As of April 30, the Requirements and Evaluations Committee has officially wrapped up its work, and the implementation phase of the UC Davis Web CMS initiative has begun.

After meeting once a week for more than a year, the R&E committee selected a web CMS that we all agreed was the best solution for our campus: Hannon Hill Cascade Server. It passed our rigorous tests, met our demanding technical and functional requirements, and it was nearly unanimously chosen as the best product for its user interface and other features.

After making our decision, we launched a three-month roadshow to share information about our process and the product we selected, talking with university officials, marketing and technical professionals at UC Davis. As of April 30, that phase has also been completed.

We now move to the next phase - implementation. More to come on that soon….

A recent survey of 50 not-for-profit and for-profit college and university websites conducted by Niel Raisman of University Business shows that most of the sites failed to accomplish two basic, yet critical tasks: provide customer service for the needs of users and market the school. According to the survey, most suffered from poor design and navigation, and were filled with proprietary jargon difficult for audiences to interpret.

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The UC Davis Web Content Management Initiative spent much of 2007 learning what different parts of campus need from a Web CMS, then evaluated 150 potential sources. The requirements and evaluation (R&E) committee–which includes technical and Web publishing representatives from academic and administrative units across the campus–diligently narrowed that list to 14 candidates, then nine, then three, and now one.

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As part of UC Davis’s active search for a campus Web content management solution, the project’s Requirements and Evaluation committee has conducted a review of select, pre-qualified Web CMS applications. To provide the necessary background and hands-on product experience required for a thorough assessment, and to develop and document recommendations that will be presented to the project team and steering committee, the committee recently invited specific vendors to provide informational product demonstrations.

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Today, the Requirements and Evaluation committee of the UC Davis Web CMS initiative posted results from an online survey of campuses completed last month.

The survey was conducted to collect comprehensive data about the adoption and use of Web content management systems among institutions of higher education, and to make this information available to communicators, webmasters, technologists and other key campus personnel. Our goal was to learn about the experiences - both positive and negative - of other universities in the adoption of Web CMS, and to share this information with those who may currently be considering the same.

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Today, the Requirements and Evaluation committee of the UC Davis Web CMS initiative publicly released the project’s Technical and Functional Requirements. This document details and prioritizes the specific Web CMS features and functions required by the campus, as formulated and agreed upon by the committee.

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With so many increasingly affordable Web CMS applications to choose from, it is all too tempting to make a decision based solely on price. But price often blinds buyers to other, sometimes more important considerations, according to a recent article in Campus Technology. So how is an organization to choose?

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According to a recent story in Campus Technology, new Web CMS features and functions are driving rapid changes in the practice of Web content management at higher ed institutions. The ability to impose consistency on unstructured content and to edit and manage that content without expert technical help is precisely what has drawn universities to the newer, flexible CMS solutions.

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CMS Watch today released its annual list of kudos and shortcomings, identifying which CMS vendors are excelling - and lagging - in various categories pertaining to the Web CMS field. The list is drawn from and limited to the 40 major solutions reviewed by CMS Watch in the Global and European editions of The Web CMS Report.

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The Web CMS initiative’s Requirements and Evaluation committee convened for the first time today. Members include communications and technical staff from throughout campus and representatives from departments and units that will participate in the initiative’s upcoming pilot program.

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