Most web development companies have, at one time or another, invested to a greater or lesser extent, in developing their own content management systems. We developed our initial offerings in this line as early as 1997 but subsequently concentrated on bespoke solutions. The reason being that our clients diverse requirements could rarely be met by a 'one size fits all solution'.

In the intervening years, the number of proprietary content management solutions has rapidly multiplied. Despite this though, no obvious standardisation has evolved. Ask yourself this : if you have a website built around your web development company's own system and want to work with a new company, how do you move your content to that new supplier? Can you in fact even access that content in a form that can readily be moved?

This scenario is one of the key drivers behind our decision to adopt DotNetNuke (DNN). DNN is based on Microsoft's ASP.net technology and the the system is developed, maintained and supported by a global community of developers.

For our current and prospective clients, it mean that we can supply high functionality web systems at a much lower cost than bespoke solutions. You wont be tied into Chord9 for support as you'll be able to find other web companies who can support your DNN based site - though I wouldn't want to suggest that you'll find reason to move away from Chord9!

The global community continuously refines and maintains the core system and releases new modules that can simply be 'plugged in' to extend the functionality available, again the addtional cost to the end customer is much lower than any bespoke development. And with such a wide range of functionality available its much easier to meet those diverse requirements.

All in all its great news for website owners.

To read more, click here  or to contact Chord9 to discuss the possibilites click here.

Phil Biggs
Technical Director