Is a CMS what my client needs?

CMS, content management question

[biztips]

I have a friend who owns a construction company; the site was built with FP 2003 by a college student. Now they want to update it. Fine... I can do that.

What concerns me is that they ALSO want their customers to be able to access private areas of the site in which construction progress can be seen/shared. In other words, they want their project managers to be able to enter updated construction pictures or progress reports or timeline changes, etc., that their customers can log into and see over the Internet.

(Hope I've described that understandably!)

Also, they don't want their project managers to have to learn HTML or web design to DO this. If Project Manager "Fred" has "ABC Co." as a construction client, Fred should just be able to log in, type up a report or upload a picture, then email ABC Co. that an update is ready to be viewed.

So.. is content management software what I'm looking at? I have NO idea if I have enough expertise to manage this, but I at least want to be able to give my friend some advice and pros/cons on the direction his website should go.

Thank you!
Diana

[txbakers]

sounds like a CMS could do it. Otherwise, you could write a nice interface for the field people to do the same thing.

sounds like a good niche market to tap!

[biztips]

Well, *I* couldn't write an interface - would have to get someone to do that for me - don't even know enough here to know what I DON'T know! I know basic HMTL, use FP 2003, that's about it.

Does Microsoft Project Server do this, or is it overkill? I think the company could afford it. Is that something that goes along WITH a website, or IS it a website, too?

Thanks!

[Storyman]

Is it possible to switch to Adobe's GoLive. They offer Co-Author, which is a free download. Co-Author is easy way for your customer to post. However, it is limited to simple text formatting (bold, italic), links, and images.

[biztips]

Hmmm, maybe. I meet with him on Tuesday and what I want to do then is present options, with pros/cons, and that's certainly something I can suggest.

Thank you!

[tangor]

Some of the forum softwares could do the same and offer private logins for the customers. Just another option.

[moltar]

They have content - info about the company, project status reports / pictures
They need to manage that.

Thus they need a content managment solution :)

It might not be something out-of-the-box, but it'll still be a CMS.

[biztips]

Whew! Getting lots of options, here.

What IS "out of the box" that can be a)private and b) easily updated by multiple authors without them learning HTML? Would appreciate specific product recommendations...

So far Adobe GoLive w/Co-Author is the only specific product mentioned. If anyone can recommend a particular CMS model/product/software solution, I would like to take a look at it.

I have to educate MYSELF a bit more, first, before I can help my friend.

Thank you!

[moltar]

I often used WordPress. It is marketed as a blogging CMS, but in fact it can be whatever you want it to be. Especially with 100s of plugins, you can turn it into anything you want.

It has a password protected pages option, so you can limit access to certain pages and give password to the customers. Then your client can update those password protected pages with pictures and whatever else that needs to be added.

[biztips]

Anyone tried the beta of Office Live Essential? It also sounds as if it would do what I want, plus be easy for THEM to make changes to the site.

Believe it's at officelive.microsoft.com

[red_gorilla]

You can use any open source cms like Joomla, Xoops. Also there a lot of other more simple options. It will not require a lot of html knowledge. All you need to customise default graphics and install some modules. The easiest way for you simply publish articles as progress reports and make them inaccessible for unregistered users also I have not seen modules tham make document’s accessible only for one user but I think you can find it.

Dmitry.