A Content Management System (CMS) has been an often looked over capability for many companies. This especially holds for organisations dating from the pre-digital era or organisations that do not traditionally serve customers through online channels. However, when it comes to serving customers across channels, the use of a headless CMS is crucial. In this article, we will look at CMS and its evolution to headless and see how London-based companies are leveraging it.
What is a CMS and why is it needed?
CMS has been around since the inception of the Internet. Back then, they enabled the creation of static websites. There was not even a database involved! This changed with the introduction of large systems such as WordPress and Drupal. These CMS are equipped with a database, allowing for a more personalized and updatable website. There is both a visitors and admin area, and content can be written in the admin area before being published. But times change, and the Internet became more complex with different programming languages and tooling. A good example is the introduction of an Angular CMS.
Introduction of headless
An Angular CMS is typically headless. This means that there is no front-end involved: the admin can simply add the content to the system and it is supplied to all channels. This allows you to be more flexible with channels (e.g., integrating with third parties) and can easily be integrated into channels by developers who work with Javascript, among other languages.
Headless CMS in practice
A good example of how organisations are using headless CMS is by looking at a case. Hackett, a leading clothing brand from London, is a good example. They offer high-end luxury clothing through their website, application, and third parties. When doing so, their content needs to be served across numerous channels, including in-store. To do so, a CMS is being leveraged. Content writers simply publish products including their digital media to a CMS and this is supplied to all channels by API. Hereby there is a single-source-of-truth and all channels receive the latest version of the product.
Depending on the size of your business you could even consider managing a webshop and stock level through a CMS. We do recommend making a clear list of requirements to identify if you need more complex systems to support your e-commerce and other capabilities.
How to find the solution that suits you
Interested to see how headless CMS can suit your needs? Before looking for tooling, it is relevant to understand your exact needs. When you have identified those requirements, you can look at a headless CMS comparison. In such a comparison, you can map your requirements and see which tools match the capabilities you need. This should be the basic process, even if you are looking for a CMS for a very small organisation. A CMS is the backbone of content supply and therefore it should be reliable, durable, and flexible throughout its lifecycle.