Member Article

The Case for Pre-Built CMS for Businesses

Activate Media, has shown that customisable, pre-built CMS solutions are as good, if not better, than those which are built from scratch, having completed a full, CMS customisation project in just 1.5 weeks.

The website was for an Italian initiative which brings together a number of organisations to promote innovation and employment among young people. ‘Culturability’ awards grants of up to €200,000 to fund new, collaborative technology and culture-based projects. The London based web design and development agency was commissioned by Italian-based civic media, citizen journalism and online research agency, <ahref Foundation.

Given the urgent nature of the project, Activate Media advised that the best solution was to customise the pre-existing Joomla CMS. With no longer than two weeks to complete the job, Activate Media enhanced the standard CMS with the following customisations:

  • Full CMS functionality for updating all site content
  • Multi-faceted registration and project submission form
  • Shortlisted projects feature
  • Review and judging component
  • Automated Twitter feed for all project submissions

The result was a feature-packed, powerful CMS designed to <ahref’s style and functionality preferences. And in half the time a similar job would have taken if starting from scratch.

Greg Rice at Activate Media, said: “Over the years we have come to the conclusion that investing in a custom-built CMS system is rarely worth it, given that Joomla can handle even the most complex customisations. In most cases the only barrier to getting the required end results is not having a skilled developer who knows their way around the system.“

This was posted in Bdaily's Members' News section by Rita Auta .

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