CMS intro
Does your company use a design or web agency to create and maintain your web sites? Do you send your corrections, updates and changes via e-mail or fax to the web designer who will in turn create or edit each page?
Are you lucky enough to have a web-savvy employee who handles the corrections on your website. It's not their primary job responsibility and updating the web site is a task that takes them away from their core job requirements?
Both these approaches add extra expense, hidden and real, to your ongoing web site investment.
Implementing the right Content Management System (CMS) can assist your organisation to gain control, reduce costs and make the website a far more effective tool that works for you.
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CMS overview
A CMS may typically be used
- as a Portal Website for use by the general public
- as an Intranet as used by employees
- an an Extranet for use by an organisation and its business partners or
- as all three of the above.
A Portal Website allows people from different departments to manage their own content without the need for external web developers.
An Intranet is a website that is not visible to the general public. The employees of an organisation will normally be the users of the intranet.
An Extranet is typically a website that can be accessed by employees of an organisation in addition to employees of business partner organisations. |
get started
deBurca has extensive experience in installing, hosting, configuring and maintaining a variety of Open Source web based CMS including:
All of the above CMS applications are modular and can be extended in terms of functionality via modules including, but not limited to:
- discussion forums
- secure document management
- eCommerce enabled shopping carts
- photo galleries, event calendars, blogs and wikis
- see our store for more details and below for examples / mini case studies
- see OSSHosting for more details.
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learn more
deBurca has been using DotNetNuke on an number of successful projects for over 3 years and is proud to be a supporting benefactor of this Open Source initiative:
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examples / mini case studies
| Celebrity chef website to keep in touch with his fans |
A celebrity chef doing personal and TV appearances worldwide requires a CMS to keep in touch with his fans as well the means to add and edit content whether they be the latest recipes or photos from the latest TV show or personal apperances.
The open source CMS met all these needs. After just one training session Ben was able to lead discussion forums respond to posts by fans and post blog entries. The autonomy that Ben enjoys means that there is no need for Ben to rely on us or any other developer or designer to keep the site alive and dynamic.
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| Secure areas extranet for document storage and associated discussions |
An advisory council (eLeadership Council) set up to advise a regional development agency (One North East) on ICT to promote and improve take up of digital technology and to progress the eAgenda in the North East Region, intended collaboration to be one of their main methods of effective functioning.
The council made up of a Chairman and non-executive directors, supported by key regional partners were in different locations and yet needed to collaborate within a secure area to progress the aims and objectives of the council. Policies and strategies needed to be discussed but often remotely within a secure virtual environment rather than face to face.
The open source CMS offered the council the secure online environment to use to post documents securely and to participate in discussion forums.
CMS website details:
www.ebusinessnortheast.co.uk/page/projects.cfm
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| eCommerce enabled store for social enterprise |
A social enterprise (Dinamic Ceramics) based in Ashington North East England producing ceramic giftware targeted at tourists needed a web presence with an ecommerce capability to reach their potential market whether in Beijing or London.
The managing director, Garry Dawson, recognised “the need to introduce IT, in a friendly and uncomplicated way, ... in order to streamline our sales and marketing operation”.
The enterprise also decided that they needed the “IT platform to become the central management information system for the company thus saving on individual IT products we would otherwise have had to purchase.”
The company is delighted with their choice of the ecommerce enabled CMS. As Garry says: “The IT platform has revolutionised the way we approach our business. Previously, we used to scour the daily print media to identify regional public sector procurement tenders, now each morning we electronically download lists of UK wide tenders each day and react accordingly. The website platform has enabled us to launch into a completely new market sector, that of personalised giftware. We realised within a few months of start up operations that there was strong market potential for the production of promotional ceramic products for the business community but the advertising costs involved in reaching potential customers was prohibitive. Our blog solved that; within two days of writing the piece we had our first response requesting prices and quantities. Cost – 15 minutes of my time in writing the blog entry, the result, a potential new customer to begin negotiations with and a vehicle to receive feedback or ideas.
“I suspect that in the long run the greatest benefit of the e-commerce platform will be that of speed to market. Mary Maguire, one of our team, was playing around with an image and said it would make a wonderful fridge magnet product. Within 48 hours we had gone from initial concept to a photo of the mock up on the website and now have a new product available for worldwide sales. A week later we had 2 regional retail customers stocking and 40 fridge magnets on their way to Beijing! The platform provides us with the information we need to make decisions and it’s completely streamlined the order capture to delivery system. More importantly, it makes us completely professional in today’s fast moving marketplace.”
The open source CMS offered the cost saving, adaptability, flexibility and autonomy the social enterprise needed resulting in tangible benefits.
www.dinamic-ceramics.com
CMS website details:
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| Project website with ACT! integration |
The North East Regional Portal (the Portal) uses a Customer Relationship Management system (ACT!) to manage the Catalyst2 project. Data relating to a Catalyst2 project was entered and maintained by the Portal using ACT!. Neither the SME or the supplier to the SME had access to ACT! and so neither party could monitor their own project. This had, previously, necessitated the Portal having to liaise with the SMEs and suppliers to provide feedback on progress. The Portal uses a CMS website to disseminate information about the Catalyst2 project. By integrating the two systems (the CMS and ACT!) it became possible for the Portal to maintain one set of data within ACT! which could be imported to the CMS by way of an extranet. The suppliers and SMEs of the Catalyst2 project could access records, relevant to their own projects, within the extranet, to ascertain the progress, without recourse to the Portal. This integration resulted in greater efficiency and transparency for all parties connected to the project.
Check out the website: http://www.n-e-life-catalyst2.co.uk/home/tabid/36/Default.aspx
CMS website details:
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| Gallery site promoting designer "log cabin" in the Lake District |
A newly furbished log cabin in the Lake District, as well as being a get away holiday home for its owners, is also available for holiday rental.
The website to publicise the availability of the holiday let needed:
- to be quick and easy to navigate, to capture the hurried searches of the online holiday let hunter;
- pleasing to the eye to depict the attractiveness and luxury of the newly furbished property;
- easy to manage so the owners can upload and edit content; a gallery facility where photographs of the accommodation and the beautiful surrounding scenic locations could be uploaded;
- a link to a booking page.
The open source CMS satisfies all these needs and shows off the log cabin and the surrounding location to good effect.
http://mulberryatskiddaw.com
CMS website details:
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| eCommerce enabled regional shopping portal |
A regional shopping portal website enabling purchase of training courses and subscriptions via a secure online shop was needed by n-e-life.com.
The open source CMS enables the site to be updated as needed with new products by staff without recourse to us. Its ease of use means shoppers can browse and make a purchase with minimum effort.
Check out the shop at: www.n-e-shopping.net
CMS website details:
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| Business incubator portal website and tenant extranet |
A business incubator offering office space, conference facility and virtual office space required an Internet and extranet facility together with discussion forums to enable their business clients to interact and network online.
The incubator also needed to have the autonomy to maintain the content on the site for maximum time and cost effectiveness.
The open source CMS offered the perfect solution for the incubator.
Check out their site:
www.innovate-colburn.com
CMS website details:
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selected items from our store
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Installation and configuration of a DotNetNuke Content Management System. DotNetNuke is an Open Source framework which is ideal for creating websites, intranets, extranets and web based applications. |
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| Item code |
018-016 |
| Base Price |
£199.99 |
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The course for those involved in project management and wish to develop their abilities to deliver project results.
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| Item code |
071-015 |
| Price |
£49.99 |
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A course for small and medium size business owners and managers who want to take their business online and use the internet as a medium to promote their business.
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| Item code |
071-012 |
| Price |
£24.99 |
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A course for the business manager who wants to implement eCommerce for their business or anyone who is interested in eCommerce. |
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071-013 |
| Price |
£49.99 |
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The course for web designers and graphic designers who want to understand the basics of creating professional Web sites.
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| Item code |
071-009 |
| Price |
£55.00 |
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