WebModulite^™
Content Management System

What exactly is a CMS?

In simplest terms, a CMS is a software package that facilitates the creation, publishing, distribution, organization and management of online content. As you will see below, most CMS look very similar to word processing software, like Microsoft's Word.

A CMS not only creates the structure of how information- articles, video, design elements and images- will be presented, it gives all of the tools for populating a website. A CMS assists the web editor by providing tools for the creation of content, the publishing of the content, and, ultimately to archiving and storing the content.

Depending on the client's needs and staffing, the CMS can be designed for use by a highly technical webmaster or can be so simple and intuitive that even the most technologically challenged editors can use it effectively.

Compare Content Management Systems

Blue Fountain Media is able to work with numerous Content Management Systems, including our own WebModulite CMS.

Benefits	WebModulite	WordPress	Magento	Drupal
Open Source
Works well with corporate and informational sites
Works well as an ecommerce solutions
Easily scalable and customizable
Excellent SEO and online marketing capabilities
Simple, use-friendly content management
Good for multi-purpose websites
Notes	Blue Fountain Media's custom CMS	Not ideal for customized sites with complex features	Difficult and expensive to customize and build upon	Complex solutions for all project types

 

 

 

 

Wordpress

Benefits

1. Suitable for simple content informational sites, blogs and standard professional sites.
2. Fast to set up sites
3. Large community supporting it and updating the code.
4. Open source and widely used across the web.
5. Good for very simple ecommerce (1-3 products)

Issues

1. Not suitable for regular or advanced e-commerce projects, but can integrate with magento to overcome problem. There is an ecommerce plugin wordpress.org/extend/plugins/wp-e-commerce/, though the functionality is limited, so it may not be sufficient for the client (depending on the client’s demands)
2. Must update it to keep it secure
3. Not good for customized sites with complex user generated features (i.e. can’t build facebook on it)
4. Not good for large media files
5. Plugs-ins may get broken with updates (so extra maintenance is required for wordpress sites with plugins)

Magento

Benefits

1. Open source ecommerce solution
2. Has robust number of features with default functionality
3. Excellent SEO capabilities
4. Supports multiple languages (namely localization)
5. Works with variety of payment systems and shipping vendors

Issues

1. Bulky, slow, and very resource consuming. Runs very slow on shared hosting and needs to be on at least virtual or dedicated hosting.
2. Only the standard feature is free and for the more robust features there is a yearly licensing fee.
3. It may not be possible to customize the on the product and checkout pages (select drop-downs). It is also recommended for the designers to pay attention to the way default Magento pages look like at demo.magentocommerce.com/ and include the corresponding elements into the design. This becomes more actual if the client has limited budget and needs only standard functionality.

Drupal

Benefits

1. Open source and widely used
2. For simple Informational Sites and Corporate Sites
3. Many modules and extensions which allows the site to be built for any functionality
4. Large community of developers supporting and innovating
5. Fast to set up
6. Can be strong in SEO

Issues

1. Not the most user-friendly content-management-system. Its very complex and any client that asks for it should review it first.
2. Is not ideal for ecommerce websites. Allows ecommerce module integration (Ubercart), though a thorough investigation is required to make sure all the client’s needs can be met.
3. Forms customization is problematic, default look is recommended (a note to designers).
4. The information submitted via the forms is not stored in the admin panel by default, it’s sent to the corresponding admin’s email
5. There is a learning curve for developers not familiar with it.
6. It has limits in displaying data taken dynamically from other places on the site or from external sources.

WebModulite: BFM Proprietary CMS

Benefits

1. Fast, robust and scalable
2. Great for informational websites, complex social network sites, or customized ecommerce sites
3. Can handle large numbers of database inquiries at once
4. The most user friendly content management system
5. Excellent solution for implementing of highly loaded systems (social networks, content sites, informational portals etc.)

Issues

1. Custom built so it takes more time to develop.
2. Although its build on an open source framework, it is not open source to be used by the public.
3. Outside developers aren’t familiar with the back-end and there will be a learning curve

Conclusion

The down-side of all CMS other than ours are the following:

• They were developed by third-parties– we have less ability to customize any features that clients wish to function outside of the standard settings.
• Even when customization is possible, this often requires the use of plug-ins or additional third-parties, thus these systems are not optimized for highly-customized online presences.
• Maintenance can be difficult and more time-consuming – we are not as familiar with these systems and therefore development / troubleshooting / future adjustments take much longer.
• Main downside is that these systems are limited in terms of customizations – these are only good solutions for clients who do not have a lot of money and also want a very straightforward website with basic functions. Any clients who wish to have highly-customized online solutions should go with our system because our system is scalable for usability.
• We are not bound by plug-ins or third-party coding in terms of customization; we can customize the CMS in very innovative ways (however custom functions must be built from the ground-up)
• Our system is a much better solution for online businesses who foresee their sites or their business model changing frequently or significantly over time – this is a better model for new/newer business ventures where clients have decent starting budgets; it allows for the most scalability moving forward.
• Our team built this system, so we know all of its quirks and are much more nimble in terms of training and troubleshooting.