5 benefits of content management systems in the public sector
Many public sector organizations are outsourcing the management of their website to IT companies or agencies. However, using a content management system (CMS) to power the municipal website could be one of the best investments that the public sector can make for their website. Nowadays, you need to invest in your website, because that is the main tool for communicating with your citizens and you have to make sure that they like it and they are finding their way around. However, that does not mean that you need to be a tech-savy to operate the site. A CMS is a system that combines the power of online content management with simplicity so you still have time to concentrate on serving the citizens. If you already have your website running with a CMS, that article could be helpful for you: “How to keep your municipal website up-to-date?”, there you can find what exactly to look for in order to keep your municipal website up to date and 3 easy tricks to do so.
Here are the 7 advantages of having a CMS to run your municipal website:
1. Not require being a tech-savy.
From our long experience working with the public sector’s employees, not all of the people have the same comfort level with technology, however the basic functions (writing, publishing and withhold content) of a CMS are typically easy for the most people. Moreover anyone who can use word-processing system can use a CMS for the basic functions – so the municipality does even need to spend resources and time on training activities.
2. Several users.
In a small municipality, maybe there is only 1 person managing the website content, however in a bigger one there is a possibility of having a whole IT department doing different things related to the website, also people like PR and Communication might be publishing news and writing articles. A CMS makes it easy to manage roles and publishing permissions for all of these users so that they only those the manager allows can publish content and make changes.
3. Easygoing site maintenance.
Someone wants to change something on the website, the mayor maybe? Changing the website without a CMS that can mean having hundred of pages of code, making changes on each one. However, with a CMS you can make changes and add functionalities very easily without braking the website.
4.It helps you design and manage changes.
That might look obvious for some of you already, but not only publishing content is important, also to being able to remove it when it’s out of date and to keep the website updated. With a CMS this is a simple task, all menus and links are updated automatically, so that your citizens continue to have a good experience of the website. Another advantage is the feature of making changes while keeping the site functional, you can move, change and remove things from your administrative dashboard and have it automatically updated on the entire website.
5.Self controlled.
You are in control of the management of the municipal website, and that is the biggest advantage of a CMS. Instead of giving the work to an external vendor, wasting time to explain what exactly you want, you have the ability to assign tasks and roles and to check progress of the employees at any time. Every department manager, deputy mayor or even the mayor will have the ability to control the whole process 24/7.
