Content Management System

A Content Management System (CMS) enables a website’s owner to update their website without having to pay or wait for their web designer. It enables your business to respond rapidly to changing circumstances, meaning your website is harnessed as the leading edge communications vehicle for your company

Depending upon your requirements, we recommend one of two alternative Content Management Systems.

For small, static or brochure web sites, we recommend Macromedia Contribute. For about £100, Contribute enables you to update your website, through a simple visual editor. You can add new pages and its templating system means that you can be confident that you won’t break the design or spoil the look and feel of your website.

For larger or dynamic websites, we recommend Joomla, the open source CMS. Powerful and full featured, your Joomla powered website can be updated using just a web browser, with the look and feel governed by a powerful templating system. Joomla meets the needs of the most demanding users, and has features such as user registration, polls, newsletters, feedback forms, etc., straight out of the box.

Which is right for you?

For the simpler site, we recommend Contribute. However, it can be used on one pc only, and requires installation. Also, it isn’t intended to be used to update dynamic sites. If you think that your website will grow or move towards ecommerce, Joomla is a more flexible solution. However, if you do require a bespoke CMS, we can build one for you too, using either PHP, Java or Ruby on Rails.

Benefits of Open Source

What are the business benefits of open source? Firstly, open source reduces business risk. Imagine you have invested in a proprietory CMS developed by a web design agency. What happens if it needs amending? You’ll have to return to the same company and pay whatever they’re demanding. If they go out of business, your CMS goes down with them. Secondly, with any proprietory system, the price you pay also includes the R&D cost of developing the system. With Open source, you don’t pay for any R&D costs. Open source equates to less risk and less cost.

LiveLink Consultancy

LiveLink from Open Text is a popular CMS or Web Content Management Server (WCM) in the larger public and private sectors. Powerful and flexible, it can be difficult to master the back end complexities and develop bespoke applications for LiveLink. However, Fresh Web Services have developed a number of applications and microsites using LiveLink. including Creative Leicestershire and Less Waste. If you have a LiveLink or Obtree requirement, please call us on 0845 833 1841.