Content is one of the most important elements of a website. To help manage content to ensure information is accurate, relevant, current, consistent and shared among websites, ICT recommends the institutional web content management system.

A WCMS allows individuals who manage or contribute to websites to create, publish and update content more easily; for example, content owners can publish without web publishing or IT expertise. Users require a minimum of training (2-3 hours in 95% of cases) to use the WCMS to publish content.

The U of S has been profiled in a WCMS case study.

In This Section

• Using the WCMS
• College and Department Responsibilities
• About Cascade Server
• Request a Demo
• Service Frequently Asked Questions
• Training
• Technical Support

Service

WCMS Base Level of Service

• Developer and content contributor support - including training, business analysis, documentation, troubleshooting, permissions, and account management
• System administration - including development environment, upgrades, maintenance, back-up, and web hosting
• Research and development - best practices, ongoing features enhancement for out-of-the-box sites
• Website advising  - including organization, planning, resource allocation*
• U of S website and mobile templates - including setup and configuration
• Institutional Dates & Events calendar integration - including setup, configuration, and support
• Centralized institutional support - including data integration
• Leadership - Founding members of the Canadian Cascade User Group established in Fall 2011

Benefits

The following is a partial list of the benefits of a centrally supported web content management system:

1. Access to the user-friendly WCMS software, as well as development, test and production environments.
2. Access to support services, including hardware, software, database and application support.
3. Access to sample websites and layouts to provide ideas and guidelines for using the many features of the WCMS, including graphic design elements, navigation structures, and workflows. Here is a sample of some sites currently using the WCMS.
4. Access to best practices web development documentation, including converting or transferring existing sites to the WCMS.
5. Training and consultation to support a successful web project, including workshops, one-on-one sessions and training manuals.
6. Supported integration with other IT systems on campus including PAWS, blogs, wikis, and SESD's academic program and course information.
7. Campus peer support communities for ongoing idea generation and sharing resources for IT and web developers, and communications personnel. These communities include active participation from members of Educational Media Access and Production (EMAP), Office of Communications, ICT and early adopters of the system.
8. ICT provides Cascade accounts, access to samples and documentation, developer training and consulting for people who are to maintain U of S webpages free of charge

The user-friendly interface allows for easy web publishing. With these services, IT resources are not required to maintain web content, making their time available for more value-added technical work.

The WCMS tool, Cascade Server, requires no special desktop device; it is accessible from all supported web browsers, including Internet Explorer on Windows and Netscape/Mozilla/Firefox on Windows, Mac, Linux and Solaris. Safari on Mac is supported; however some features of the WYSIWYG editor may not work.