� IT Dept switches to CMS Web Software

3rd June 2003

IT Dept switches to Midgard Content management Web Software

Like most small businesses we have a Web site written in the traditional way using Dreamweaver. The problem came when the Marketing department kept wanting to make changes, and the support department wanted to keep adding alerts etc. Despite having the in-house skills it was inefficient using a developer to keep make content changes. Some of our clients were also reporting similar issues. The search was on.

It immediately became apparent the Content Management System (CMS) subject was deep and wide. We installed and tested numerous systems, what amazed us was the cost and complexity of CMS.

After much coffee and late nights we tried a system called Midgard/Aegir, which despite being free was far more impressive than most the commercial systems. And we are not easily impressed. It also uses the Apache web server which has about 60% of the web server market, and MySQL/PHP also called LAMP. This platform is used by some very big web sites like Yahoo. It had all the necessary ingredients for the small business, it's cheap, stable, is well known (in the CMS market), and once setup, easy to use.

What was even more amazing was how quick the 'look and feel' of the existing web site could be transferred over.

The significant benefit is Marketing can make as many content changes as they like without involving the engineers. This opens up the prospect of more and variable content to keep people returning to the site, adding a new level of support to our clients.

One of our clients already had a similar service from another supplier, the cost £16,000 pa !!!! This system costs a fraction of that. Value for money or what?

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