NSPCC updates intranet content management

The NSPCC has begun rolling out a content management system which aims to eventually allow short message service (SMS) messaging and PDAs to be added to its existing internet and intranet systems as distribution channels for its corporate content.

The child protection charity is implementing Percussion Software's Rhythmyx 5 for its intranet. If the roll-out is successful, the content management system will be expanded to its public-facing internet site over the next 12 to 18 months.

The NSPCC said the project aims to address management of the more than 180 community projects the charity runs throughout the UK.

The organisation's existing intranet site was based on Microsoft's FrontPage and included mostly static HTML-based pages. The site shared content with the extranet and internet sites, yet these had to be updated separately.

Gary Smith, project manager at the NSPCC, said: "We wanted to implement a centrally managed corporate style, pull content from across the organisation into a managed environment, place content management back in the hands of the web authors and enable them to carry out content updates and changes easily and reuse existing content without technical assistance."

More than 90 authors contribute to the intranet site, but with only one content manager authorised to make content changes a bottleneck often formed. The new system has been designed to remove this problem.

The NSPCC evaluated more than 20 content management systems, including, according to Smith, offerings from "all the biggest names".

"We will migrate our intranet into Rhythmyx, but in the future we will be able to promote the NSPCC through new innovative delivery channels such as SMS or PDAs, at no extra cost," he added.