It is common in big organizations to generate a lot of data. These data can be in the form of text documents, images, audio files, data files and even web content data.

Also, in a big organization, there are different layers of functional systems which take care of the different aspects of the organization's operations. For example, there may be branches of the organization that take care of the finances of the company. Another might take care of the transportation and logistics details for the company. Another might be involved with the legal aspects of running the company. And still another might take care of the marketing strategies of the company.

Each of these different parts of one company will generate their own content, whether it be textual, image, audio or video. Each of these generated content will also be valuable to the company not only for the present but also in the near and the far future. Thus, each of these contents must be stored so that they are not lost, indexed so that they are kept in an organized manner and made easily searchable and available should anybody want the content at anytime.

Now imagine that this happens for a very big organization, with more than ten divisions within it and thousands of content generated every day. You will begin to see the problem of content management.

For this very problem, content management systems are the boon in big companies and organizations. With a content management system in place, all the data generated by the company is easily managed, placed in the proper storage spaces and made available for use at any time. However, this is just basically the archival properties of a content management system.

A content management system can also handle a “workflow” process. Generally, in any organization, there are situations where a type of content, most usually a text document, is passed along the many departments or divisions of the organization. The document involved is usually reviewed, appended, changed and finally approved as it passes through the different divisions of the organization. A good example of this would be vouchers and requests that need to pass through the different levels of management to get approval and eventual release.

In organizations involved in media publications, content management systems can also be invaluable tools in generating the content that the company uses in its business. The “workflow” in this case would start from the writer who would electronically transfer his contents to the editor. The editor, after approval would forward the content to the layout department where the content submitted with the other is laid out along with other images and contents generated by other writers. Once the layout is done, the entire content of the magazine in electronic format is forwarded to the printers where they are printed into paper and ready for distribution. Meanwhile, all the contents for that particular issue that was generated can be, at a later time accessed and used should any writer need reference information contained in the issue.

There are many web content management systems available all around. In general, these content management systems are used for data storage, data flow control, data versioning, and the publishing of industry-specific content such as marketing brochures, technical manuals, operator's manuals, sales guides and news articles.

A competent web content management system is expected to be able to support the following operations:
         

• importing and creating text documents, audio and video presentations and any combination thereof

• identifying the users of each document and the level of content management that is allowed to them

• assigning different roles and responsibilities to a number of types and/or content categories

• defining of the workflow tasks connected to the content along with event messaging for any content managers so that they are notified to any changes that the content undergoes

• tracking and managing different versions of a single content

• publishing the content to some repository so that the content is easily accessible.

These are a few of the operations that a web content management system should be able to handle. This is not a complete list of functions as a thorough web content management system is able to handle so many more tasks.

A content management system is often referred to as the veins of the company and with good reason. With proper management, the organizational workflow can become streamlined and efficient. Without it, it becomes bogged down, chaotic and inefficient.