After providing training to one of our clients on using the DotNetNuke content management system, he made a comment which I found very interesting.  Now this person has experience with programming in HTML web and using programmes such as Dreamweaver and the like, and his comment was "Why didn't everyone use DotNetNuke or something similar".  This got me wondering as it is a valid question, why do some organisations feel they are better off trying to learn how to use Dreamweaver or hard code websites from scratch, when a Content Management System takes all the hard work off their hands.

CMS's like DotNetNuke provide users with much greater control over the website content, functionality and allows you to position content to take advantage of the best real-estate on the web page, without having to be a programmer.  It puts more control of the website back on to marketing staff who have a better idea what content should be on the website rather then asking their IT staff who are busy trying to keep things running smoothly from an operational point of view and are too busy to look at anything else.

Now most organisation will use a content management system of sorts, and there are plenty out there, and though it is pretty obvious that one of the reasons why some organisations take the Dreamweaver/Contribute/hard coding option is to save on costs, though what they don't realise is the costs of developing this method in the long run can far out weigh the reduced administration time required to update the site if they were using a CMS.

For those who say, "I only need X pages", that maybe now, but in one, two, four weeks that could change, your website should grow and change with your business and marketing objectives, and to do so needs to be flexible and easy to update.