What is Cision?

Is Cision even a CMS? I have no clue. Its website is filled with marketing materials. I can’t even find the technologies behind the platform. Cision is a potential CMS for the Law School to replace MODX. The decision is above my level. I am curious and concerned how a change in CMS will unfold.

Our current website has about 2,000 pages. About half of these pages are dynamically generated. The faculty directory alone is large and complicated. Each faculty page has tons of template variables (fields) including courses taught, expertise, alma maters, and resume. In the publication section, faculty working papers go all the way back to 1999. All of the authors are tied into the faculty directory as well as a huge directory of authors who aren’t teaching at the Law School. Then the courses are dynamically generated as well. They includes fields like descriptions, prerequisites, and offered semesters.

Over 15 years, the system has increased many moving parts to accommodate new changes and requests. When I asked a Cascade rep how they would migrate the site over and his answer was to use an automated tool or hire interns to move the content manually. I don’t know how an automated tool could migrate the pages over if the technologies aren’t the same. Trying to replicate all the variables that we currently have would be a nightmare. Hiring interns is also laughable. If we paid $75,000 for the CMS and we still have to hire interns to do the laborious work? How ridiculous is that?

I don’t think the folks in charge understand how complicate it is to migrate from one system to a completely different system. I just have to wait and see how it will play out. Since I have no say on this matter, I’ll just roll along. I can use any system they want to have in place.