content management system (CMS)

A content management system is a web application designed to make it easy for non-technical users to add, edit and manage a website. CMS is critical to the success of almost every website and intranet, and yet many organisations are not familiar with this technology. CMS supports the creation, management, distribution, publishing, and discovery of corporate information.

Not only do content management systems help website users with content editing, they also take care of a lot of "behind the scenes" work such as:

Automatically generate navigation elements

Making content searchable and indexable

Keeping track of users, their permissions and security settings

There are a wide range of business benefits that can be obtained by implementing a CMS, including:

streamlined authoring process

faster turnaround time for new pages and changes

greater consistency

improved site navigation

increased site flexibility

support for decentralised authoring

increased security

reduced duplication of information

greater capacity for growth

There is also a relationship between content management systems and other information systems within an organisation, including:

document management

records management

digital asset management

Some progress is being made with the creation of so-called enterprise content management systems (ECMS), which combine together a central content management system with other tools to manage the full range of content that exists within your organisation.