What Makes a Good University CMS? Why a University Open Source Project Makes Sense
We've been doing a stack of great work lately for UK Universities, helping them to design, build and run some really impressive University CMS projects. Clients in this space include Oxford University, the University of Greenwich and University College London (UCL).
Since all of them share relatively common requirements, I thought I'd capture a few of the reasons why these guys have chosen to work with our Open Source CMS, MySource Matrix. Because, if you're the guy responsible for running a web site for a University, Open Source makes really great sense....
Here's our views on why a University CMS is a prime candidate for following an Open Source strategy, and the trends that we see emerging in the University Open Source arena in general....
I'll return to that in a moment, but the big value in using an Open Source CMS is not just in getting your hands on the product for free. A lot of people get over-myopic on this point. But the fact that we don't carry a price tag is just the starting point.
The big plus lies in the fact that Supported Open Source CMS's like ours are helping Universities to reassess the value of their spending. By shifting the focus away from license fees and on to the essential service-based spending that they have to make in order to ensure their projects are a success, Supported Open Source helps Universities to think through what it really takes to implement a good web content management system.
And it's here where the value lies. By taking the licence fee out of the picture, we enable Universities (and other customers) to shift their budgets onto other, more important project development costs like custom development, design, training, and hosting and the like. In this sense, compared with a standard commercially licenced system, an Open Source CMS acts like a 'Cash Back' option to any new University CMS project. And, naturally, all of our customers love it!
The aforementioned big ‘build’ advantage for a University CMS has to do with the fact that most colleges and universities tend to produce their sites in a different way to normal enterprises. They need extra flexibility to give their various umbrella constituencies - different faculties, schools, boards of governors, etc - the freedom to create and maintain their own unique web services and identities.
In reality this usually means the creation of a broad church with lots of smaller denominations - all of which can represent a separate web site implementation under the banner of the larger system. Working with a tightly licensed system this can provide financial headaches, since each new deployment represents an extra license fee. But with an Open Source CMS none of these restrictions apply. You own the product, therefore you can deploy it as many times as you like, however you like.... without racking up extra 'per-server' or 'per-user' costs.
Today, things are different. Open Source software has become a mainstay of every University technical department in the world. The open source development skills available on the market are probably the easiest to tap into and the smartest (and most cost-effective), and companies like Squiz are providing Open Source CMS solutions that are backed by the security of bullet-proof professional services (unlike yesterday, you can now use an Open Source product and pick up the phone if you need help or if something goes wrong).
So, on the whole, Open Source has matured to the point where it's simply a technology choice, rather than a risky commercial gambit for any University out there.
And, the really great thing we’re now seeing now is that Supported Open Source CMS's like ours are creating a completely new mid-market for enterprise content management.
As mentioned, we're creating a 'CashBack' effect which is enabling University CMS projects to do different things with their money rather than sinking it into licenses. In practice, once you take the license fee out of the equation, we're allowing people who were previously looking to spend no more than $75,000 to get a site that vaguely resembles an out of the box Amazon.com ....and at the other end of the scale, we're helping the $250,000 guys to get something that's amazingly customised to their organization's requirements and is tuned to perfection.
Around the world, we're dealing with educational institutions who are no longer dealing with a fixed yearly curriculum. They're catering for new professional students as well as traditional undergraduate and post graduates. This means catering for lots of different requirements with day-long courses, week-long courses, semester intensive periods, and so forth.... and many of the scheduling rules are being reinvented on the spot.
The only way to keep pace with these new student/consumer demands is to have a more flexible publishing system that can deliver the goods on an almost real-time basis. The days of a six month curriculum planning period and a six month publishing effort are dead and gone. Colleges and universities really need to get with the now...
Conclusion: naturally, call us! We can help....
...So, if you're the one responsible for kick starting a new University web development project, we recommend you consider an Open Source CMS solution. 9.9 times out of ten we've found that a University and Open Source is a match made in heaven!
Since all of them share relatively common requirements, I thought I'd capture a few of the reasons why these guys have chosen to work with our Open Source CMS, MySource Matrix. Because, if you're the guy responsible for running a web site for a University, Open Source makes really great sense....
Here's our views on why a University CMS is a prime candidate for following an Open Source strategy, and the trends that we see emerging in the University Open Source arena in general....
Reason #1: The strategic advantages of a University Open Source CMS deployment...
The advantages of a University Open Source project are really no different to the advantages it brings for other organisations.... With one big exception that has to do with the way that our University clients tend to build their web sites.I'll return to that in a moment, but the big value in using an Open Source CMS is not just in getting your hands on the product for free. A lot of people get over-myopic on this point. But the fact that we don't carry a price tag is just the starting point.
The big plus lies in the fact that Supported Open Source CMS's like ours are helping Universities to reassess the value of their spending. By shifting the focus away from license fees and on to the essential service-based spending that they have to make in order to ensure their projects are a success, Supported Open Source helps Universities to think through what it really takes to implement a good web content management system.
And it's here where the value lies. By taking the licence fee out of the picture, we enable Universities (and other customers) to shift their budgets onto other, more important project development costs like custom development, design, training, and hosting and the like. In this sense, compared with a standard commercially licenced system, an Open Source CMS acts like a 'Cash Back' option to any new University CMS project. And, naturally, all of our customers love it!
The aforementioned big ‘build’ advantage for a University CMS has to do with the fact that most colleges and universities tend to produce their sites in a different way to normal enterprises. They need extra flexibility to give their various umbrella constituencies - different faculties, schools, boards of governors, etc - the freedom to create and maintain their own unique web services and identities.
In reality this usually means the creation of a broad church with lots of smaller denominations - all of which can represent a separate web site implementation under the banner of the larger system. Working with a tightly licensed system this can provide financial headaches, since each new deployment represents an extra license fee. But with an Open Source CMS none of these restrictions apply. You own the product, therefore you can deploy it as many times as you like, however you like.... without racking up extra 'per-server' or 'per-user' costs.
Reason #2: The changing profile of University Open Source capabilities
When we started life ten years ago, open source was really only an option for the technically able and very committed Universities out there.Today, things are different. Open Source software has become a mainstay of every University technical department in the world. The open source development skills available on the market are probably the easiest to tap into and the smartest (and most cost-effective), and companies like Squiz are providing Open Source CMS solutions that are backed by the security of bullet-proof professional services (unlike yesterday, you can now use an Open Source product and pick up the phone if you need help or if something goes wrong).
So, on the whole, Open Source has matured to the point where it's simply a technology choice, rather than a risky commercial gambit for any University out there.
And, the really great thing we’re now seeing now is that Supported Open Source CMS's like ours are creating a completely new mid-market for enterprise content management.
As mentioned, we're creating a 'CashBack' effect which is enabling University CMS projects to do different things with their money rather than sinking it into licenses. In practice, once you take the license fee out of the equation, we're allowing people who were previously looking to spend no more than $75,000 to get a site that vaguely resembles an out of the box Amazon.com ....and at the other end of the scale, we're helping the $250,000 guys to get something that's amazingly customised to their organization's requirements and is tuned to perfection.
Reason #3: New opportunities in the Open Source University market and new ways of developing a University CMS
Colleges and universities around the world are grappling more and more with commercial pressures and are having to change the way they deliver their courses and services to their end consumers - students. So, the big opportunity that we see with our University clients is for stronger commercial differentiation. The ability to rapidly tailor your products and services is critical as the education market starts to morph.Around the world, we're dealing with educational institutions who are no longer dealing with a fixed yearly curriculum. They're catering for new professional students as well as traditional undergraduate and post graduates. This means catering for lots of different requirements with day-long courses, week-long courses, semester intensive periods, and so forth.... and many of the scheduling rules are being reinvented on the spot.
The only way to keep pace with these new student/consumer demands is to have a more flexible publishing system that can deliver the goods on an almost real-time basis. The days of a six month curriculum planning period and a six month publishing effort are dead and gone. Colleges and universities really need to get with the now...
Conclusion: naturally, call us! We can help....
...So, if you're the one responsible for kick starting a new University web development project, we recommend you consider an Open Source CMS solution. 9.9 times out of ten we've found that a University and Open Source is a match made in heaven!
Author: Stephen Morgan
Published: 22 Nov 2008 1:38pm
Comments:
There are currently no comments to this article.