ght by USWeb in 1997 before it became the ill-fated Marchfirst) deployed some of the first large-scale content management systems on the Internet. In Advantage CMS, you'll find many features offered by high-end systems, including document versioning, support for multiple languages (including Chinese), slick WYSIWYG content editing, and workflow with e-mail notification. And as you read this, the company should be rolling out a development environment to support do-it-yourself template modifications and even custom extensions to the CMS itself.
CrownPeak claims that customers typically spend $60,000 for the first year. That cost doesn't include hosting because, like Atomz (see review), CrownPeak deploys the site on your servers, not its own. The initial implementation fee--which averages $30,000--includes training, integration (with LDAP directories, for example), and template creation (you provide the design and CrownPeak does the HTML). The remaining first-year cost estimate goes to the subscription, which buys you ongoing CMS support and maintenance. Sounds reasonable, especially considering that Advantage CMS is built on Microsoft technology (Windows 2000, SQL Server, VBScript, IIS, and so on) rather than on open source.
The standout feature of Advantage CMS is its mature DHTML user interface, which makes editing template content a breeze. To update content, you navigate a version of the site that flags editable page areas and even enables users to add annotations. Click through, and Advantage CMS delivers knockout content update features similar to Microsoft Word's default editing and formatting toolbars, spell checking included. And unlike most CMSes, you can add links to other pages on your site using picklists instead of inserting "HREF" statements and cutting and pasting URLs.
The administrative features are just as slick. Access to the system is role-based, but rather than selecting from a few pre-set roles, administrators can craft them from scratch, assigning or restricting access to features easily. Users can even play multiple roles, with a table to keep track of who can do what. A different workflow can be assigned to every asset, from text content to a video clip--and a complete version history for every asset enables you to roll back to any previous version. Moreover, those who place a high priority on integration with other systems will like Advantage CMS' support for SOAP, XML, and ODBC interoperability.
The new developer toolkit for Advantage CMS gives customers access to the templates, which are treated as documents (see screen)--so ordinary business users can edit them or change their layout using WYSIWYG editing and formatting tools (as well as establish the same versioning and workflow used for content). Among other things, this enables you to work on a site redesign while people are still using the system and push the new design live without affecting content. In addition, a new HTML import feature makes it easy to suck an existing site into Advantage CMS. And more advanced developers will enjoy several amenities, including the ability to create interactive forms and syntax highlighting and checking.
Like Atomz, CrownPeak uses your servers rather than its own to host your site. This puts a damper on true personalization and pages that interact heavily with a database. But if you want an ASP-based CMS that publishes static pages to your own servers, you'd be hard-pressed to find a solution with more power and usability for everyone from content editors, to template designers, to administrators.
