The right CMS allows you to focus on your website content rather than the tools that run it. Numerous options meet the demands of countless websites. Astek designed Webany for you.

By now you should know why you need a CMS and how you can use a Content Management System to keep your website up to date. I wanted to share some tips about choosing the right CMS to make your Web life easier and more productive.

There are four basic types of CMS:

1. Open source applications that require configuration from a Web professional
2. Boxed desktop software that allow you to edit your website from one computer
3. “Boxed” hosted software that requires configuration from a Web professional
4. Hosted software as a service (SAAS) applications that relieve you from the burden of worrying about the backend

Here is some more info on each type of CMS to help you make the right decision:

1. Open source means that the code used to create the software is publicly available and takes advantage of a huge pool of resources (programmers) to develop. There are advantages and disadvantages to open source software. Since development is not regulated by a single entity, it also means that version-control isn’t 100% predictable or reliable. Typically this weighs on the side of advantage since there are a number of passionate, dedicated developers to fix problems that arise.

Open source developers create add-on modules or plug-ins to provide extended capabilities including forums, blog, wiki, web-stores, photo-galleries, contact-management, e-commerce, etc. It can be time-consuming to find the right plug-in, verify it works with your website and does what you need it to do, but chances are there is a solution out there for you. You will typically need to work with a developer to install, configure, and develop an open source CMS for you to use.

We like to use Wordpress for blogs, which is an open source CMS for publishing. For blogs it’s nearly perfect, but we find that for creating more complex websites it has some limitations that inspired us to create Webany.

2. You can purchase boxed CMS desktop software like you would a word processor and run it from your computer. Adobe Contribute is a fairly capable desktop-based CMS. Typically these are designed for one person to manage one or more websites from one computer. While they can sometimes handle multiple users, this gets expensive quickly since you have to purchase additional licenses of the software for each person.

Some boxed CMS products are far more expensive and do offer a greater array of features. These also require set-up from a knowledgeable professional and rarely work perfectly “out-of-the-box” as their packaging might suggest. Again, these products are usually not designed to handle highly complex websites like our solution.

3. There are a few “boxed” hosted solutions out there that are not open source, but may still offer a suitable range of options for your Web needs. These are “boxed” solutions in that they are purchased as a single license, but are not designed as do-it-yourself products. You will need the help of a Web developer to install and configure these products on your Web server, as well as train you to use them. Telerik’s Sitefinity is a good example.

4. That leaves us with SAAS or hosted Web CMS. These have a big advantage in saving you time and money with set-up since they are maintained by the company who provides the service, which means you don’t have to worry about it! Some hosted CMS’ have pre-made templates for you to use, and only a few allow you to use a custom design.

You may still need the skills of a Web professional, especially if you are custom-designing a website to match your brand and specific needs. Astek specializes in this type of development, but we were consistently disappointed with CMS solutions that sacrificed features for ease-of-use, or packed in so many features that that they became cumbersome to use. Rather than settle for another solution, we decided to make one that meets our ideal for a CMS.

Webany is just right. She offers more flexibility than you’re likely to need while maintaining an intuitive design that makes managing your website a snap. You can update anything from words to photos to movies to custom forms without any knowledge of HTML. Use a custom design from Astek or anyone else.

Most importantly, Webany makes sure that your updates won’t counteract the effort and money you put into creating a custom-tailored look and feel. Auto-archiving and user workflow ensure a painless approach to website maintenance.

If you’re interested in learning more, please contact us for a Webany demo.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Entrepreneurship, Marketing, Technology, Web, ePiphany Featured Story

If you’ve never used a Content Management System before, you may not be familiar with just how neat they are. We’ve put together a quick tour with lots of screenshots and explanations to get you “behind the screens“ to see how a CMS-run website really works.

We’ll admit, we’re happy to get a chance to show off both Astek’s beautiful new website and our killer CMS – Webany. But more than a chance to strut our stuff, we hope you find this a valuable tutorial in how user-friendly a robust and flexible custom CMS system can be.

EASY UPDATES WITH RICH TEXT BOXES
For the most part, the ”content“ handled in a content management system consists of text, images and files (like downloadable PDFs). Most CMSs, including Webany, allow you to make changes to content using rich text boxes – (sometimes referred to as a WYSIWYGs – what you see is what you get).

Here is an example of a Webany rich text box:

The reason they are called ”rich“ text boxes is because they allow you to have text with ”rich“ formating like bold, underline, hyperlinks, etc., using buttons much like you would find in Microsoft Word.

Webany can combine several rich text boxes to handle a web page with multiple content areas. Webany automatically formats the content from each rich text box with the color, font and size from your website design. This way, the person making updates to the content does not have to know any website programming.

EVEN EASIER UPDATES WITH LIST DRIVEN CONTENT
Where you see the real power of a CMS, and gain the most efficiency in your updates, is when you start using ”list driven“ content. This means that you upload information into one spot in the CMS and it populates that content to multiple places on the website. This is especially useful for information like staff biographies where you have a ”list“ of people for whom you’d like to display similar information. For example, on Astek’s biography pages we show:

• Photo
• Name
• Title
• Link to Email
• Link to Facebook Profile (if applicable)
• Link to Twitter Page (if applicable)
• Link to LinkedIn Profile (if applicable)
• Funny Quote
• Biography

We also have a ”People“ page on the site that lists all of our staff. That page shows an abbreviated version of this information for each staff member.

One list item generates the content for both of these pages.

You might notice that we use Andrew’s name 3 different times between those 2 pages, and each use has a slightly different font treatment. Webany makes all of these font adjustments behind the scenes ensuring a consistent, professional look with minimum effort on the part of the person making the updates. If Andrew decided to start going by Andy, a quick change in one field in Webany would populate the change throughout the site.

Content management systems can make a complex website easy to manage, but not all CMSs are created equal. We absolutely suggest you ”test drive“ any CMS you are planning to purchase. If your company is considering converting to a CMS we hope you will contact Astek to take Webany for a spin.

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Katie Hawkey Categories: How To, Technology, Web

In any kind of business today, your website is a core and essential infrastructure component. People will search for you on Google and expect to find your official site. Getting it high up in search results is another matter entirely (we did an ePiphany solely about search engine optimization a couple of months ago). But you need to have something out there. The efforts related to building and maintaining a business website are not small, like any other technology consideration. And they will be ongoing throughout the life of your business. So it’s something you need to accept as part your bottom line, but with the right planning and strategy you can aim for the sweet spot of minimal cost for maximal site value. A key part of that equation for many businesses involves a content management system (CMS).

The most expensive part of getting a website up is of course an initial from-scratch design and development process. And although a CMS may streamline some of that process, you will likely still need a significant upfront investment for design. And someone with a technical understanding of a particular CMS, as well as some HTML, CSS, and Javascript knowledge would need to do the build-out of a site design within a CMS. However, the key is that once launched, your website is not going to just stay as is. The content of your site will need to be updated as your business ages and changes. A CMS can empower internal personnel without deep technical knowledge to make these updates. In many cases all that is needed is a little training on the particular CMS and anyone who knows MS Word can make site changes.

Where a CMS really contributes its value is with regularly generated new content. This could be events, news, staff bios, etc. With a CMS, you can add such elements to your site with a minimal ongoing maintenance cost. Without one, you would need to factor in the cost of a web programmer’s effort each time you need to add a new event listing. And in many cases, that cost would likely outweigh any tangible benefit. Without that cost as a factor however, you can dream up all sorts of dynamic content for your site. Done properly, it can help bring people back to your site repeatedly, better your search ranking, and give a general impression of web savviness. And even if you don’t currently envision dynamic content for a new website, developing it in a CMS gives you the ability to make static changes on your own, while retaining the option to later add dynamic elements with relative ease.

Astek would love to tell you more about our Webany, our very own CMS. Drop us a line, or read more about her here.

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Andrew Crowe Categories: Technology, Web, ePiphany Featured Story

Facebook Fan Pages just got a cool new customization feature – the ability to post wall messages that are seen by a selected group of fans.

By clicking on the new icon next to the “share” button, you will gain the option to customize who sees your post:

When “Customize” is chosen, you will be allowed to filter your audience by country, state, city or language.

This is just one more way that Facebook is enabling businesses to engage in the type of highly targeted conversations that customers respond to.

The fact that Facebook continues to develop these features for Fan pages and not for Groups is why we recommend companies set up Fan pages.

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Katie Hawkey Categories: How To, Marketing, Social Media, Web

You may know that I have done some acting. That I graduated from the Second City, both Improv / Acting Conservatory and the Writing Conservatory. I also cowrote / coproduced an episode of a Comedy Central show (nobody ever saw). If you didn’t, now you do.

So fast-forward several years of trying hard, with nominal success, having fun, a few bad agents, one good one. Fast-further-forward to earlier this year, when it was still nice golfing weather outside, and a buddy, (who we’ll call Dr. D. for this post) now golfs at the same club as Dennis Farina.  

Unknown to me, at the clubhouse one day he starts chatting me up to Dennis, his director and producer for their latest film: “The Last Rights of Joe May.” (I think that’s the name.) He did the same thing when he met Robin Williams at some restaurant in L.A. a couple years back. Or so he said.

DR. D. calls me with, “Your going to be in a Dennis Farina Movie!” And I laughed… Another kooky prank from D. And though laced with elaborate details, it was still plausible he was messing with me.

Months later the Director of the film calls – we chat – I tell him my life has changed – I’m not doing much of any acting now. “I’m focused on two things: not messing up my relationship with my perfect girlfriend Liz, and growing the interactive consulting business. It was nice of you to call, I’m not sure what all Dr. D. told you, but I don’t have any delusions of grandeur.” Director says, “We’ll give you a shot.” Still, could be an elaborate prank. I call D. with updates…

A few months pass, no news, I figure just as well…

Yesterday, “Good Agent” (Ann Emmrich – 815-577-8650, good auditions, good jobs, fast pay, got my tax info quickly – Good Agent Anne) has been desperately trying to reach me on my cell phone for the past two days, (which is off). I turn it on and get the messages, “Dennis Farina, his director and the producer of their new film requested to see YOU for a part, (really small part). You have two lines. I’m gonna read them to you over the phone.” Anne is so cool. I’ve never met her. We do all our work over the phone and fax, snail-mail, no email no website. She’s a not even a low-tech she’s a no-tech. And she’s been great to work with.

And finally, now, this is all clearly not a prank…

Cut to today in the casting agent’s lobby – only me. Loft space, lot of empty green chairs against the eggshell colored walls lining a long entrance way. Some weird brightly-colored, patterned tapestries on the walls that when you squint, you can see ape heads.

A very attractive woman, (actor) comes in five minutes later. “Did you have trouble getting in the door too?” “Where are the sign in sheets?” She says. “Yep, and got me.” I say.

We chat a bit. I’m careful to casually mention “my girlfriend Liz” in a sentence. It probably sounded completely clumsy.  And not that I think anything was going on there – and not that this is the state of my life – women throwing themselves at me – it just usually seems to make women more comfortable.  

Not your typical audition. Only two people in the lobby. No sign-in sheets, no head shot or resume request. Not your typical cattle call where it’s me and 30 other middle-aged freckle-faced Irish looking guys. Those things can be draining.

My name is called.

This audition took less than two minutes once in the room. The casting agent and her assistant filmed me. Slate (name and representation) and then the casting agent played the part of Dennis (or Joe). I did my lines, she did his. One take and one backup take and I was done. “Thanks good to see you.” She said.

Took a lot longer to find a parking space.

BTW – The agent only calls if you get a callback or the part. They either want you or they don’t. “Ya haf ta fa-ged-aboud it.”

Though I expect not to get this part, I thought it would be fun to audition anyway. Never has anybody at “this level” asked for “me” specifically to audition.

Fortunately, I have an understanding and generous boss, (thanks Andy), who gave me the time off to pursue this today.

SO if I get it, I get it. No biggie either way. I’ve got plenty on my plate.

When things warm up again maybe D will invite me out to the club? I’d rather be out golfing with those guys than acting any day. I’m sure they have some good stories to tell. And who knows they may need a new “local” interactive agency for this film. If I get the callback, I’ll be sure to plug our Astek. I’ll let you know what happens.

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Tom Lynch Categories: Fun

Road trains look like a very encouraging solution to automotive transportation. Essentially cars using wireless signals to automatically follow a lead car. I’ve long felt that if all cars were somehow connected and able to start and stop together that we’d all save a lot of time and headache on the road! Have you ever noticed how much time is wasted just waiting for the cars ahead of you to start moving?

Imagine how much better life would be if we could have transit time to do whatever we wanted. Work, sleep, read, you name it. I’m sure it will be awhile before they are ready for prime time, but I personally can’t wait.

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Andy Swindler Categories: Fun, Gadget, Green, Technology

As a follow up to the Boston training session, Astek Consulting’s President, Andy Swindler, and CMO, Tom Lynch were interviewed by The Specialized Information Publishers Association, (SIPA) for their expert opinions on Social Media and Search Engine Optimization. You can read the off-the-cuff and informative interviews here:  

Social Media     SEO

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Tom Lynch Categories: Search Engine Optimization, Social Media

Last week I was attempting to surprise my girlfriend by taking her to see Leonard Cohen in concert. At some point I must have RSVP’ed to the event on Facebook, as you can see from the screenshot she saw on her Facebook page the day before the show. Facebook invited her to the show by telling her that I was attending! Since I had told her to block off the night, it wasn’t too hard to put it together. (Well, that and the fact that I made her listen to Leonard Cohen songs all week.

This reminds me a bit of the Beacon advertising disaster Facebook tried launching a couple of years ago.

Lesson: If you are trying to surprise someone, don’t tell the biggest gossip hound on the planet — Facebook!

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Andy Swindler Categories: Fun, Marketing, Social Media, Web