When Rhodes University was looking to improve its Web presence and simplify the process of managing Web content, it chose Obsidian System`s i2i Enterprise solution.
With a potential 6 000 regular users and hundreds of academic departments to service, the Web Unit at Rhodes University has an unenviable task. Toni Olivier, manager of the Rhodes University Web Unit, says managing the Web needs of a university the size of Rhodes is a little like looking after a 100 different small businesses, each with its own needs. Consequently, when the unit decided to take the university`s Web offering to a new level, Olivier and her team opted to find a content management system that was simple to use, able to handle heavy user loads and, above all, highly flexible.
"We chose the i2i Enterprise content management system (CMS) from Obsidian Systems for a number of reasons, the most important of which is that it is based on open source products and is extremely modular and flexible. Our current Web platform is Linux-based and the university has always favoured open source software, which made the Obsidian CMS an obvious choice.
"Because of the difficulty of managing so many different users we needed a tool that we could either have extended for us or do it ourselves. With a proprietary, closed source solution we would not have had been able to customise it to the degree we needed. There is no one solution that will meet all our needs, but with a flexible open product like i2i Enterprise, we can now achieve our requirements," says Olivier.
Fred Strauss, divisional manager of Observe, a division of Obsidian Systems, says: "The i2i Enterprise CMS is a highly scalable and user-friendly system enabling easy management of live online content. The i2i Enterprise CMS has advanced user and group permissions built into the system and goes a long way beyond what most content management systems offer. Each user is assigned permissions allowing varying degrees of access to the site from both single or group updates."
"In practice this means, for example, lecturers are empowered to post material relevant to their course whenever they want," says Olivier. "And they don`t have to have any particular design or coding skills." Previously, users had to create pages manually and then upload them to the relevant server by FTP. For many, this was either outside of their skills range or they simply did not have time to do it, she says. "With i2i, users don`t require specialist skills."
"i2i Enterprise also allows users to customise their experience of the site by using different themes - this allows individual departments or societies at Rhodes to distinguish themselves."
i2i Enterprise also gives administrators greater control over the layout of their pages, says Strauss. Administrators are able to control the flow of text on the page one paragraph at a time as well as being able to place a picture alongside any and each of the paragraphs as well as include attachments for each and every paragraph.
The roll-out was not without its challenges, however. "We have a number of servers, spread throughout the campus and in the final product we need to publish information that may come from a range of different sources," says Olivier. "To users, however, the information must appear seamless and they must be able access it easily and quickly."
The CMS system has also been integrated into the current e-mail login system, allowing students and staff to log in with their existing usernames and gain access to the new system.
Olivier says not only was the i2i Enterprise CMS flexible, but Obsidian Systems was also very flexible in the face of demands by the university. "And sometimes we really pushed the limits, particularly with regards to layout, and they responded to everything we needed."
"Fortunately the modular design of i2i also makes it easy to extend with new sections, and the documentation and coding notes are excellent," says Strauss. As part of the implementation, Obsidian Systems is providing training to the university to allow developers there to build their own modules.
"The entire project was a collaborative effort between Obsidian and Rhodes. By combining the Web Unit`s understanding of the university`s requirements and Obsidian`s development skills, together we have managed to develop a perfectly tailored product," says Strauss.
The new Web site is planned for rollout as final testing and training is completed, says Olivier. "We have an ever-growing wish-list of features to integrate into the system, which we plan to develop as modules in the near future. Our aim is to keep adding more and more useful services, which will in turn encourage our users to become involved in building a truly user-friendly Web site," concludes Olivier.
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