In an era where digital content continues to grow at an exponential rate, organizations of all shapes and sizes struggle to manage and create content. Much like large corporations, Web sites play a vital role in the marketing and communications strategies of higher education institutions. As college and university Web sites grow more complex, it is crucial to have a site that is properly managed, easy to navigate, and powered by flexible, mature content management technology.
With the right Content Management System (CMS), universities can help optimize communication with students and faculties, enhance student recruitment and retention, and maintain relationships with alumni. Content management technology is already at the core of many higher education Web infrastructures – one of the most rapidly adopted technologies, in fact. A CMS can provide a number of benefits by facilitating the efficient creation and management of Web content (news and events, course catalogs, faculty profiles, and more) throughout the entire content lifecycle. This enables content to be published with greater speed and ease - making staff more productive, operations more efficient, and content more relevant and up-to-date.

CMS: Addressing Web Challenges

While the content itself might be different, the content needs of an educational institution are not very far removed from that of a corporation. A good university CMS must provide:

• The ability to maintain consistent branding across campus-wide sites.
• The ability to decentralize content management to enable individual departments and offices to manage content.
• The ability to empower non-technical users (i.e. administrators, faculty, and staff) to easily create and publish content through an intuitive interface.
• The ability to deliver timely, targeted, up-to-date information to various audiences such as prospective and enrolled students, alumni, faculty, staff, corporate partners, and the media.
• The ability to easily integrate with external applications including Course Management, Customer Relationship Management, Enterprise Resource Planning systems, and portals.

Typical challenges with university content management

• ‘Dreamweaver’ culture
• A hodge-podge of sites
• Varied branding
• Varied accessibility levels and content
• Finding the right CMS/CMS vendor to deliver the right solution

A recent survey conducted by the University of California, Davis, brought forward some interesting facts. Highlights include:

• 60% of the institutional respondents are already using a CMS.
• Open source, custom developed and hosted solutions are more popular than traditional installed products.
• There is no clear leader in terms of which CMS product campuses are using.

Does the installed CMS do the job?

There are several reasons why a traditional CMS might not be the best fit for institutional requirements. Consider:

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