Contensis & The University of Nottingham
Contensis has won the contract to be The University of Nottingham’s new Content Management System (CMS) provider.
The University is bringing all its web content together to be managed by the Contensis web content management system.
The key driver for the new CMS was to handle multiple sub-sites which would allow variation in style and layout while maintaining corporate look and feel with pre-created templates.
Contensis has always viewed corporate identity as crucial to the empowerment of staff in editing and contributing roles - staff who do not necessarily have the time to read, understand and follow corporate design guidelines.
Another key driver was template flexibility and the ability to easily create micro-sites.
The template structure within Contensis can be configured to meet almost any requirement with great ease, allowing flexibility in the way individual sections are designed and configured within the overall corporate plan and across multiple sites.
The University’s main website management structure had been provided by a number of CMS systems.
They had approximately 150 contributors/editors using the CMS and although there was a general conformity to the layout of the templates there was little or no standardisation of design or architecture across the University’s other sub-sites.
After a long and grueling audit to establish their Strategic Objectives, The University of Nottingham then set about the task of selecting the right solution and after an intensive technical evaluation Contensis was nominated as preferred vendor and was duly invited to complete a proof of concept.
The key objectives were: ·
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To meet the key shortcomings regarding scope, functionality, flexibility and fitness for purpose.
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Provide a "best of breed" product that can effectively create and maintain a website appropriate to a leading international university.
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Adopt a consistent user-centered design (UCD) approach across the University website.
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Longer-term integration of internal and external online channels.
With the Proof of Concept now complete, the University and Contensis teams are now in the process of completing the project within the scope and the timescales of the original plan.
Mark Owen - Sales Director at Contensis added "that this is another wonderful win for our business and we are all looking forward to The University of Nottingham becoming a valuable and active member of the Contensis University User Group".
The University of Nottingham is ranked in the UK's Top 10 and the World's Top 70 universities by the Shanghai Jiao Tong (SJTU) and Times Higher (THE) World University Rankings.
It provides innovative and top quality teaching, undertakes world-changing research, and attracts talented staff and students from 150 nations. Described by The Times as Britain's "only truly global university", it has invested continuously in award-winning campuses in the United Kingdom, China and Malaysia.
Twice since 2003 its research and teaching academics have won Nobel Prizes.
The University has won the Queen's Award for Enterprisein both 2006 (International Trade) and 2007 (Innovation — School of Pharmacy).
Its students are much in demand from 'blue-chip' employers.
Winners of Students in Free Enterprise for four years in succession, and current holder of UK Graduate of the Year, they are accomplished artists, scientists, engineers, entrepreneurs, innovators and fundraisers. Nottingham graduates consistently excel in business, the media, the arts and sport. Undergraduate and postgraduate degree completion rates are amongst the highest in the United Kingdom.
About the company
The Contensis Enterprise Content Management suite of products began life, as many products do, following an animated discussion between a group of software professionals back in the autumn of 1998.
They all agreed, after exhaustive evaluation, that most of the products then available fell far short of their own vision and an idea began to gel. By spring 1999 work was well advanced on the specification of a system which not only met their criteria, and that of respected industry analysts, but equally important also reflected the views of end user enterprises. Power, ease of use and cost effectiveness were the key words. The beginnings of the Contensis development team were spawned a little later and work started in earnest to turn the dream into reality.
Philosophy
Our approach is completely customer-centric. Customers are our universe and we see their problems as our problems.
From a software perspective this means that we strive to ensure that every aspect of Contensis is simple to learn and easy to use. We believe we've achieved that, certainly at everyday user level. Even newcomers to the system are normally editing and contributing within minutes.
It's all part of our 'How can we make it simpler' approach.
About Contensis Enterprise CMS
Built using the Microsoft® .Net platform Contensis ECMS features an open API that facilitates easy and rapid integration with virtually any application, and is completely intuitive to use at every level.
One of the very few CMS solutions that combines the best of dynamic and flat file publishing, it has proved itself in the most demanding of circumstances and is fully scalable.