DotNetNuke (DNN) is the most cost effective content management system (CMS) for the windows platform. DNN is the framework or "glue" that enables easy addition and change of the essential software building blocks that make up a modern corporate web server system. A CMS like DNN can be used to deliver websites ranging from simple corporate "brochure" websites to custom, complex, custom work automation and data integration systems that touch every corner of your organization.
Background
After years of building and rebuilding websites, the software industry realised that most of all websites contained similar content, and customers were balking at the costs and time required to make even the smallest change, as each of these changes required the resources of a software development company. The CMS enabled for the first time, the ability to select from a library of pre-built modules, each of which was used to create some portion of the web application. Once these building blocks were selectec and put in place into the framework, advanced access control systems would allow non-technical subject matter experts from across the organization (or across the world) to be able to take ownership, contribute and manage their own content on the website without the need to contact the IT department.
Evolution
Before long, the "portal" concept was born whereby the CMS became the central point of data integration for the corporation, such that each page, or part of a page being produced by the CMS "engine" was in fact, behind the scenes being populated by different individuals, departments, divisions, databases and data sources etc without these contributors ever even needing to speak to each other. Now, also for the first time the content being added was not only typed verbiage, but also critical data systems like accounting, HR, ERP etc. At last the corporation had a single tool to gather all of its data in a single platform without the need to call the IT department for every change.
Original open source CMS systems were mostly based upon the Linux platform until DotNetNuke emerged as a viable open source platform for the windows environment. Today DNN dominates the open source windows CMS environment while delivering greater efunctionality, reliability and scalability of the most expensive commerical CMS/Portal products available . DotNetNuke Inc has also released a commercial version of the their famous community version. This contains a number of feature enhancements but derives the best capabilities of its free version.
Going Forward
DotNetNuke has evolved dramatically, and today functions as the corporate portal, as well as the core tool for collaboration and integration in literally hundres, of thousands of corporations.. There is not a single aspect of modern web facing technology.. from images to video, from static webpages to dynamically generated, data rich web applications, that cannot be delivered through the use of DNN. Not only is DNN feature and function rich, it also conforms to all modern standards of graphic user interface implementation. This positions DNN very well as the ideal browser-based application platform to replace ageing PC desktop applications in the modern corporation.
DNN "out-of-the-box" provides a significant list of standard modules. While most companies can use these modules without modification, those that do require modification and customization will be pleasantly suprised at the extensive aftermarket for 3rd party add-on modules for DNN, that spans a wide range of functionality. In order to meet custom client requirements one often requires no software coding at all, but rather the integration of a few selected modules, coupled with the default capabilities of the platform and some changes to skin templates to arrive at a world class web presence that will take your company to the next level.