Autonomy and ergonomy: headache

You are the director of the company or the service, the political leader for the community: your Web site is vital. It is by him that the visitors reach your information. It is by him that your partners exchange with you within the framework of a extranet. It is by your Intranet that your collaborators reach internal information and programs.
You are the data-processing person in charge or the Webmaster: one asks you to choose, to define a schedule of conditions to set up a solution Web adapted to the needs.

You aim at autonomy: once the solution Web in place, you do not want to depend any more on the supplier for the exploitation and the update.

You aim at ergonomics: those and those which will animate the site, in Internet or extranet, are not data processing specialists and they will not become it. They must adhere to the selected solution because it is simple and pleasant to use.

You aim at the communication: this Web site is your window on outside and you should be dissociated others, with an original and pleasant graphic model for the Net surfer. Not question that the technique limits your need for image.

Then, how to choose the good software of management of contents (CMS: Content System Management)?

Free software solutions

There are several very good solutions resulting from the free free software devoted to the management of contents Web. These tools are often known as “free” because you can download and use these programs free. They are in fact the graphic skeletons these programs: as soon as that you a personalized graphic ergonomics, you will want to have will have to call upon an agency specialized to integrate the program. And there, the budgets become definitely more consequent.

These free solutions were conceived by heterogeneous teams of developers, joined together in communities. These dispersed teams, according to the needs for each one of their customer, added functionalities to the program. The general ergonomic design is thus minimum, to make it possible each one to more easily implement its piece. It is a purely data-processing logic which is privileged.

The functions add again and create structural dependences between them. By choosing such a program, you inherit all these functions including one good part will never be useful to you! Heavy heritage because they complicate the daily use of the program! The result is logical: a catch in difficult hand, a thorough formation necessary, sometimes reduced functionalities.

To choose an adapted tool

Your objective is to have the tool which will give you access to the functionalities which you need. Your objective is also to leave the door open to the evolution of the tool and its perenniality.

A certain number of editors propose to solutions “owners”: you buy the program, you install it on one or more local stations and you manufacture your Web pages before transferring them on the waiter. Others propose a program in “hiring to you” on a specific waiter and you pay a royalty monthly. These solutions return to you captive of the editor. You depend on him for the evolution of your program and parfois-même for the perenniality of your lodging Web. Important risk.

The most flexible solution thus consists in choosing a tool resulting from the free software, which does not require to marry you with an editor or a lodging. To date, only one technology answers this criterion: LAMP for Linux, Apache, MySQL, PHP. Linux is the operating system of the waiter, Apache is the Web server (which sends the pages towards the visitors), MySQL is the PHP, data base is the language of development.

Betsy is designed exclusively according to this logic:
- an adapted design: one avoids heavinesses of the free programs general practitioners
- a free technology: you have the source code (for your use) and you are free to choose your lodging
- a modular concept: the specific functionalities are easily added which you need and who are developed only for you.

The choice of Betsy

The reports which precede, we also tested them: we tested all these programs. Their strong points are undeniable, but what a heaviness too often!
Betsy starts from another logic: the management of contents is with the service of the result. The tool of communication which is the Web site is privileged. Data-processing logic is erased in front of your ergonomic comfort and the approval of the Net surfer.

Adapted functionalities? BETSY is designed to offer to you your functionalities without compelling itself with long and complicated trainings.
Personalized functionalities? BETSY offers the maximum modularity. To add a specific functionality is a play of child, without touching with the structure of the other functions.
Administrators not data processing specialists? BETSY was designed from the beginning by specialists in marketing and communication, not by data processing specialists. Let us not waste time to include/understand how it goes: one needs that it goes, quite simply.
Not to depend more on the supplier? BETSY is written in PHP, Javascript, is coupled with a data base MySQL. In light, these are open languages that any developer can take again and maintain.

Why isn't Betsy free?

Odd question but which is sometimes put!
A free program is a minimum program. It is appropriate for structures which do not require high performances and which are satisfied with a standardized ergonomics. With the proviso of having a person who will be able to take in hand the installation of the free software, this type of program renders great services to associations or the structures which cannot release a minimum budget for their communication on the Net.

How are remunerated the developers of free software? To adapt a free software to your needs, the cost will be often higher than to choose a coherent solution like Betsy. Thus are remunerated the developers of these programs: by integrating the program in evolved/moved graphic models, by adapting the functionalities. And in spite of that, the limitations of performances of this software often block the evolution of the site.

Betsy rests on a logic of coherent investment. It is not a question of a aggregation of ends of functionalities developed with the liking of the will of the data processing specialists. The development of Betsy is thus carried out by data processing specialists who are remunerated and who respect precise specifications. It is the condition necessary to have a tool higher than the free solutions. Thus Betsy has higher functionalities of administration, ergonomics, edition, graphic integration. The cost of integration, very high for a free software, is considerably tiny room for Betsy: one finds oneself there!

Contribution of Betsy to the free software. The development of certain modules, certain functionalities of Betsy rests sometimes on ideas or ends of programs resulting from the free software. Obviously, the improvements made by Betsy are transferred in the world of the free software.