How we chose it
In 2015, a group of web professionals from throughout the university came together to choose a new, more robust content management systems (CMS) to replace SharePoint. The group's work – which drew input from all four CU System campuses
and was documented publicly online – led to a recommendation to OIT Leadership and the selection of Sitefinity as the new CMS for the university website. On June 13, 2016, university leaders approved the selection, and the CMS transition began. In 2020, the CMS transition was complete with over 233 sites transitioned to Sitefinity.
Criteria for CMS selection
- Positive user experience for visitors to our university website
- Positive experience for non-technical web content editors
- Option to customize the CMS for university needs
- Ability to integrate the CMS with enterprise systems (like SalesForce) and social media technologies
- Specialized functionality, such as blogs, calendars, forms,
analytics and multi-language support
- Ability to transition to the CMS expediently
- Capacity of the Office of Information Technology (OIT) to implement and support the CMS
Priorities for CMS implementation
University-wide priorities:
- Positive user experience
- Integrated experience across campuses and units
- Ability to easily locate each campus
- Easy navigability to priority components
CU Denver priorities:
- Prospective students, applications, admissions and enrollment
- Current students, retention and persistence
- Information for parents
- Information and services for transfer student information, business and community influencers, alumni and potential donors
- Easy access to research activities and information
- Representation of faculty and staff
CU Anschutz Medical Campus priorities:
- Current students, retention and persistence
- Prospective students, applications, admissions and enrollment
- Help in finding doctors and medical services; easy connection to affiliates and clinical partners
- Information and resources for potential donors
- Easy access to research activities and information
- Information and services for transfer student information, business and community influencers, alumni and potential donors; promotion of destination health care concept