In recent years, numerous pre-built open source content management systems have emerged as viable alternatives to costly proprietary products or custom-built solutions.

Simple-to-install, easy-to-use alternative, convenience, scalability and very low cost are perhaps some of the advantages of open source content management.

To understand the open source content management systems, knowledge of the Enterprise Content Management is a first criterion, since it is consistently a top-ten initiative of CIO's in the Fortune 1000 and open source content management system is very much related to this ECM.

ECM (Enterprise content management) is a broad term and it implies the acquisition and management of both structured and unstructured content that is dispersed across a number of different repositories, often described as "information silos".

It is a widely-recognized IT-industry term for software technology that enables organizations to create/capture, manage/secure, store/retain/destroy, publish/distribute, search, personalize, and present/view/print any digital content (e.g. pictures/images, text, reports, video, audio, transactional data, catalog, code).

Many Enterprise Content Management (ECM) systems include WCM capabilities.

WCM (web content management) in turn is the management of both structure and unstructured content that is delivered over the Internet, typically via a web site. Web Content Management includes content creation, site management, workflow, access control, and delivery.

With the advent of the new content architectures, the need for replication, federation and decentralized authority has become of utmost necessity. They are allowing each department of the organization to plan for their own needs and to utilize existing hardware at a fraction of the costs.

For this we need to have a proper content management system which is nothing but a system used to manage the content of a Web site.

The content management system is sometimes a web application used for managing websites and web content though in many cases, content management systems require special client software for editing and constructing articles.

The market for content management systems remains fragmented, with many open-source and proprietary solutions available.

Typically, a CMS consists of two elements: the content management application (CMA) and the content delivery application (CDA).

CMA deals with creation, modification, and removal of content from a Web site without needing the expertise in the relevant fields by the content manager or author.

Our interest lies on this content management application (CMA) part which is the other name of open source web content management or opencms which helps to create and manage complex websites easily without knowledge of html.

It refers to a range of technologies and techniques, including portal systems and web-based groupware.

Complex Intranet, Extranet and Internet sites can be quickly and cost-effectively created, maintained and managed by these effective technologies.

Also, complete websites with highly customized layouts and interactive functionality based on Java, JSP, XML and other technology can be created by open source web content management software available in the market.

There are so many organizations that offer true Open Source Enterprise Content Management services?C Open Source Document Management, Collaboration, Records Management, Knowledge Management, Web Content Management and Imaging.

Using the open source model those organizations make enterprise content management affordable for many applications that were not possible before.

Web Application Platform, Software License, Stability and Development Activity, User Community, Documentation and Source Code, Web Standards and Accessibility and Suitability and Usability are some of the reasons why you should have open source content management systems for the growth of the company itself.

If you choose wisely, an open source CMS can provide a stable, flexible and cost-effective system that is well-suited for your content management needs.

Finally it gives you the liberty to stay in control of your content management solution.