There are many reasons to switch to a content management system, particularly TYPO3. Here is one mini-case study about how a move to TYPO3 saved a company money and drastically improved their ability to make timely updates and changes to their web site.

Who: High tech company that develops and deploys software for enterprise level applications

The Problem: This company employs highly talented programmers, as well as other, less technical, personnel. They engaged a web development company to build their web site. The site was programmed in PHP and included some difficult to manage graphical and other content elements. The site design was modern and pleasing, however, it required a programmer to make any changes and/or updates to the site.

The people with the technical ability to maintain the website had to be taken away from their core responsibilities to make needed changes, thus diverting their valuable skills away from more productive work. Less technical people, such as the marketing folks, could not perform these tasks. The result was that site changes and needed updates were rarely made.

What the Client Needed: The client needed a web site that could be rapidly and easily changed, updated, pages added, with search engine friendly URLs, and other features typically found in a content management system like TYPO3. The key was the need for non-technical personnel to be able to maintain their web site and keep it continuously up to date.

The Solution: The client came to us after having already done significant research into the available content management systems. They wanted an open source solution to save money, but concluded in the end that TYPO3 was the best choice, open source or not. So, we did not have to sell them on TYPO3, only on our ability to migrate their site properly and for a competitive price.

The Result: This was a site with a relatively small number of pages. The design was nice and only needed to be converted into TYPO3 templates. Yet, this was a challenging job for a number of reasons, primarily related to design intricacies and some very unusual forms. In the end, this company received a web site that is now being actively and successfully maintained by non-technical employees, while their programmers are engaged more productively.

Originally published February 13, 2009

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