We’ve been at this for decades and, consequently, have had a front row seat to the evolution of content management systems – proprietary and open-source alike. While the CMS you choose is certainly an important piece of the puzzle, the success of your website ultimately depends on the strategy, design, content, and marketing that surround it. Careful coordination across each of these components is what ultimately drives awareness, increases student engagement, and inspires them to take action. The CMS supports these efforts by simplifying content updates, maintaining consistency, and governing your evolving digital presence.
In fact, roughly 80% of the effort behind a higher ed website redesign occurs independently of the CMS. Strategy, design, front-end development, content creation, testing, and launch are largely CMS-agnostic. The CMS primarily comes into play when integrating templates and managing ongoing updates. However, keeping your CMS in mind early, especially during design, ensures a smoother build and a more sustainable post-launch experience.
We believe there are two very clear CMS choices for Higher Education, based on our experience and research: Cascade CMS and WordPress. In our opinion, they represent the best proprietary and open-source platforms, respectively, and are the only CMS options available within our LuxEd solution.
Background
Beacon was founded by former technology engineers from AT&T in the late 90’s, when the internet was exploding. Technology drove decision-making back then, and therefore, proprietary software was preferred for many reasons – mainly because open-source content management systems hadn’t really emerged yet – at least viable ones. Proprietary software was deemed less risky, easier to manage as upgrades were carefully released and the software vendors had a vested interest in delivering high quality to maintain revenue. To some degree, this philosophy has continued, but open source has matured and steadily increased in usage.
Beacon & Cascade CMS
Hannon Hill created Cascade CMS in 2001, which was originally called PublishXML. Beacon was looking for a dependable CMS to add to its offering for Higher Ed, as it began working with KPMG Consulting and Accenture on several Higher Education projects. After evaluating CMS software for about 3 years, Beacon selected Hannon Hill’s Cascade CMS as it was beyond the initial market entry period and stabilizing. Beacon has subsequently built a long-standing, collaborative relationship with Hannon Hill ever since. The controlled, secure, multi-tiered architecture, coupled with robust features, managed & planned upgrades, ability to publish anywhere (“push” technology), and an easy-to-use content editor with permission-based workflow, were key factors in this decision – which has stood the test of time.
Beacon & Early WordPress
WordPress hit the market in 2003 and like any new product, there were issues to work through as it evolved. Beacon intentionally stayed away from it to limit risk to its clients and especially since demand was strong for other Beacon services and expertise. Our concerns with WordPress centered around security risks, quality, and support, given its inherent “open” foundation, especially with its “pull” delivery technology, where web pages are rendered dynamically. In addition, Beacon’s strict change management standards require multiple environments for development, testing and production – again, to protect quality. A more complex process is required for WordPress change management, whereas Cascade can more easily publish to multiple environments (“push” delivery, decoupled from the CMS). Of course, over the years, WordPress has resolved many concerns and is now a commonly used CMS within colleges and universities.
Beacon Introduces WordPress Option
Given the increased demand for WordPress and maturation of the software, Beacon invested the last 2-3 years defining and developing a dependable infrastructure (hosting, processes, development environments) to satisfy our internal requirements regarding security, reliability, performance, and management. The goal was to architect a unique, high-end WordPress option for our Higher Ed customers, without the high subscription costs. Our developers, engineers (software, database, systems) and Project Management Office have worked closely to achieve this.
Beacon is excited to now offer WordPress as a CMS option within our comprehensive LuxEd solution – bringing two very strong CMS options to our Higher Ed clients. It is important to note that we remain an advocate for Hannon Hill’s proprietary Cascade CMS if it fits the needs of your institution, technical capabilities, and budget. However, we have worked very deliberately to “wrap” WordPress into our offering, while sticking to Beacon’s high quality and performance standards.
