Articles - Page 96

Not All Heroes Wear Capes. Here's Why CMS Is Your 'Unsung Hero' in 2025

janus-boye

<a target="_blank" href="http://www.django-cms.org/en/">django CMS</a>, the free and open source platform born out of Zurich, Switzerland, has unveiled its latest version.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/djangocms_green_909x0-is_1.png" />The content management system is used by the likes of NASA and L'Oreal, and they seem to have put quite a bit of effort into their latest update; django CMS 3.2.I touched upon some of the features of <a href="/a-look-at-the-django-cms-3-2-0-preview-release/">django CMS 3.2 in a preview article published a few weeks back</a>. Now though, let's now take a closer look. <h2>Better Touch-support &amp; A Revamped UI For Content Editors</h2>First of all, django's user interface has had a facelift. That includes changes to menu actions, button behavior and display logic. Plus, interface elements are now bigger and clearer with better contrast ratios.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/content-1_png_1170x1170_q90_crop_subsampling-2607x0-is.png" />Most editing and management operations now, “work well on most devices” according to the django team. Not exactly promising language, but I'm sure it works well enough.They also mentioned that they are, “moving ever closer to complete touch-screen support.”<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/structureboard-1_png_1170x1170_q90_crop_subsampling-2607x0-is.png" />django CMS 3.2 also brings about a new wizard, called the Content Creation Wizard. It's an extensible tool for helping content editors quickly add content to their site.The wizard can be adopted by third-party developers for their own applications, to provide a quick overview of the different types of content that can be added to the site. It's another step towards making the CMS truly the best tool for content creators that it can be.<h3>django's Need for Speed</h3>Further to visual improvements, the django team has aimed to enhance performence with django CMS 3.2.On the subject of speeding things up, they said:<blockquote>“We've rewritten a significant portion of our internal code, especially frontend-related code, optimising speed and load times. We're using techniques such as automatic minification and bundling to wring even better performance from the system.”</blockquote>For the full details of this release, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.django-cms.org/en/blog/2015/11/24/django-cms-32/">check out django's official blog announcement</a>.You can also explore more of <a href="/products/django-cms">django CMS via our CMS Directory</a>.

Django CMS 3.2 Lands With New Interface & Enhanced Touch-screen Support

mike-johnston

Last year, I published a <a href="/plushforums-review/">review of PlushForums</a>, a tastefully repackaged and remarketed commercial fork of Vanilla Forums.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/vopggzde_200x0.png" />The forum platform has been on the market for over a year now, having been founded by the London-based Adrian Flitcroft back in 2014. Today, <a target="_blank" href="https://plushforums.com/">PlushForums</a> remains geared towards startups and small businesses, despite boasting clients as big as Penn State University and Google.Recently, to celebrate a year on the market, the platform received an update. Let's have a look at what's new.<h2>Mailchimp &amp; Question Mode</h2>First up, PlushForums now integrates with Mailchimp. It's an automated two-way sync, with no management required.Members can unsubscribe and re-subscribe to newsletters via their profile, while unsubscriptions from MailChimp are synchronized back to the user's forum.As for Question Mode, this new feature enables forum members to ask questions, for anybody to come along and answer. It's a feature designed for customer service delivery and knowledge base creation, as definitive answers can be identified and marked as such.<h2>Localization &amp; More</h2>Localization is another enhancement.PlushForums now works in any language, and can now host forums in the US, UK, France, Germany, Netherlands, Japan and Australia, for customers who have legal compliance issues with US hosts. DDoS protection is also now available as an optional extra.MathJax is another new integration option, which is a nod in the direction of educational institutes. Mobile users can upload and insert images in one tap, new styling options come into play, and content flagging makes forums easier to moderate.It's always good to see budding platforms doing well, and PlushForums seems to be doing just that. Their first year looks to have been a good one – and I'll be keeping close tabs on their second.To find out more about these updates, check out the <a target="_blank" href="https://plushforums.com/blog/one-year-later">PlushForums blog</a>.

PlushForums Celebrates One Year on the Market With Slew of Updates

<a href="https://instapage.com/" target="_blank">Instapage</a> is a popular landing page builder that allows you to design and publish landing pages for your product or service.
The platform, which starts from $29 per month, makes use of a drag-and-drop interface, and integrates with over twenty marketing tools and CRMs, including Mailchimp, InfusionSoft and Salesforce.
<a href="https://instapage.com/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/8x5txlt3f7st.png" /></a> Whether you’re a seasoned entrepreneur or a marketer with a deadline, Instapage promises to churn out a good looking landing page in just three minutes.
With this review, I’m going to run through the entire landing page construction process, to test just how good looking (and how well functioning) those landing pages are.
<h2>Getting Started</h2>
The sign-up process with Instapage is pretty simple. You can create your account via email or various social networks and there’s no need to get the credit card out either, thanks to the 45 day free trial.
Once you’ve completed your sign-up, you’ll receive a welcome email from Instapage with an invite to attend a webinar called ‘Mastering Instapage in 30 Minutes’. It’s definitely worth a watch, but don’t worry if you don’t have the time – it’s all pretty easy to navigate.
<img alt="Screen Shot 2015-11-20 at 20.05.00.png" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/7AYSdHNLcZCqAMR8UWiu4JxXzZTUjSYkgxshug5008WHmzK0jmyaShS6ty5Up9jggu8OTaCCv4gY9EZRoJBy-HyzBEzbrdT9CqOiAlBQlxZBKIU2esYxlQ37ugOLmizX83kpxlbr" />
<h2>Building Your Landing Page</h2>
You have a few options to choose from when building your landing page. You can customize it from scratch, or you can opt for a pre-built template depending on how much time you want to invest in it.
There are over 70 templates available and they’re categorized into lead generation, webinars, click through, mobile app, and thank you pages. However, if none of the available templates take your fancy, Instapage also partners with Themeforest to provide a number of premium templates.
Personally, I think many of the free templates are just as good – if not better.
<img alt="Screen Shot 2015-11-20 at 20.39.47.png" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/ChD35qrPAk8xDZExPNYi8d3ErXPNIEjjFYTHoJme7ZUjkLCVgQTHf3QZLlkofoFkO0C40WkwuK77v_FSnqd2Ibr8TRuL3FRBXBzYC0bRMSVsXbCZh5Chl-kuQxwGhfhhV1OR_jRH" />
Once you have selected your template, the WYSIWG (What You See is What You Get) editor is your next port of call.
The drag-and-drop functionality will ensure that your landing page looks exactly as you had envisioned, and you can edit or add elements using the menu bar on the top left hand side of the page. Instapage is also mobile responsive and you can preview your page on both a desktop and mobile device before hitting publish.
<h2>Support Options</h2>
If you get stuck – the ‘help’ button is on hand. Honestly, though, you’re not going to get stuck. This stuff is simple. I had a landing page designed in less than 30 minutes, and my level of IT knowledge ranks just slightly above ‘turn it off and on again’.
By clicking the help button, you can restart the Instapage tour, talk to a support rep, or simply have another read of the ‘how-to’ documentation. The undo/redo button is also available if needed.
<img alt="Screen Shot 2015-11-20 at 21.02.13.png" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/fxGONwNvtprWra88qtvSvEC1IXdYtEPLH8jqS8Vvzv_P2iPAVuVZ6DNiNP_DkoI2AOzPySp8PQ56CLECh_vYRLdupPQ4nMkUpRzsrARp2TSa7uwvxAvSD0op0iuQ2J6_immTdMO8" />
<h2>Onboarding Your Team</h2>
With the Pro account, Instapage allows you to add users as either ‘admin’ or ‘members.
<ul>
<li>
Admins have access to manage the account, edit pages, and add domains and users.
</li>
<li>
Members can only view or edit pages which you allow them to access.
</li>
</ul>
This option is available by clicking on the (+) sign in the upper right hand corner of the dashboard.
<img alt="Screen Shot 2015-11-20 at 21.07.19.png" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/FinIroZYWLesdYNEuwl9YBa6Jp2gJdqRPq8mEt-svTo2nwWqJlKnOSEYySQ26pJ5kmPneIMiRvajdTGti7iWwSRFYvIxg4JljZjJWlNjndWCIFqk7oAitUbTxc0tFRqYWevyNoDj" />
To add a new user, you simply insert their name, email, permission status, and which pages they can edit and/or view. After you’ve added a user, they will receive an email notification to let them know.
<h2>Marketing Integrations</h2>
Instapage recently launched a new integrations dashboard offering over 20 other Saas tool integrations, including <a href="http://mailchimp.com/">Mailchimp</a>, <a href="http://www.aweber.com/">AWeber,</a> and <a href="https://www.zoho.com/crm/">Zoho CRM</a>. The new dashboard makes it simple to connect your CRM provider, optimization tools and email marketing service in the one place – with very little hassle.
<img alt="Screen Shot 2015-11-20 at 21.19.09.png" src="https://lh5.googleusercontent.com/DY_aZ4tD1UjDk0XBLrxpsCWnGU-90tW71pZPjvUrQ49irGWvARlzOi5gMFLn40wFZBwkykqLU-AiZKmmfgKP7f4YA6G9t9IaReuQk8DzutWUiEMfroPewuwjoF7FI3fGjFppcoeB" />
<h2>Pricing</h2>
After you’ve completed the 45 day free trial, Instapage offers 3 account types depending on your requirements. You can choose whether to pay monthly or yearly – but it’s worth noting that the annual payment is 25% cheaper.
The basic annual package is $29 per month, but if you’re working with a team I’d recommend opting for the professional option at $55 – as you’ll need the extra features if you want to add team members. For more information on Instapage pricing and services, click <a href="https://instapage.com/pricing">here</a>.
<img alt="Screen Shot 2015-11-20 at 21.23.30.png" src="https://lh3.googleusercontent.com/kmKyG5B4KxBIZ4bKTI801kVdg0aDlqWwhilSKU2jUfnVO3wZEhUpcn0G6YFGbBZjCtgZ3QMWjcR-fQcvtCjiqAK4Uv_8uyEKQIVWl9328dISxyaPQPPv6ecXthoyBtojXPFJxK6i" />
<h2>The Verdict</h2>
Overall, I think that Instapage is a great option for anyone who wants to get a quality landing page online quickly and I can definitely recommend it.
A well designed landing page can make or break your marketing campaign and rushing it is not the way to go. Instapage’s templates and customization features make it easy for anyone to create the exact page that they’re looking for, to a professional standard, in a short period of time.
You don’t have to be a professional web developer to design your landing page using Instapage, but everyone who views it will think that you are.
Have you tried Instapage out for your business? We’d love to know how you got on. Why not let us know in the comments below.

Instapage Review

grainne-logue

The progress continues for <a href="https://awards.www.cmscritic.com/vote/" target="_blank">The People's Choice CMS Awards 2015</a>, with the voting stage now well and truly underway. In fact, 500 votes were cast in the very first hour of the polls being open.
<a href="https://awards.www.cmscritic.com/vote/" target="_blank"><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/votenow-1.png" /></a>
This year marks the fourth consecutive year of <a href="https://awards.www.cmscritic.com/" target="_blank">CMS Awards</a> here at CMS Critic. The awards are made up of; The People's Choice Awards, and The Critic's Choice Awards.
The awards were originally designed to give the public a way to get behind their favourite products, and also to recognise and reward the progress made by CMS vendors large and small, new and established.
Today, the awards play a big role in the decisions of many soon-to-be webmasters hunting for a sutiable CMS. In fact, <a href="/the-cms-awards-what-they-mean/" target="_blank">CMS vendors themselves have vouched for the importance and relevance of the CMS Awards</a>.
<h2>The Most Inclusive Category List. Ever.</h2>
With the nomination stage now complete, a range of vendors (all of which were selected by you) are now battling within their respective categories.
We've worked hard to make the categoriy list as inclusive as possible this year. The list includes:
<ul>
<li>Best eCommerce Solution for SMB</li>
<li>Best Website Builder</li>
<li>Best Enterprise Portal</li>
<li>Best CMS for Marketers</li>
<li>Best CMS for Developers</li>
<li>Best CMS for Personal Websites</li>
<li>Best CMS for Enterprise</li>
<li>And Many More</li>
</ul>
The full list of categories, along with the three products nominated for each one, <a href="https://awards.www.cmscritic.com/vote/" target="_blank">can be found on the voting page</a>.
To make voting easier and more informed, we've linked to each individual solution so you can explore the candidates before voting for your preffered CMS.
With that being said, it's time to <a href="https://awards.www.cmscritic.com/vote/" target="_blank">get voting for your favourite CMS</a>. Don't delay, though, because the voting stage ends on January 1st, 2016.
Who are you voting for? Let us know in the comments below.

The People's Choice CMS Awards 2015: Let the Voting Begin!

Your <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/8-awesome-alternatives-to-google-analytics/" target="_blank">analytics platform</a> is your personal website assistant. It will tell you what’s working, what's broken, and in some cases, what your next move should be.
And yet, many businesses fail to utilize their analytics system to its true potential, simply because they don't know how (or where) to read the data that it churns out.
<img alt="bigstock-Website-analytics-and-SEO-data-77090498.jpg" src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/99xxNHKMk0k4rnQibftjDMyJtJBZw-HB0mM3kmfpieGjZxkX9px7BY_E4HfVaWkh7_fNMvQfIoD4emQFIGtko7hQNJ38fHsWiPmNy0zMBT79lVjdkPaT6IfpNiBoOwBOM0fZNuV9" />
Sure, you know how many visitors your site gets per day, but did you know that you experienced a 25% dip in visits last week? Do you know that only 5% of them got as far as the checkout page in your online store? And if it went in the other direction, and your sales went through the roof due to a promotion, are you recognising the hallmarks of a successful marketing campaign?
With all of the information available, it’s easy to fall into the trap of spending hours on your analytics system without actually learning much at all – and this is how business owners get frustrated.
To be productive with your analytics system, you need to figure out exactly what you’re looking for – before you actually can find it.
Here are a few of the metrics that every business should be looking out for.
<h2>1. Pageviews</h2>
Your pageviews will indicate the amount of times a visitor has been on a webpage. Every time a page loads up in a browser, it’s counted as a pageview, and this is great for giving you a look at the ‘big picture’ when monitoring your website traffic.
It’s generally a good sign if your pageviews are high, and this metric will help you to identify where to best place/update new content on your site. It’s also a useful metric when deciding on what pages to target with a specific call-to-action. However, if your visitors aren’t spending long on each page, it may mean that your site is difficult to navigate and customers aren’t finding the information they need right away – which is clearly not a good sign at all.
The most important thing to remember, is to measure your page views in context with your other site metrics such as bounce rate. This will give you a more well-rounded overview of your web traffic and enable you to analyze your data more accurately.
<h2>2. Landing pages</h2>
Tracking your website landing pages is a key part of analyzing the success of your various marketing campaigns.
With a landing page report, you can see exactly what page a customer lands on when they reach your site and the number of impressions each page is receiving. You can also assess the average click-through rate and ranking position.
The most popular landing pages on your site will have a low click-through rate and a high number of impressions, and these are the pages you should focus your attention on.
<h2>3. Exit Pages</h2>
Marketing isn’t simply about getting customers to visit your site, and it’s actually keeping them there that’s the tougher task.
The exit pages report will reveal how many people leave your site and it will identify the pages that they leave from most often.With this metric, you can find out where your customers are dropping off the radar – and why. Once you’ve got this information, you can figure out how to hold on to them for a while longer.
One key thing to note is that sometimes you want your customer to exit a page – for example, when they make a purchase at the checkout. So it’s not always a bad thing. However, if they are leaving from other pages then it’s something you should investigate further.
<h2>4. Bounce rate</h2>
A high bounce rate (over 55%) is usually something you want to avoid as it means that a user has left your site after visiting just one page. By keeping an eye on this metric, you can find new ways to retain your site visitors.
However, there are also cases where a high bounce rate is acceptable – such as on the contact form page, checkout, or on individual blog posts. If a page has an unusually high bounce rate, try evaluating the functionality, design and wording of that page to help lower it.
<h2>5. Customer Acquisition</h2>
Your acquisition overview will show you where your customers are coming from, what they do when they get to your site, and whether they provide a conversion – i.e. by getting in touch, signing up for your newsletter, or making a purchase.
Organic search is normally the top dog when it comes to web traffic, and other avenues include traffic via referral, direct, paid search, and social.
By analyzing where your best converting customers are coming from, you can use this information to better target them in future campaigns.
<h2>6. User Behavior</h2>
The user behavior metric will give you a visual flow of what people do once they get to your website.
This is important to assess which pages on your site are drawing the most attention and which sections need some extra work. Once you’ve ascertained which pages are the most popular on your site, and why, you can utilize this design in future.
There are many things to consider when reviewing your website analytics and it’s important to keep the bigger picture in mind at all times. Context is everything and once you get it right, your analytics tool will be one of the most important resources that your business has.
What key metrics do you analyze for your business? Let us know in the comments below.

6 Metrics to Focus on When Using Your Analytics System

Ingeniux certainly has been racking up a lot of accolades lately. It was named to the EContent 100, a KMWorld Trendsetting Product, a High Performer G2 Crowd, and to the Inc. 5000 as one of the fastest growing companies in the world. One of the reasons for the recent success of Ingeniux is its focus on innovation around core content management features that help brands manage their digital experiences.After looking at the some of the <a href="/ingeniux-web-experience-management-content-management-social-collaboration/">core features of Ingeniux</a>, its standing as a <a href="/a-look-at-the-saas-positioning-of-ingeniux/">SaaS solution</a>, and its positioning as an <a href="/not-all-asp-net-platforms-are-equal/">ASP.NET CMS</a>, it’s time to wrap up this featured week with a focus on the platform’s <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ingeniux.com/">digital asset management</a> capabilities.<h2>The Significance of Digital Asset Management</h2>A CMS acts as the orchestrator for managing and deploying content and digital assets. That includes images, videos, audio files, and more.Without a solid DAM system in place, brands can struggle to upload assets, organise them, find them, and deploy them whenever necessary.Many brands rely on third party Digital Asset Management systems to do the job, but in today’s market, Content Management Systems like Ingeniux are attempting to close the functionality gap.<h2>The Ingeniux Approach to Digital Asset Management</h2>Ingeniux CMS users can upload multiple images, documents, media files, templates, and other assets using the Ingeniux Digital Asset Manager. Its part of the CMS platform and is designed to provide the same level of management and control that web pages and components have in the system.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ingeniux_cms_assets693x0-is.png" /> Assets can be edited with full meta data and usage rights, supporting group-level security and collaboration. The Asset Manager also supports true federation; including integration of Microsoft SharePoint lists for document management, media servers and CDN's for rich media storage, and file level storage in NAS and SAN systems.Speaking of meta data, Ingeniux supports <a target="_blank" href="https://www.google.com/url?q=https://www.google.com/url?q%3Dhttp://www.ingeniux.com/company/blog/key-taxonomy-features-for-web-content-management-system%26amp;sa%3DD%26amp;usg%3DAFQjCNELIObDiw36BLEL3I5iQQBpApWQfw&amp;sa=D&amp;ust=1448038424818000&amp;usg=AFQjCNEGuEp8LKlSQklcJSTqaDbWPuQmAQ">taxonomy</a> categorization for assets, automatically extracts “machine meta data” from files, and wraps assets with an XML content type with full meta data support.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ingeniux_cms_assets_2654x0-is.png" />The Ingeniux asset manager empowers developers to take control over their code with in-CMS code editing for CSS, ASP.NET, and other languages, code deployment, and code versioning. Ingeniux understand that developers do not want to do all of their development and code management in the CMS, but it’s very handy for quick edits and updates to templates. The CMS also works with Git and other systems.Furthermore, Ingeniux has recently introduced feature to help teams collaborate better when it comes to digital assets. Such new collaboration features include connectors to cloud-based systems and applications for asset storage and import, along with easy staging for reviews and approvals.<h2>“The Same Capabilities as a Standalone DAM Tool”</h2>Dave Hillis, the VP of Business Development over at Ingeniux, has also chimed in on the importance of DAM within Ingeniux:<blockquote>“Assets have never been more important. Ingeniux believes in the shift from web content management to digital experience management. Content is now multi- or omni-channel and needs to be deployed in many locations.The rise of Content Marketing has placed more value on asset management within CMS solutions because assets are often deployed standalone, and more focus is on asset development.Our aim was always to make Assets first class content citizens, meaning that an asset in Ingeniux has the same capabilities as text-based content, including; versioning, workflow, direct publishing, and more.All in all, we wanted to provide a connected DAM solution that provided the same capabilities as a standalone DAM tool, but with better integration and content publishing capabilities.”</blockquote>To find out more about Ingeniux, <a target="_blank" href="https://www.ingeniux.com/">visit their website</a>.Furthermore, you can explore more of <a href="/products/ingeniux">Ingeniux via our CMS Directory.</a>

Exploring the Digital Asset Management Features of Ingeniux

Not all ASP.NET platforms are designed equal.
There are four key differentiators that set them apart, in ways that fundamentally change how the end-user can interact with the CMS in question.
Here’s an overview of those four points, adopted from the works and opinions of <a href="http://www.ingeniux.com/web-cms">Ingeniux</a>, an enterprise-grade ASP.NET MVC-based platform.
<h2>1. Architecture: Decoupled vs. Tightly Coupled</h2>
If you are looking for flexibility in how you build your front-end, or where you leverage your content management capabilities, then you want a CMS that has a decoupled architecture.
In a decoupled architecture the application for managing content is separate from the application delivering content.
In this case, the CMS does not dictate the stack, or set of technologies required to deliver the content and website, allowing for a more flexible content delivery model. In a decoupled architecture model, content can be delivered anywhere and in any format.
In contrast, in a tightly coupled architecture web content, customer data, analytics data, website presentation, and content delivery take place in a single database and application framework. In other words, content management and content delivery are the same application.
<a href="http://www.ingeniux.com/company/blog/aspnet-web-cms-architecture-decoupled-vs-tightly-coupled">Read more about ASP.NET architectural differences</a>.
<h2>2. Development Model: MVC vs. Web Forms</h2>
Let’s talk about how your developers code your front-end experience by examining the two typical approaches in ASP.NET: Web Forms and MVC.
ASP.NET Web Forms is the traditional development model for ASP.NET. Microsoft created Web Forms to help developers more familiar with client server development (e.g. WinForms) quickly migrate to building web pages through a visual RAD interface.
The problem with Web Forms is that it supports a tightly coupled architecture, one where the interface is integrated with the application functionality (code behind).
This means the application code and the interface are not easily reusable. With Web Forms you are also locked in to the controls available for the CMS platform, dependent on their quality, upgrade cycle, and HTML output standards or you must spend a lot of time creating your own customizations that then require maintenance.
MVC (model view controller) provides a different architectural pattern for development. MVC is the more modern approach to ASP.NET development, and is the future of ASP.NET with full support from Microsoft.
With MVC there is a clear separation of presentation from application logic, enabling the reuse of both. With MVC, a request is first sent to the Controller which then decides which Model (application logic/validations) and UI (View) to put together to create the appropriate front-end interface.
Another difference between Web Forms and MVC is that you can use Microsoft Web Pages (Razor) in MVC. Razor is a lightweight view engine and Microsoft recommends you use it. With Web Forms, your only template option is via an aspx page.
<a href="http://www.ingeniux.com/company/blog/aspnet-web-cms-architecture-decoupled-vs-tightly-coupled">Read more about MVC vs Web Forms</a>.
<h2>3. Structured Content vs. Blob Content</h2>
In a world where new channels and devices are emerging all the time, the ability to reuse content is absolutely critical.
Content reuse takes a variety of forms. It could be the updating of content on multiple websites or mobile devices, supporting multilingual requirements, or it could involve content for both digital and print.
The idea of creating and managing separate versions of content for each channel/device is nothing short of a waste of time and effort, and most brands are realising that.
To reuse content it must be structured. Also known as intelligent content, structured content simply means content is stored in a way that defines and describes it.
The opposite end to structured content is Blob content, otherwise known as binary large object content.
Many CMS platforms continue to store content in Blob format. Essentially, you have a large WYSIWYG editing environment where you write the entire content of your page, including images, multimedia and maybe some documents, and it’s all stored as a Blob in the database.
But there are problems with this method. How do you know what this content is? How do you pull it apart to display it differently for mobile versus the website? How do you automatically resize images for mobile? The answer to all of the above is frustratingly simple; you can’t.
In addition, logic may be applied to structured content at the application layer. Content can be rendered dynamically based audience segments, visitor behavior, devices, business rules, and other factors. In this case, structured content supports personalization across multiple channels.
<a href="http://www.ingeniux.com/company/blog/aspnet-web-cms-structured-content-vs-blob-content">Read more about structured content vs blob content</a>.
<h2>4. Database: NoSQL vs. SQL Server</h2>
Nearly all ASP.NET CMS platforms use Microsoft SQL Server for a database engine. In some cases, they might use Oracle, or MySQL. All of these are relational database platforms that store web content, customer data and analytics data using a standard model and schema. In a relational database content is typically stored as Blobs.
Unfortunately, in an agile decoupled content management and deployment model, a relational database presents challenges. Content needs to be managed in a more structured (or intelligent) manner than a Blob provides. What’s required is a flexible content or data model, offering a richer content structure, and that’s where NoSQL can help.
NoSQL databases – or better described as “not only SQL” – support agile content management and deployment because they are schema free, meaning content can have any structure and that structure can change over time. In NoSQL, content is stored as documents or JSON objects that have richer metadata and use search-based indexing allowing content to be easily queried and retrieved based on the metadata.
There are many advantages to a NoSQL database for content management. They are:
<ul>
<li>Designed to manage content and provide a much more intelligent content model for storage and reuse</li>
<li>Schema-free so content definitions can change without database upgrades or “joins,”</li>
<li>Less expensive and easier to administrate.</li>
<li>Provide automatic “sharding” of information so they are easier to cluster, scale, and geographically distribute.</li>
<li>Work very well in cloud-based deployments.</li>
</ul>
<a href="http://www.ingeniux.com/company/blog/aspnet-web-cms-database-nosql-vs-sql-server">Read more about NoSQL vs SQL Databases</a>.
<h2>Ingeniux &amp; Its ASP.NET Positioning</h2>
After looking into Ingeniux as a SaaS solution, now is a good time to explore its ASP.NET positioning.
ASP.NET is an open-source server-side Web application framework designed for Web development to produce dynamic Web pages.
As for ASP.NET MVC – which is what Ingeniux leans upon – that’s the framework developed by Microsoft, which implements the model–view–controller (MVC) pattern.
<h2>A Main Focus on ASP.Net MVC &amp; Razor</h2>
Ingeniux has a main focus is on ASP.NET MVC and Razor. In fact, it’s 100% MVC.
Most CMS applications have not made the move to MVC, whereas with most of the ones that have, not all of the features will work.
According to the Ingeniux team, they provide a, “totally unique ASP.NET Footprint &gt; MVC, Decoupled, Service-oriented delivery and multi-site publishing, NoSQL Db, Structured content model, and so forth.”
To find out more about Ingeniux, <a href="http://www.ingeniux.com">visit their website</a>.
Furthermore, you can explore more of <a href="/products/ingeniux/">Ingeniux via our CMS Directory.</a>
Stay tuned for our last round of coverage for this featured week with Ingeniux.

Not All ASP.NET Platforms Are Equal (With 4 Examples)

We’ve already explored <a href="/ingeniux-web-experience-management-content-management-social-collaboration/">Ingeniux as a web experience management, content management and social collaboration solution</a>. Now though, it’s time to look at the platform’s Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) positioning.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/ingeniux_cms_home_preview668x0-is.png" />Ingeniux CMS is offered as an on-premise solution and as a software-as-a-service (SaaS) solution. The majority of Ingeniux customers use the SaaS solution, which provides full application and website management. Ingeniux has a global network with operations in the US, Canada, and Europe, and Asia.Ingeniux was early to the SaaS market. With over ten years under its belt as a SaaS solution, ingeniux finds itself in a position to offer modern brands a streamlined entry and re-entry into an online market that’s more demanding than ever before.<h2>What is SaaS?</h2>Before we delve into the benefits of Ingeniux as a SaaS solution, it may be wise to understand what SaaS actually is.Software-as-a-Service, commonly known as SaaS, is typically a software that’s centrally hosted and licensed on a subscription basis.So, instead of having software installed and configured on-premise, end users can take out a subscription, and enjoy the benefits of readily hosted, automatically set up, automatically updated and vendor-managed software.<h2>Ingeniux &amp; SaaS</h2>Ingeniux has been offering itself as a SaaS solution since 2005, Dave Hillis, the Ingeniux VP of Business Development, shed some light on how Ingeniux is positioned in the market:<blockquote>“People often don’t think of Ingeniux as a SaaS CMS, but Ingeniux is one of the leading SaaS options in content management. The platform has a very mature offering and strong Service Level Agreement. Ultimately SaaS is all about support.It’s a very different business model where Ingeniux and the customer have equal stakes in customer success. Ingeniux is part of the customer’s team. It takes a long time to learn how to be good at SaaS and build the operations and capabilities to successfully manage complex websites and applications.We feel that our track record, uptime, and service-level are unmatched in the industry .”</blockquote>The Ingeniux SaaS program also includes website and CMS application management, cloud services, 24/7 support, disaster recovery, security, and fully managed upgrades.Because of the high-level of service and security, Ingeniux has many large, regulated companies in its SaaS solutions, including financial services with AIG and Janus Capital, energy with Hawaiian Electric Company, Diamond Offshore and TransOcean, high scale media companies like Patheos, and large trade associations and Universities.On top of the benefits mentioned above by Dave Hillis, brands who adopt a Software-as-a-Service product will see further advantages.One such benefit can be found in the virtualization of the software. Virtualization provides dedicated networks that can be configured for the customer’s needs, provides a high-level of security, enhanced performance without bad neighbor degradation, and easier multi-site set-up for disaster recovery and failover.<h2>Ingeniux: Bringing it All Together</h2>The Ingeniux SaaS architecture supports zero website down-time for upgrades. Upgrades are delivered when the customer is ready, and are fully tested in a UAT (User Acceptance Testing) environment before being moved into production.Ingeniux CMS is architected for the cloud with a NoSQL database, a high performance mem-cache delivery system, native support for CDN, and decoupled architecture that supports multi-site deployment. Furthermore, the software has been certified by Microsoft for Azure Sites deployment with auto-scaling as a deployment option.The aim of Ingeniux is to capture all of these combined benefits in the best way possible through their SaaS offering. And I have to commend them for that, because those are the benefits that every modern brand is looking for.To find out more about Ingeniux, visit <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ingeniux.com/">their website</a>.

A Look at the SaaS Positioning of Ingeniux

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NoSQL is a disruptive new “big data” database technology that was built by social media giant Facebook and other big Internet companies such as Google, LinkedIn and Amazon. Now, it’s coming to enterprise and media websites and changing how content is managed and delivered on the web.
Traditionally, web pages have been stored within relational databases made by companies like Oracle and Microsoft. In the last 20 years the way that content has been stored and delivered has not really changed. But the web has changed completely.
Mobile forever changed the web. Apps, the cloud, personalization, and the overall growth of the web have rewritten the rules of how organizations need to manage their digital content and customer experience data.
Now the same NoSQL technology that powers the world’s biggest websites is disrupting the Web content management industry and changing how enterprisecompanies manage their websites and customer data.
<h2>Ingeniux: The First CMS Built on a NOSQL Database</h2>
The company at the forefront of the “Big Content” revolution is <a href="http://www.ingeniux.com/">I</a>ngeniux. Ingeniux is a web content management company with office in Seattle, Paris, and New York.
<a href="http://www.ingeniux.com/">Ingeniux CMS</a> is the first the web content management solution built on a NoSQL database. With NoSQL Ingeniux is able to provide a Web CMS solution that supports the scalability and performance of large social media sites with big data capabilities to deliver smarter customer experiences.
The move to NoSQL by Ingeniux makes sense. NoSQL actually means “not only SQL.” It combines the capabilities of a traditional relational database with the distributed architecture of the cloud and big data. The end result is higher performance, greater scalability, and lower costs for managing and delivering websites and personalized customer experiences.
Ingeniux is not alone in its success focusing on NoSQL. Enterprise NoSQL database vendor MarkLogic became a unicorn (a billion dollar company) by shifting its database to NoSQL. Other NoSQL vendors such as Mongo DB, Couchbase, and DataStax have also experienced skyrocketing growth. But Ingeniux is the first to take NoSQL to the multi-billion dollar content management market.
Ingeniux is quickly gaining market share with its <a href="http://www.ingeniux.com/company/blog/why-nosql-is-the-future-of-web-content-management">NoSQL-based Web CMS platform.</a> Ingeniux CMS is used by Janus Capital, CareFusion, the US Army, AIG, and thousands of other organizations to manage websites and online services. In 2015 Ingeniux was named a Trendsetting product by KMWorld magazine and named to the prestigious EContent 100 list.
Whether Ingeniux can be the next unicorn in the web content management industry has yet to be seen. But clearly the web has changed and NoSQL is the right solution at the right time. If NoSQL changes web content management the way it changed business intelligence and big data, fasten your seatbelts, we are in for a wild ride.
To find out more about Ingeniux, <a href="http://www.ingeniux.com/">visit their website</a>.
Also, be sure to explore more of <a href="/products/ingeniux/">Ingeniux via our CMS Directory</a>, and stay tuned for more featured week coverage.

How NoSQL Is Disrupting Web Content Management

To kick off another featured week, we’re taking a good look at an enterprise-level platform that’s well acquainted with web experience management, content management, portals, intranets, extranets and more.Based in Seattle, Washington with offices in New York and Paris, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ingeniux.com/web-cms">Ingeniux</a> has been on the market for over 15 years. They cater to the likes of AIG, CareFusion, Quinnipiac University, the US Army, and IAC.Ingeniux features a decoupled architecture designed for multi-site management and supports the latest ASP.NET technologies, including ASP.NET 4.5, MVC 5. the Razor view engine, and Visual Studio integration.Ingeniux is somewhat unique in its focus on intelligent content, shown in its rich XML and JSON content model, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ingeniux.com/company/blog/why-nosql-is-the-future-of-web-content-management">NoSQL content database,</a> search application, and service-oriented content API. The architecture lends itself to sites with product catalogs or need for full content structures and types, content reuse, multi-site, channel and language publishing, or sites with customer-facing web applications like insurance, travel, healthcare, commerce and other industries that transact business online.Ingeniux offers a set of products that, together, cover three core bases; web experience management, content management, and social collaboration.<h2>Ingeniux &amp; Web Experience Management</h2>Personalization isn’t just the buzzword on the lips of every enterprise, it’s also the foundation upon which most of them build their online presence.Ingeniux aims to help those brands deliver the right message to the right person at the right time.They make that happen based on click-stream behavior, visitor profiles, website membership, geo-location, or marketing segment.The platform also leverages landing pages, <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ingeniux.com/company/blog/four-ways-to-connect-your-crm-with-your-customer-and-web-experience">CRM connectors for Salesforce.com </a>and Microsoft Dynamics, and visual web forms to offer a well rounded content marketing solution.Plus, integrated analytics data from Google, WebTrends, or Adobe ensures that brands are informed about their progress, or lack thereof.Find out more about <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ingeniux.com/products/cms">Ingeniux and web experience management</a>.<h2>Ingeniux &amp; Content Management</h2>Content management though, is the platform’s bread and butter.Intelligent in-context editing enables users to click on a region of the page to make edits. Elements provide text fields, WYSIWYG editors, image galleries, component palettes, date pickers, and other contextual editing fields.The intelligence comes in when Ingeniux recognizes and preserves the structure of the content.Ingeniux also offers responsive page building, designed to aid those without any knowledge of code.Templates are managed in a grid-based responsive layout using either Bootstrap, Foundation, or other responsive frameworks. Non-technical users can click-and-drag to re-size columns, drag-and-drop text, video, images, and content widgets onto templates, and manage presentations for multiple channels.Digital asset management is another core feature of Ingeniux.Assets can be edited with full meta data and usage rights, with support for true federation; including integration of Microsoft SharePoint, media servers and CDN's for rich media storage, and even file level storage in NAS and SAN systems.Find out more about <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ingeniux.com/products/cms">Ingeniux and content management.</a><h2>Ingeniux &amp; Social Collaboration</h2>Ingeniux also serves up social collaboration solutions in the form of portals, intranets, extranets and online communities.Ingeniux Cartella is the product in question, and it comes as a Software-as-a-Service or on-premise solution.It comes in three editions:Intranet Edition: An <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ingeniux.com/products/cartella-portal-software">enterprise portal</a> for employees with unmatched collaboration and social capabilities.Extranet Edition: Connect with partners and suppliers using secure authentication and personalized user experiences.Community Edition: Engage with customers and enable user generated content, content marketing and social connections.Cartella comes with interactive modules including team blogs, forums, profiles, activity feeds and more.Find out more about <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ingeniux.com/products/cartella-portal-software">Ingeniux Cartella</a>.<h2>Ingeniux CMS 10</h2>As for the future of Ingeniux, it comes in the form of Ingeniux CMS 10.Ingeniux CMS 10, which is slated for release Winter 2016, will soon come bearing a modern “Flat” user interface with a focus on ease of use and productivity and a Digital Asset Management solution that makes assets first class.To find out more about Ingeniux, visit <a target="_blank" href="http://www.ingeniux.com/">their website</a>.

Ingeniux: Web Experience Management, Content Management, & Social Collaboration

<a target="_blank" href="https://www.boonex.com/">Boonex Dolphin</a> has been on the online community building scene for a while. Since 2001, to be exact.Today, via it's flagship open source product Dolphin.Pro, Boonex powers over 150,000 social networking websites, providing all the features needed for a community to come together, communicate, collaborate, share experiences, and more.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/dolphin-transparent520x0-is.png" />Dolphin.Pro can be used in a self-hosted environment, or users can take advantage of Boonex's hosted solution with automatic backups, automatic installation and assisted updates.I’ve made it no secret in the past that the social networking space is lacking in quality content management systems, especially when compared to, say, the eCommerce industry.Is Boonex Dolphin.Pro an exception? Let’s find out.<h2>First Impressions</h2>Their website is impressive, which is always a good sign.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-2864x0-is.png" /> Examples of finished websites are presented well, as are the platform’s features and price plans. It’s all very sleek and professional.It's easy to find out about the ins and outs of the product, and it's easy to jump right into the demo, too.<h2>Getting Started</h2>I was making use of the extensive demo that Boonex offers, which gives you a good impression of what Dolphin.Pro is capable of right off the bat.The demo showcases a fully fledged Dolphin.Pro powered website. It looks good, and all the trimmings work very, very well. The sleekness certainly carries over into the end product, that's for sure.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-3864x0-is.png" />Moving to the back end, which is the more important bit, things looked a little less spectacular.Don't get me wrong, I like the simplicity of it, but I think it could use a bit of sprucing up.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-4866x0-is.png" /> The “Initial Steps” (which is misspelt as “Initiall”) window is helpful, as it sets out ten things which the user will need to do in order to launch their community.But it feels a little rigid. Perhaps if the list updated as you carried out each step, to give the user a sense of progression. Plus, I felt the “DONT SHOW IT ANYMORE” button was a little in your face. A “Close Initial Steps” button would suffice.It's little things like that which make the difference between an enjoyable experience and an average one. Especially when those little things are the first thing a new user sees.Further down the dashboard, I found some analytical data in the form of graphs and charts. You can toggle between a long list of measurables, including members, subscribers, messages, files, shoutbox messages, photos, transactions and more.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-21793x0-is.png" />But the ones you'd expect to find, like, visitors, page views, interactions, and so forth, are nowhere to be found. I thought that was odd.Even further down the page was the Boonex News Feed, followed by a short list of featured modules. Nothing wrong with having that stuff on display, but perhaps the sidebar is a better location for it all.<h3>Members</h3>First up on the side menu, is Members.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-5581x0-is.png" /> This section gives you some stats relating to your members, tags used, and also gives you a search option. However, to get to the search function, you need to click on a button. Again, the sidebar would make more sense.And of course, you can see all of your community members listed.You can order them by username, join date and last activity. Plus, there are three display options to help you find out more about each member; simple, extended and geeky.You can select a member or a group of members, and choose from options which include; activate, deactivate, ban, unban and confirm email.<h3>Modules</h3>The Modules section handles all of the core features of Dolphin.Pro. And there are a lot of them.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-6573x0-is.png" />Ads, articles, blog posts, RSS, photos, videos, audio, store, forum, timeline, world map, simple messenger, Facebook connect, polls, groups, events, online desktops, page access control and much more.There really is a wealth of features to help piece together your online community. Kudos to Boonex, I'm impressed.I tinkered with many of them, and they were pretty straight forward in terms of set up. However, I noticed once again that the back end design was lacking slightly.There are no menus or tabs to organize the inner-workings of these modules. Like the dashboard, you'll need to scroll down the page in order to access different settings. This, paired with the fact that text and page elements seem to be quite large on the Dolphin.Pro admin panel, makes for a cumbersome experience.Clicking “Add + Manage” enables you to update installed modules, see featured uninstalled modules and upload module packages from your computer.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-22416x0-is.png" />Here are a few select modules which are worth talking about.eCommerceDolphin.Pro lets you sell stuff.Under the Modules section in the back end, is the option to add products and configure some settings to do with product listings and sales.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-14586x0-is.png" /> You can also add tags, categories, restrict it to be seen only by members, and so forth. It's not going to compete with any actual eCommerce platforms, but it's a nice integrated option to have.TimelineThe timeline is the lifeblood of any online community.The timeline module lets you configure all the settings to do with the timelines in your community. That includes the ones on the homepage, profile pages, and elsewhere.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-15614x0-is.png" />You can configure the amount of events that are displayed, maximum number of characters in a text post, hide and show particular events, and so on.Flash AppsThe Flash Apps section offers up a set of additional features, including; messenger, desktop, music player, video player, whiteboard, and more.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-16477x0-is.png" />I'm not sure why these features aren't just includes with the rest of the modules, but nevertheless, they each have their settings which are easy enough to configure. That includes enabling and disabling them, setting refresh times, and so forth.Once again, there's a lot to choose from, and there are a lot of settings as a result. But they are quite easy to adjust. Plus, it's another show of just how feature-rich Dolphin.Pro is.<h3>Tools</h3>The Tools section encompasses some of the extra features offered out of the box by Dolphin.Pro.This includes; mass mailing, banners, IP blacklists, database backups, anti-spam tools, caching and sitemaps.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-7475x0-is.png" /> All of the features seemed to work well, with arguably the most important one, the mass mailer, being very simple to use.It lets you write up your email with a rich text editor, manage subscribers, and set the amount of emails that should be sent out at configurable intervals. The only thing it's missing is the option to import subscribers.The rest of the features worked exactly as you would expect them to. Which is a good sign.<h3>Builders</h3>The Builders section lets you handle menus. All the menus. Everywhere.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-9873x0-is.png" />Navigation menus, admin menus, mobile pages, profile fields, and more. Menu options come in the form of blocks which can be dragged and dropped into position. Menus display in such a way to help the user visualize them as they would appear on the front end.Inactive blocks are displayed below, where they can be selected and dragged into place.It's not exciting, but it's an effective interface.<h3>Page Builder</h3>The page builder is as essential as it sounds. You'll need it to build your pages.Thankfully, Dolphin.Pro does a pretty good job of making it easy. It has a similar interface to the menu builder, allowing you to drag and drop elements into place.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-10613x0-is.png" />Such elements include ads, world maps, forum posts, blogs, and all the other modules offered up by Dolphin.Pro. You can also adjust the width of each page to allow for more modules if you so wish.It's not a visual WYSIWYG builder, which would be nice, but it is a visual representation of how things will look. It's a halfway house, and that's acceptable.It's also very responsive and easy to use. No complaints from me here.<h3>Settings</h3>The settings section handles the more technical side of things. It's the less exciting bit, yet holds all of the most important information about your community.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-11585x0-is.png" />That includes admin passwords, membership levels, language settings, email templates for mass mailing, website templates and more.Some basic settings include uploading and resizing a logo, setting a site title, configuring permalinks,<h2>Apps &amp; Extras</h2>As for extras, Boonex Dolphin.Pro has a few.<h3>Market</h3>The marketplace for example, is home to templates, modules, integrations, language packs and more.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-171306x0-is.png" /> There are over 3,200 products to choose from, and I suppose the quality is about the same as you can expect from any third-party plugin marketplace. It's not always going to be of the highest quality, but it makes up for it by providing a whole lot of extra functionality.All one can ask for is a wide range of options, and that's exactly what's on offer.<h3>Templates</h3>When it comes to templates, Dolphin.Pro is a little disappointing.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-18755x0-is.png" />You can choose between three bundled templates from the back end, before having to go to the market and purchase more.But the market only gives you seven more templates to choose from, none of which are free. Ten templates, most of which require payment, is quite poor. The only up side is that the bundled templates are of a high quality.<h3>iOS &amp; Android Apps</h3>Dolphin.Pro users also get to make use of native iOS and Android apps to give community members another way of interacting with the community.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-19471x0-is.png" /> The app lets administrators manage their communities and add multiple sites to be handled from the same app. Registered members can also add sites and participate in the community from the comfort of their iPhone, iPad or Android device.<h2>Getting Help</h2>For help and support, Boonex offers a busy forum, detailed documentation, and an email address. But that’s pretty much it.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-20917x0-is.png" /> The forum is a good resource, with a lot of users asking and answering questions. As for the documentation, everything from the beginners guide to the Development FAQ is written about at length.But if you exhaust those two support options, Boonex only provides a simple email address for you to reach out to them on. There’s no searchable FAQ hub, no ticketing system, and no live chat.For me, all of those missing support options need to be there for a product that’s so widely used.<h2>Pricing</h2>Boonex Dolphin isn’t the cheapest product on the market. And many would argue that that’s justified.<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-12758x0-is.png" /><img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/sshot-13763x0-is.png" />The lowest plan starts at $49 per month for a hosted solution, and $29 per month for a self-hosted solution. Pricing doesn't stop there, though.Dolphin.Pro is equipped to handle large scale projects thanks to its massive set of features, and thus, pricing is offered to reflect that. We're talking $1,980 per month for the network license with unlimited sites, bigger servers and extended dedicated support hours, to a $29,800 one-time fee to buy the network license outright.PHPfox offer their Neutron platform for a one-off fee of $348, which works out to $29 per month for a year, self-hosted. SocialEngine Cloud also comes in at $29 per month, which included hosting.<h2>The Verdict</h2>I like Dolphin.Pro. The more I used it, the more it grew on me.The backend isn't going to win any beauty contests, but it's easy to navigate, very responsive, and it's rammed full of features that are relatively easy to configure.The Boonex market is also well populated, with a number of modules, integrations and more. Together with the long list of features that come out of the box, Dolphin.Pro is a seriously powerful platform.It's not the cheapest option out there, but there's no doubting that Dolphin.Pro is one of the leading products in online community builder market. It's not perfect, but I don't see many other platforms matching it.<h3>Pros</h3><ul><li>Boonex Dolphin.Pro is capable of building a genuinely beautiful online community.</li><li>Feature galore; including; ads, blogs, payments, eCommerce, Chat, events, forums, memberships, polls, groups, page access control, and a whole lot more.</li><li>The user interface is a bit dated and clunky, but it's also simple and well functioning.</li><li>The Market offers a fair amount of modules, integrations and language packs.</li><li>A busy community is always a good thing, and Dolphin.Pro has one in the form of a discussion forum.</li><li>Native iOS &amp; Android apps.</li></ul><h3>Cons</h3><ul><li>Support options are limited.</li><li>The backend could do with a re-design.</li><li>Not enough templates.</li></ul><h2>Final Remarks</h2>The sleekness that Dolphin.Pro can offer from its bundled templates is enough to sway you.The backend needs some work, but it's neat and tidy for the most part, and there's nothing I can criticize when it comes to the quantity and quality of features.As I mentioned earlier, I have my concerns over the lack of stellar community builders on the market, and I think now is a good time to reiterate that. When compared to, say, the eCommerce industry, the quality of products on offer for building social networks is nothing short of disappointing.Boonex Dolphin.Pro though, is one of the few platforms that are holding their own. It's powerful, it has a broad community behind it, and it's capable of being beautiful.All in all, it's a thumbs up from me.

Boonex Dolphin.Pro Review

If you’ve been running your own business for a while, then you’ve probably heard the term ‘CRM’ by now. You’ve also probably heard that it’s essential for your business that you use one. After all, if everyone else is doing it…
<img alt="bigstock-Customer-Relationship-Manageme-95142614.jpg" src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/4-03nOGBHxe_hxMwzWxvscA-g5CnWq-vMLeGFUDB9bQPNXBWkgTRkaf7nr3lXLrYxx84oeptYt9UuJ1kmK7f9mu8Fup4Jdslx9lzssKls-mr78kqYoeRUyVaqntUdFXT6CD3z2kS" />
But what does C-R-M actually mean?
To find out, keep reading, because I’m going to give you an overview of what a CRM is and what it’s used for. I’ll help you to determine how having a CRM can benefit your business, and then let you decide for yourself if you actually need one.
<h2>Let's Talk Acronyms</h2>
CRM stands for Customer Relationship Management.
This is a system that helps you to manage your relationships and interactions with current and prospective customers. A good CRM will provide you with the bigger picture in terms of managing your entire sales process – whether it’s to chase up on leads, schedule follow ups, or keep track of current customers. Basically, it’s designed to make your life a whole lot easier.
When you’re running a growing business, it’s crucial to stay on top of things – and this will get harder and harder to do without a CRM to keep you organized. The beauty of having everything ‘under one roof’ is what makes it essential to have a good CRM at the epicenter of every business. Your CRM dictates how you connect your top of the chain bosses with the employees working on the ground floor – which is one of the most essential lines of communication to keep open in the workforce.
Once you have all of your information gathered in the one place, it becomes much easier to manage your customer database and coordinate with teams across the board. This is essential if you’re running a sales team, especially when reps are out on the road. Often, a few background notes on a prospective customer can be all it takes to seal the deal on a sale.
<h2>Investing In Your Customer</h2>
This is essentially what you’re doing when you purchase a CRM for your business.
You’re investing in your relationships with your customers and showing an understanding for how crucial these relationships are for the success of your company.
A CRM system will store the history of your communications with each customer, so that you can respond to all customer concerns as soon as possible, with custom and personalized responses. Nothing irks customers more than a 5 day response time and a generic customer care ticket; I’ve been that customer in the past – and I didn’t stay a customer for very long.
<h2>Choosing The Right CRM</h2>
The key to successfully implementing a CRM into your business is to ensure that is does make life easier – for both you and your entire team.
It should help your team to be more productive, rather than simply creating more work for them. Most sales people hate admin, it’s a well-known fact, and if you create even more work for them on that side of things – they will not be happy.
Plus, think about it, where do you want your best sales staff? Would you prefer to have them out on the road talking to customers, or stuck in the office trying to figure out your new CRM?
If you ensure that your CRM is designed to help your employees do their jobs better, faster, and easier – then they’ll be more likely to actually use and maintain it. So it’s important to ask for their input right from the start and listen if they say that it’s just not working out.
Don’t jump ship too quickly though, as they may just need some extra training in order to see the real advantages.
For example, if your team members haven’t really committed to the new CRM and they’re still using email searches alongside it, then it’s going to increase their workload rather than lessen it. But if it’s really not the CRM for you, there lots of other options to choose from which may be more suited to your particular business needs.
<h2>How Much Does It Cost?</h2>
The good news is that choosing a CRM doesn’t have to break the bank.
Most CRMs are web/cloud based and they charge a fee per user, per month, for premium services. Premium plans usually range between $10-$30 monthly, with a few outliers on the more expensive end.
However, there are also a whole group of ‘freemium’ CRMs that offer a free standard option to smaller businesses. If you’re a larger business, you can use the freemium package to test out the CRM and upgrade to add the rest of your team once you’re happy to stick with it.
There are also a few open source CRMs which you can download and use completely free of charge.
<h2>Check Out My Top CRMs</h2>
There are tons of CRM Systems to choose from with a wide variety of features, but they all have one core objective – to help you to improve and maintain your relationship with your customers. With the range of apps available, you’re pretty much guaranteed to find one that meets your specific business needs.
The more basic CRMs will allow you to store and update customer information such as email address, contact numbers, notes, etc., but most CRMs on the market at the moment are designed to offer you a whole lot more.
Thanks to there being such a wide range of platforms to choose from, I've got recommendations for you no matter your requirements or budget.
Here's a list of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/top-10-crm-systems/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">ten enterprise-grade CRMs</a>, along with a list of <a href="https://www.cmscritic.com/7-free-crm-systems-that-prove-customer-relationship-management-is-easy/" rel="nofollow" target="_blank">seven free and cheap CRMs</a>, for the budding business.
Do you have CRM in place, or are you thinking of adopting a new CRM for your business? Leave a comment below to let us know which one works best for you.

What is a CRM?

<a href="http://typo3.org/" target="_blank">TYPO3</a> has unveiled the latest Long-Term-Support version of TYPO3, the enterprise content management version.
The free and open-source platform was born in Denmark, back in 1997. Today, it boasts a global community of users and contributing developers.
<img style="max-width:250px" src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/typo3_logo_safearea-1.png" />
This new version will be supported for three years (until August 2017) with maintenance and bug fixes. Let's take a look at what's new.
<h2>Better Looking &amp; Quadruple the Speed</h2>
TYPO3 has proudly put their new backend interface forward as this update's “most striking feature”.
According to them, the new interface allows editors and integrators to work more efficiently thanks to a tidier login screen, simpler structures and the integration of previously distributed components.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/modal_-_discard_unsaved_changes560x0-is.png" /> 
Furthermore, customized images and buttons highlight actions and information boxes. All forms, tables, sections and messages are based on a uniform look and feel.
All editors and administrators can now insert an avatar image to personalize their access. The dial-in screen, the TYPO3 logo and all styles can now be replaced by a project-specific layout.
Typo3 is now responsive, too, allowing for content to be edited on touch-based mobile devices such as tablets and smartphones. Plus, the entire platform is running up to four times faster
<h2>New Features for Editors, Administrators &amp; Developers</h2>
Content editors have some new features to get to grips with, too.
Working with online media such as YouTube or Vimeo Videos is easier, while links, which now comes with previews, can now be referenced under “Text and Media”.
Images can be cropped in the backend without the file being changed. Plus, if a file upload will overwrite existing files, you can specify whether multiple files should be moved, renamed or be skipped by performing an action.
<img src="https://cmscritic.com/ms-content/uploads/2023/08/image_manipulation652x0-is.png" />
As for Administrators, they can now load the TYPO3 sources and all of the required extensions via the standardized PHP Package Manager “Composer.”
A central information system shows important system features in the latest version at a glance. In addition, backend user groups can be managed just like individual users in a separate module.
Developers haven't been ignored either.
Thanks to a completely new approach to the backend interface that is based on Twitter Bootstrap 3, LESS/CSS3, HTML5, RequireJS and jQuery, TYPO3 CMS 7 makes it easier to add individual modules with simultaneous use of all standard rendering definitions and adapted, ready-to-use components.
More can be found out about this update from the <a href="http://typo3.org/news/article/announcing-typo3-cms-7-lts/" target="_blank">TYPO3 blog announcement</a>.
Plus, you can explore more of <a href="/products/typo3/" target="_blank">TYPO3 via our CMS Directory</a>.

TYPO3 CMS 7 LTS Has Arrived

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