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Why Use a Bespoke Content Management System?
A content management system or CMS allows the owner of a website to add and update content on their website. This can be anything from text to images, PDF and Word documents, to Flash and other multimedia files. From the definition we can extend CMS to include creation and editing of online forms, FAQs and news. Systems are usually, but not always, entirely web-based and will often have a WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editor as the focal point.
There are literally hundreds of off-the-shelf CMS systems available, some costing hundred of thousands of pounds and many free to download. Scion Solutions' CMS is written in house and has been developed based in work with several large organisations. The question, though, is why would use a custom made or bespoke CMS as opposed to an off-the-shelf system?
Advantages
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Ease of customisation - The dominant reason for using a custom made CMS. Regardless of whether a proprietary CMS is Open Source (i.e. the source code is available to edit and relatively free of cost or licencing issues) or not, a developer who has created or worked on an entire system will always be able to make amendments more easily. Some programmers become very experienced when making additions or amendments to proprietary CMS systems but many more will tell you that "it can't be done". Worse still some systems are centralised and do not allow any amendments whatsoever, except for new software releases.
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Simplicity - Because our CMS is built around the needs of small to medium businesses it is likely to have the features that business need and nothing else. It is not a tool to suit all, this focus giving it an ease of use that few generic CMS systems can match.
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Integration into existing systems - When purchased with one of our web packages the CMS system installs and integrates seamlessly with the operating system and software on our servers - because it has been tested thoroughly on this platform. You will find features such as common authentication, that allow you to navigate from the CMS to another item.
Disadvantages
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Tied to a specific developer or developers as opposed to a community. We supply full source code and system architecture information. The system is written in PHP, using the most common templating system and data is stored in the most popular open source database system, MySQL.
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Not as many features or add-ons as proprietary software - Many additional features are not used and if you really need an additional feature we can add one for you at a reasonable cost!
Where Next?
Scion Solutions can help point you in the right direction using our Consultancy Service. Please also take a look at the features of our own Content Management System.