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GlobalSCAPE, the maker of the popular file transfer application, CuteFTP, recently debuted its new Web content management system, dubbed PureCMS. The content management system is GlobalSCAPE's tenth product released since its was formed as a spin-off company to ATSI Communications in 1996.

Developed primarily for non-technical staff members of small to medium-sized businesses, PureCMS allows employees to propose changes to the text and graphics of a site without having to go through the company's Webmaster or IT staff.

GlobalSCAPE has first hand knowledge about the perils and pitfalls small businesses experience while managing Web content, because the company is also a small business. GlobalSCAPE anticipates reporting year-end sales for 2002 in the $5 million to $6 million range. The company's 40 employees spent the majority of last year designing PureCMS and gearing up for the product launch.

GlobalSCAPE understands that many small businesses experience a bottleneck in how Web content gets updated — a Webmaster gets bombarded every day with requests from people in sales and marketing, public relations and human resources to update and adjust Web content. PureCMS allows co-workers to add or update Web content without the Webmaster losing control of the site, because the Webmaster determines who has access to what editable regions of Web content. Additional features of PureCMS include:

• User Management: Allows non-technical and Web development staff to work independently of each other. Access is browser-based and easy to administer.
• Workflow: Administrators can approve changes before a page is published to a live Web server. No live changes can me made without approval.
• Versioning and Archiving: PureCMS acts as a storage server that can readily backup and restore an entire site if live server problems occur.
• Content Creation: Familiar, user-friendly WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editing allows users to make changes without knowing HTML (HyperText Markup Language).
• Reporting: E-mail notifications of changes are automatic, approval and activity reports are available for approved users to review. Detailed site statistics include visitors by hour of the day, most recent visitors, entry pages, most visited pages, time spent visiting the site, as well as search engine and keyword search data.

How it Works
Setup can be accomplished in minutes — there is no need to deconstruct your site and start from scratch. PureCMS is browser-based, so the product works with existing Web publishing software such as Microsoft Front Page or Macromedia Dreamweaver to create a separate Web site on a staging server that can be edited without affecting the live site.

After installing PureCMS, the administrator opens up a Webmaster account, and sets up users and groups that are allowed to access specific regions of the company's Web site. Webmasters can designate specific areas of each page as editable or non-editable for an individual user or group of users (below).

Non-technical users simply browse through a copy of their organization's Web site from which they can select the page they want to edit, login and make textual or graphic changes on screen. Users can even copy and paste content into a Web page from popular Windows applications, such as Microsoft Word.

After proposed changes are saved, that individual's team leader is notified of pending activity via e-mail (below). The team leader or site manager is able to visually compare proposed changes to the previous content, approve, and publish the new content immediately or schedule the content to be published at a later date. The result is that Web content can be quickly updated more efficiently by a group of employees.

Technical Specifications
Users and administrators with Internet access can access PureCMS from any Windows 95, 98, ME, NT 4, 2000 or XP computer using Internet Explorer 5.5 or higher.

The staging server needs to run Microsoft IIS 5.0.2314.0 software (or higher) and a 1 GHz Pentium III processor is highly recommended. The minimum memory capacity required is 128 MB, but 256 or more MB of RAM is recommended for optimum use. The staging server must also have a TCP/IP network connection for user access and a FTP connection to the production server.

The staging and production server can be on the same machine. But the server should very robust, especially if multiple users will be updating content frequently, as this makes heavy demands on the server's memory and other resources.

Pricing and Availability
PureCMS is available through the company's Web site and through reseller partners. PureCMS costs $350 per user license or $1,050 for three licenses. Additional licenses in larger blocks are available at a discount upon request.

Patricia Fusco is the Managing Editor of SmallBusinessComputing.com, which originally published this article.