WHAT IS CONTENT MANAGEMENT

A Definition

"Content management encompasses a set of processes and technologies, enabling the creation and packaging of content (documents, complex media, applets, components, etc.) as part of a dynamic and integrated Web-centric environment." If that's too much, read what we have to say about this:


A content management system allows you to break down information into small chunks of data and generate web pages (or other media formats) from these bits and pieces. It is closely linked to the web, although a these systems can generate output for print media as well. A lot of people (and companies) have different kind of definitions, but content management always relates to the Internet, websites (whether static or dynamic ones) and publishing.

Do I need a database system?

Not necessarily, but you don't get the benefit of fast and simple web publishing if you have to key-in data for each and every web page or document you want to publish. The advantage of using a software like TOPS is to generate many output formats from a single entry into a database.

Is TravelObjects Similar to Dreamweaver or Frontpage?

If you are fast and well trained with either web authorizing package (that's what they call this), you can make up any kind of webpage with such a software. However, no web authorizing tool lets you administrate a database, tells you what information you have on hand on a certain topic and lets you generate web pages at the click of a button. Only a content management system combined with a relational database allows you to generate a web page out of a database in a single step.

What Other Content Management Software is Out There?

Not much really, when looking at it from the travel industry point of view. There are about a dozen software packages in the market, starting around USD 20,000 up into the hundreds of thousands. Vignette or Broadvision are household names with Fortune 500 companies and RedDot offers a good entry level software. However, all of them require extensive customization and none of them has much background in the travel industry. As a rule of thumb, the amount you spend on the software itself has to be invested again in customization.