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Why Should you Choose Umbraco as Your CMS?

Today, almost all commercial websites are built on top of a Content Management System (CMS). This simple and convenient software is designed to allow everyone to create, publish and manage web content regardless of their technological competence and without the need to code it from scratch.

Published February 4, 2021 By Mikkel Keller Stubkjær

Unfortunately, many companies are relying on overly expensive CMS systems that charge excessive amounts of money on recurring annual license fees. Here at Novicell our CMS solutions are powered by Umbraco, an open-source CMS system built on a solid .NET platform. Umbraco has powered over 500,000 websites worldwide and, most importantly, is completely free of recurring license charges.

Here is our quickfire video introduction to Umbraco from our very own Head of Development, Mikkel Keller Stubkjaer In this video, Mikkel shares his insight into Novicell’s proven approach to delivering successful, manageable and scalable websites using Umbraco solutions.

To make life easier, we have summarised the key points from his video in this blogpost so that you won’t miss a single detail about Umbraco CMS and the benefits it can have for your business.

Umbraco CMS benefits

There are no recurring license fees… it’s completely free

One of the biggest Umbraco highlights is that Umbraco is completely free to use and download. If you have your own server and host that meets Umbraco requirements there are absolutely no additional costs. This means that you can save money on annual recurring license fees without having to suffer on the quality of your CMS.

Word-class editor experience

With Umbraco you have the ability to design, present and edit your website exactly how you want it. Umbraco’s content editor allows you to preview your content before it’s live so that you can understand how it will look and feel on all types of devices. You can even work on drafts and publish the content at a time that suits you through the scheduled publishing feature. This way you can work your CMS around you and your schedule.

infographic of digital devices

Flexible and adaptable architecture

Umbraco is an extremely flexible and extendable platform with no restrictions on content structure or layout. The Umbraco platform will also not restrict the data and integrations that you choose to incorporate into the CMS, giving you the freedom to manage your website in a way that is most relevant for you. There is no out-of-the-box functionality or feature and so Umbraco users are provided with the ultimate flexibility.

What if you decide that you require out-of-the-box functionality for your website? 

With Umbraco, there is no default site structure, navigation, site search or footer which means that you are encouraged to start each website structure from scratch. Whilst this is often fantastic in giving users optimum control over their website – it may not work for everyone.  

This is why we created Novicell Premium, an advanced website solution built on top of Umbraco that works immediately without any configuration. Novicell Premium includes all of the traditional Umbraco features, only now you receive all the necessary foundations required to build your website

Benefits of Novicell Premium        

A Solid Foundation

Novicell Premium provides all users with the critical building blocks required to start a website. These include:

  • A standardised responsive website design that is mobile-optimised
  • A default site structure and predefined content blocks such as headlines, images and video elements
  • Advanced editing tools on top of Umbraco
  • Support for site-search features and SEO functionality, but also Web Content Accessibility Guidance (WCAG)

 Customisation

 With your website foundation covered, Novicell Premium is able to customise any aspect of your future website to your exact requirements. We can build anything from small, medium and enterprise-level websites and integrate anything you can possibly imagine into that platform. The customisation features include:

  • A personalised scoping workshop led by Novicell to define your business needs and capture your requirements
  • A custom design that fits with your brand
  • The integration of any third-party system from within your organisation
  • Bespoke or custom functionalities are chosen by you (i.e. a location finder module that displays your office, store or clinic location and makes this location searchable for end users). We are constantly adding new modules that you can use in the future - we work around you!

Headless First Approach

On top of all of this, we also have several enterprise-grade features in Novicell Premium. These include one-to-one support for multisite and multilingual set-up, as well as a headless first approach that completely separates the Umbraco CMS system from your website. This means that every part of the solution has a different API which provides you with various benefits:

  • With an open API, you can have a multichannel setup. This may include a website, mobile application or even an in-store screen or device. You can use any programming language to extract content from the content management system, meaning you can also power content on an Alexa, Google Home or any IoT device.
  • Separating your CMS from your website provides your website with advanced longevity. You can substitute or redesign your website without impacting your CMS as ultimately your front-facing website and CMS will have different life spans.
  • As your CMS is separated it is easier to keep your CMS upgraded to the latest version. There is no website code lingering in the CMS which makes it more clean, upgradable and easier to maintain.
  • As the CMS is no longer interconnected to the live front-facing website it can be restricted from the public domain which can help implement tighter security measures. This also means that if your CMS is down it will not affect the overall running of your website.

 

So, why should you choose Umbraco as your CMS?

Umbraco CMS is not only a simple and user-centric platform, but it is also completely free to use. There are no recurring annual license fees typical of CMS systems and you have the opportunity to extend your CMS to Novicell Premium. With our proven method for optimising digital strategy, we are able to customise any aspect of your website and scale up this platform as your business grows. Anyway you choose it, Novicell Premium is a future-proof platform that turns your website into a true business driver.

Novicell Premium is built on proven solutions from over 200 client projects and is our accumulative best practice. 

Interested to know how the global pharmaceutical company, Sinclair Pharma, strengthened their online presence and increased their website traffic by 76% using Novicell Premium?

three laptop with open pages for Sinclair website