August 2006 — Features
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Content Management: If You Build It Right, They Will Come
The benefits, Robertson writes, include a “streamlined authoring process, faster turnaround time for new pages and changes, greater consistency, improved site navigation, increased site flexibility, support for decentralized authoring, increased security, reduced duplication of information, greater capacity for growth, [and] reduced site maintenance costs.”
MINIMALISTS Savvy’s interface is
deliberately plain and simple to use.
Touting some of the same benefits brought by its CMS is ePageCity. Matt Nathan, vice president of business development for the Chicago-based company, says that with schools, “content is king”; in other words, school websites are more about information than marketing, so there’s no sense in loading the system with more features than schools will ever use. Like Savvy, ePageCity focuses on determining the client’s needs and goals and providing a system that’s basic and easy to use. “Most of our clients,” Nathan says, “don’t believe us when we say, ‘We’re going to train you in an hour, and you’ll probably never need us again.’”
On the other end of the content management system spectrum is Connecticut-based Finalsite, which considers itself the “gold standard,” according to its marketing director, Rob DiMartino. Finalsite works with 500 schools around the world, kindergarten through college, and offers web hosting, software, and support. But the company isn’t offering a cookie-cutter solution, says DiMartino. “It’s not just, ‘Here’s the software, good luck.’ You’re buying into our team. We try to do it right.” He says the software is “high-quality design—design with a wow factor intended, but it’s very functional.” Finalsite owns a data center and has total control of its design, authoring, and content management. In addition, the company invites clients to an annual “Finalsite University” for two days of refresher training and feedback.
Great Expectations
Bill Shamblin has had a diverse career. He worked as an economist and marketing analyst, started his own company, became a comedy writer, helped raise a family, and then became interested in websites and communication. He is now the director of communications at Newport Independent Schools in Kentucky, an urban— at least for Kentucky—district with three elementary schools, one middle school, and one high school. Shamblin believes that “the internet is the primary access point for information.” In his own district, he found a communication deficit between the school and the community. “If you want the parents to be involved,” he says, “you have to treat them in a respectful way and provide them the information they need when they want it. A colored sheet of paper sent home is not communication.”
