I provided a CMS short-list to a client today, just one of a number of CMS selection projects that we currently have underway. What made this different, however, was the requirement for integration between the CMS and TRIM, their records management system (RMS/EDRMS).

Their needs were fairly straightforward:

• Take documents stored in the RMS, select the desired ones via the CMS, and publish them seamlessly to the public website.
• Locally cache copies of the documents to reduce the impact on the RMS, and automatically refresh the local copy when the RMS version is updated.
• Allow site visitors to fill in online forms, and store this data directly in the RMS to meet recordkeeping requirements.

It’s lucky that this project has been going very slowly, as a year ago (when they last had time to consider getting a new CMS), there were almost no products in the market that could meet this need out of the box. Thankfully there are now a (small) handful of solutions that can do this, mostly Australian-developed products.

This is a common requirement, amongst government agencies, local councils, and compliance-driven firms. This would be slam-dunk during the sales process for these types of organisations. At yet, capabilities in the CMS marketplace are weak at best.

Why do more CMS products not offer simple integration with records management systems?

When they do have this capability, why don’t they market it?