Are there any Web content management tools that a small-budget organization can afford?

There are several ways to evaluate the cost of a content management system. The actual cost of implementing a system is one perspective. Organizations must also evaluate the cost of not having a system in place. Ask yourself the following questions:

• What are the costs associated with your content being unavailable - either through the Web site, or from your primary content storage systems?
• What is the risk of having inaccurate content on your Web site?
• What are the possible repercussions to your organization?
• How much does the insurance for that risk cost?
• How do you recover and replace inaccurate content when your Webmaster is unavailable?

All of the above issues are handled in a very cost-effective manner through enterprise content management software offering, and they do provide real, tangible value. Although the initial costs may seem high, they are quickly realized as very reasonable when the entire business picture is considered.

Today, publishing to a Web site is no longer a manual process requiring HTML editing. There are solutions available - from XITEX Software and others - that completely automate the conversion of Microsoft Office documents into HTML, and publish them onto a fully operational Web site with all the robust staging and production tools you'd expect. This means that your staff or content authors can use tools that they know without knowing HTML, and your Webmaster can focus on the presentation of the content (layout, etc.).

In summary, your decision is a matter of realizing all the business benefits that your organization stands to gain versus the cost of a content management system itself.