On April 12, Metro State’s Web Content Management System team announced TERMINALFOUR (T4) as the College’s WCMS provider, with the goal of helping more than 200 Web authors throughout the College easily update their department websites.

T4 provides campus-wide CMS solutions for more than 75 colleges and universities throughout Europe and the U.S., says Chris Mancuso, Metro State’s WCMS project lead and director of Web communications.

The evaluation committee selected T4 out of 14 companies, after it ranked best in both features and cost categories.

The WCMS initiative, announced in October 2010, is being spearheaded by the Office of College Communications, in collaboration with Information Technology.

“This project stemmed from a faculty suggestion about how we could do business better,” says Cathy Lucas, associate vice president of communications and advancement. “This is a major step in our technology that will strategically benefit our external web efforts now, and in the future.

One of the College’s Rightsizing with Technology projects, the initiative aims to provide a campus-wide and consistent method for website design, template creation and site maintenance for outward-facing department websites. The 25-member WCMS committee includes representation from all areas of the College.

The WCMS Working Group has established two subcommittees to address policy recommendations and a phased implementation plan. A website has also been launched to keep the community informed of the project’s progress.

“The most exciting part of the new Web Content Management System is the fact that individuals who do not have an IT background will be able to develop and maintain their websites with relative ease,” says Jason Doyle, assistant to the associate vice president for enrollment services, who serves on the Implementation Subcommittee. “The Implementation Subcommittee has done a good job of identifying departments within the College who are equally excited to be part of the WCMS, which only makes the transition to the new system more efficient.”

Director of Student Activities Brooke Gerber, who serves on the Policy Subcommittee, says “department websites will continually look fresh and not be dependent on tech-savvy people.”

She adds that after seeing the demonstration of the software, “It looks pretty easy to navigate.”

“Once it is implemented, faculty will be really excited. It will be much easier to update and maintain department websites, especially for those of us who don’t have specialized expertise in website design,” says Human Performance and Sport Professor Joe Quatrochi, who served on the team and provided non-technical feedback from the perspective of faculty members.

He adds, “It will be as simple to change a departmental Web page as it is to change an announcement on the My Courses tab on MetroConnect. I think faculty will feel empowered by that.”

In preparation for the migration to the new system, Information Technology is setting up the hardware environment for the system. The next step will be installation of the system software and the migration will begin.

For more information, visit the WCMS website or contact Director of Web Communications Chris Mancuso.