Choosing a CMS

I used to think the process of creating a new website was a lot like painting a room. At first, it looks like an easy job: put paint on wall. Then, when you’re halfway through the task and the colour isn’t consistent, splatters mark the windows and tiny little brush bristles are hardened in the paint, you realise the scale of the challenge was grossly underestimated.

See, I’m not a coder, I’m a marketer, so the thought of creating a website was intimidating. I’d been through it before and much like painting, I remained tormented from previous experiences. But, having just finished off the last page on Kiandra’s brand new site, I’m seriously re-considering my career path.

Earlier this year, I got together with a small team of colleagues including UX specialists and developers to set out planning the creation of the new website. Having worked on numerous website builds in the past, I thought I had a pretty good idea of what to expect. I was pretty wrong.

The process

To begin with, the process all seemed very familiar — plan out the site structure and then create design concepts and suitable content — basically, just go through the motions. It was only when we got to the CMS selection that I knew things were going to be different.

We made it a goal to “practice what we preach” so we set out to leverage a CMS that we recommend to our clients. In making the choice, we had to factor in the type of site we were looking to build and how easy it would be for someone like me — who has absolutely no coding skills — to manage and make content updates without the need of developer assistance. Known for its simple content editing, robustness, flexibility and customisable components, Kentico ticked all the boxes.

Using Kentico’s smarts, the team was able to create customisable components that would allow me to build each page across the site. If you think of building blocks that you can stack on top of one another, then you’ve got a fairly good understanding of what these components are like. Using these, I was able to easily create more than 20 unique web pages, in a fraction of the time, with far less effort and assistance that I had imagined possible.

When I say “easily,” I’m in no way being hyperbolic. Once I was in a rhythm, the page creation process was lightning fast and incredibly straightforward:

Step 1: Have my content ready
Step 2: Create a blank page
Step 3: Insert suitable design components to build the layout of the page
Step 4: Insert images and text where necessary
Step 5: Review, approve and publish.

Of course, I had a team of specialists behind me to ensure everything was seamless and helped me do some fancy things with the design where applicable. And the end result is a smooth, functional and easy to maintain site that’s splatter-free. It’s been such a good experience, I think I might even give painting another go.

If you feel like you need more advice or help on choosing the right CMS for your business, contact the team at Kiandra IT today.