The phrase “content management system” means different things to different organizations, departments, and even individuals. There is good reason for that.

A true Content Management System (CMS) warehouses live data, and enables the seamless organization, storage, coordination, and publication of this information, in a useful format and by consistent methods, across various media.  It integrates database, workflow, and editorial tools, allowing content to be stored, retrieved, edited, updated, and controlled systematically. The goal of a CMS is to dramatically reduce the incremental costs caused by traditional production bottlenecks over time.

Confused yet? If you’re nodding your head right now, you are not alone!

Within the CMS world itself, there are several different types of systems available, all with different styles, functionalities, and purposes. For simplicity’s sake, the following list encompasses the three most popular CMS “options” available on the market today:

Enterprise Content Management Systems (ECMS): ECMSs are one of the most comprehensive tools on the market. They manage all aspects of the content publication process – from web to print – and any other alternative outputs. This product offers a great deal of flexibility and customization in regards to functionality, complexity, and range. This type of system manages not only raw data, but also digital assets, including images, video, audio, and pre-designed templates. Thanks to ECMS’s broad capabilities, they are most often utilized by graphic design and advertising agencies, as well as by large and mid-size companies that manage sizeable amounts of product data.

Web Content Management Systems (WCMS): This type of CMS emphasizes managing only Web content. Products in this category normally vary drastically in functionality, complexity, and range, depending on the client’s needs.

Document Management Systems (DMA): Technically, these are actually parallel systems to CMS that focus only on documents (like Microsoft Word files). They are normally utilized internally within the organization rather than for presenting to the public, as ECMS and WCMS are. They vary broadly in functionality, complexity, and range as organizations tend to utilize internal documentation in many different ways.

The best way to decide which type of CMS best applies to your organization is to identify your internal “pain points”. Keep in mind…a CMS will not solve your problems, but it is the tool that you’ll USE to help solve those problems.

Key factors to consider:

1. What kind of content do we currently manage and who deals with it?
2. How do we currently manage our content (internal processes)?
3. Are there bottlenecks in the management of our content and where do they lie?
4. Could our current processes be streamlined so that less people “touch” content both within and across departments?

Your answers to these questions will help identify whether or not a CMS is a good fit for your organization and, if so, which type of system best fits your needs. The integration of the appropriate CMS into your daily workflow process should yield many benefits, including reduced costs, usable, consistent data, and content tracking and workflow automation.

Most companies selling CMSs are more than willing to provide upfront analysis of your current processes to determine whether a Content Management System is, in fact, the proper solution to your problems.