). It will help an individual to understand the various components needed to develop a Joomla site. Various technologies used when developing Joomla are language interpreter, Database, and Web Server
Language
Database
Web Server
- PHP (5.2.4 +)
- MySQL (5.0.4 +)
- Apache (2.x +)
- Nginx (1.0 +)
- Microsoft IIS (7)
- Linux/Mac OS X/Windows/ …
Operating System
The figure represents Joomla 2.5x
From the chart, we can grasp that after the web server is the next after the operating system, the web server.
CMS made simple
It was developed to make CMS easier to use and to administrate
Technical requirement
It is clear that CMSMS does not make choices of the operating system because it is capable of running all the operating systems that exist. The various technologies that need to be considered Are web servers, language interpreters, and database
- PHP (5.3.2 +)
- MySQL (4.1 +)
- Apache (1.3, 2)
- IIS (5 +)
- LightTPD (1.4 +)
- Linux/Unix (preferred)
- Windows 2000/XP/Vista/Me/2003
- Mac OS X
Language
Database
Web Server
Figure 2 represent CMS made simple
From the figure above we can easily notice that operating system is considered after the web server
Comparison between CMS made simple and Joomla
Advantages of Joomla
- Ease of use
- It can be easily installed beside it can be used by someone who has no much experience
- It can also be used by a person without much experience.
CMS made simple
Advantages
- It can be easily maintained
- Has a very great community
- It can run a website which has many languages.
- It can be remotely accessed
- It can be easily extended
- It is also easy to use
- It can also be extended, and it is simple than Joomla
- Has a great community, and templates can easily be customized.
Disadvantages of Joomla
- It is not recommended for a small website.
- Has very few numbers of templates
- The community website does not apply effectively
- Some users may be unable to get started using it
Disadvantages of CMS made simple
- One must use a web browser to edit
- It can drain an individual’s memory together with resources
- It is not fit for environments where different languages are used.
Recommendation
After considering all other types of CMS, I would recommend our mail company to consider Joomla since it is one of the most popular CSM. This makes it easy to find a developer besides, the software keeps updating, which will help since the technology keeps changing. It is also preferable because it has got many users who can also help with extensions and components (Addey, 108). Lastly is that it is fast as compared to the rest of the software, and it well helps in solving the challenges our company is facing with the current content management system
Work Cited
Barker, Deane. Web Content Management. O’Reilly Media, 2016. Internet resource.
Maass, Wolfgang, and Tobias Kowatsch. Semantic Technologies in Content Management Systems [recurso Electrónico]: Trends, Applications, and Evaluations. Alemania: Springer Healthcare Ltd, 2012. Internet resource.
Web Content Management Systems (cms): High-impact Strategies – What You Need to Know; Definitions, Adoptions, Impact, Benefits, Maturity, Vendors. Australia, 2011. Print.
Addey, Dave. Content Management Systems. Birmingham: Glasshaus, 2003. Internet resource.
