About Sitefinity

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 blogscalendarsforms, 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:

  1. Positive user experience
  2. Integrated experience across campuses and units
  3. Ability to easily locate each campus
  4. Easy navigability to priority components

CU Denver priorities:

  1. Prospective students, applications, admissions and enrollment
  2. Current students, retention and persistence
  3. Information for parents
  4. Information and services for transfer student information, business and community influencers, alumni and potential donors
  5. Easy access to research activities and information
  6. Representation of faculty and staff

CU Anschutz Medical Campus priorities:

  1. Current students, retention and persistence
  2. Prospective students, applications, admissions and enrollment
  3. Help in finding doctors and medical services; easy connection to affiliates and clinical partners
  4. Information and resources for potential donors
  5. Easy access to research activities and information
  6. Information and services for transfer student information, business and community influencers, alumni and potential donors; promotion of destination health care concept

    Why we love Sitefinity



    There's a lot to love about the Sitefinity content management system (CMS). Topping the list ... it is easy to use for all skill levels, portrays a unified university brand and leads to positive experiences for our site users. The following are some more good qualities of Sitefinity:

    Simple

    • No matter your skill level, you can edit and maintain your website with Sitefinity's turn-key user interface.
    • Widgets are easy to use. Just drag and drop them onto your pages to display content.
    • Log in to any browser to edit your site anywhere there's an internet connection.

    Unified

    • Sitefinity designs unify our university's web presence, displaying under three related and brand-compliant visual themes.
    • Ultimately, an improved and integrated user experience supports the university's mission of enabling student success.

    Accessible

    • We're 508 compliant. That means your site adheres to federal legislation requiring digital content be accessible to people with disabilities.
    • Sitefinity automatically incorporates responsive design, so our website will work well on any device.
    • Accessibility to all users means your site achieves maximum user friendliness.

    Sophisticated

    • "Hub and spoke" site architecture organizes content based on topics and tasks. This lets us meet user needs, target key audiences and improve search engine optimization (SEO).
    • Integrate your site with key university systems and social media technologies to disseminate content quickly and easily.
    • Enhance your web content through specialized functionality, such as blogscalendarsforms and analytics.

    Secure

    • Permissions-based access to Sitefinity features keeps our website safe.
    • Sitefinity makes it easy for us to comply with the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA) and the Family Educational Rights and Privacy Act (FERPA).

    Perks of Sitefinity:

    • Easy-to-use, drag-and-drop widgets

    • Unified branding and themes

    • Improved website accessibility

    • Automatic responsive design

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