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At CentreSource, we have a motto that “outcomes always outweigh the output.”  Through this, we try to focus on meeting the individual goals of our clients, versus focusing on the process of how they get done.  One goal we often hear is that our clients would like an easy way to update the website themselves.  By using a Content Management System (CMS), we enable our clients to accomplish this — without having to install anything on their computers, or know too much about how websites work.

Over the history of CentreSource, we’ve worked hard to choose the perfect CMS to be able to meet the individual needs of each client and project that comes our way.  There was always a balance that had to be struck — it couldn’t be too cookie-cutter, or else we wouldn’t be able to do everything that the client was asking.  Conversely, it wouldn’t be cost efficient if we had to custom build a CMS for our clients each time.  By focusing on the outcome  (the client’s goal of an easy-to-update website), we decided that the best single CMS option was not a single option at all, but instead a “toolbox” approach that would allow us to use the appropriate tool for each unique job.

At CentreSource, much of our web development utilizes the Drupal open source content management system. From custom websites to large scale corporate websites, Drupal offers many modules for flexibility, personalization, and customizable URLs that are search engine and end user friendly.

The technical definition of Drupal is:
Drupal is a web-based content management system. Text and pointers to other kinds of content are stored in a database, dynamically retrieved and composed, and presented to a user in response to a request sent via a web-browser.

CentreSource offers our congratulations to the open source Drupal community as Drupal Wins the Overall Open Source Content Managment System Award for 2007.

CentreSource has jumped on the Blackberry bandwagon! After complaining for months that I spend too much time with email, I gave up trying to avoid the problem and simply decided to further my addiction :) We purchased three new Blackberry 8703e’s and have now started the painful process of getting them to work in our Open Source environment. That’s right, Blackberries in a world without Outlook and Exchange. The verdict? It works, but not great.

Installation

Virtuemart:

• <5 minutes (if you have a working installation of Joomla, <10 minutes otherwise).
• Installs as a module for Joomla. Click upload & install from module installer pane, and viola!
• Package comes with two Joomla components, two mambots, and several plug-in modules that offer added functionality (i.e. minicart, top 10 products list).
• Includes sample data for a demo store.
• Uses Joomla’s admin interface for store administration

osCommerce:

• <10 minutes.
• Includes sample data for a demo store.
• Comes with admin interface.

Recently, a potential client asked us if we could recommend a viable open source document management system (DMS) for their needs. Despite our deep experience with Open Source business solutions, I didn’t have one to recommend. I think that is primarily because so few businesses have need for a true DMS – even if they could benefit from it. As I thought about it, we could benefit from one because we save so many files and even have an elaborate naming scheme for versioning.

So, I went on a quest to see what I could find. The systems I chose have the following features: Easy to use, Flexible to store any file, Versioning, Ability to handle large Volumes of Data, Customizable Meta Data, Document Text Search (including PDF), and Provide a Web Interface for Universal Access. Here are the ONLY two candidates I found: