It's been awhile since I've written an article about Agility, and since my own rebrand, content management systems in general. However, Agility just sent a press release over and there is really a lot of substance here beyond just a cosmetic rebrand. So much so, that I thought it's time we talk about Agility.
When it comes to content management systems, these two questions are the ones that I get asked the most:
Here on the website, we've tried answering that question through a number of articles we have published over the years. But in reality my initial answers to the first question are almost always:
A few days ago, the Agility CMS Team released an update that includes new features and bug fixes. This is the first update since the "big upgrade" threee months ago when Agility introduced a significant rebuild and redesign of its content management system's interface.
After considerable thought, I've decided to deconstruct the website by tearing it apart, remove what doesn't work, and see if we have enough valued pieces left to continue our presence on the Web. I need to get to a point that I understand what new pieces need to be added in our content strategy and business model to make the website as successful in 2019 as it once was in 2009.
The Deconstruction of CMS Report Begins, Bryan Ruby, December 3, 2015
Three years ago, CMS Report made the jump from Drupal to the Agility CMS featuring its Magazine Publishing Suite. Since then, I've had the opportunity to see Agility's software evolve including improved delivery in the mobile space through responsive web design. While gradual improvements were made in the CMS, probably the biggest change for Agility Inc. was in late 2013 with the appointment of their new CEO, Jonathan Voigt.
Agility Inc. just released a new version of their content manager, version "January 2014". Most of the improvements in this version of the Agility CMS focus on the backend. Highlighted features include improved synchronization updates for Agility.Web as well as improved content and page status bar notifications.
Below are some of the details offered in the Agility January 2014 Release Highlights:
I just finished reading Dave Scalera’s post on the Acquia blog “Open Source lies: Confessions of a former Commercial CMS Salesperson” and it got me thinking about the Open Source vs. Proprietary thing.
I know, here we go again 
What I’ve come to realize is that it doesn’t matter what’s better. It matters what people believe is better.
A few months ago, CMS Australian enthusiast Said Salameh posted this excellent breakdown comparing the number of steps required to complete simple tasks between eight leading open source content management systems. He illustrates how simple things like editing a page or adding an article can take ten steps or more – far more than necessary. His post spawned a discussion on the Web Content Management group on LinkedIn drawing out frustrations from many in the industry about the complexity of content management systems – particularly open source systems.
On my to-do list for quite some time has been wanting to talk briefly about some of the new features included in the latest release of Agility CMS. You may recall that CMS Report migrated over to Agility's Magazine Publishing Suite last Fall. So, keeping up to date on new features added to Agility CMS is not only a news story but also something of personal interest to me.
Some of the more significant new features included in the Agility March 2013 release are:
If I learned anything from my open source vs. proprietary CMS post, comparing CMS’s based on the method used to code them is no longer that relevant. Following the great discussion that was triggered convinced me that comparing along this dimension no longer contributes much to the CMS selection process.
The other thing I learned was that being cheeky, while good for attention, probably isn’t the most forthcoming way to educate the readers of this great publication. So this time around, I promise to be more thorough and objective! Hopefully we’ll get some insights from the community again as well!