Information Portals and CMS
An information portal or CMS is a website that allows the admin to add, edit, create and publish content to the internet without needing to know all the techy stuff that usually comes with running a larger website.
Information portals and CMS website's take on many shapes and forms and are the most common form of website on the internet today. They are so common that many companies out there are already running a CMS without actually knowing it.
They can handle unlimited pages of content, and create the needed navigation on the fly and are great for displaying just about any type of digital media from plain text to interactive Flash movies.
Content management means content growth.
A content management system may be the site you need even if at this point you feel a simple static website might do the job, all you need to ask yourself is how much growth do you expect from your site over a certain amount of time.
If you expect to add another 15 pages of content over the next 12 months this is ample reason to get a CMS rather than a static website right from the start. With a static site you will have to either learn HTML and CSS to add extra content yourself pay to have all your content uploaded and styled by a professional. Then of course if you do decide to eventually upgrade to a CMS you are pretty much paying for a second website.
Going for a CMS right from the start may seem counter productive as a static site will probably be cheaper up front however if you calculate your maintenance costs over a set period of time you will probably find the CMS to be the cheaper alternative in the long run.
CMS are highly future proof.
Another advantage over a static website is that a CMS is database driven meaning that upgrades in the future will be much less hassle and cost as a lot of the architecture to cater for your upgrades is already in place.
There are two main types of CMS. There are custom built CMS systems that are tailored to your specific needs and there are open source CMS systems that will save you thousands of pounds. Of course with an open source system you will still need a GD to get it looking like you intend it to look but this will be much more cost effective than having the full thing built from scratch.