Advantage of Offshore Open Source Web Development-Selecting the Right CMS

In last few years due to increasing competition in various industries and economic instability across the world, companies are required to implement the processes that make sure the optimal utilization of resources across the company. As a part of these processes, companies are using web applications and software in order to improve the operational efficiency and cut the operational cost.

With emergence of offshore open source web development, companies can get their web applications and software developed in lower cost with customized manner.  Open Source web development refers that the source code of web application development and design can be availed openly from internet without any proprietary or patent. In IT & software industry, open source has brought the revolution and provides variety of options for web and software development according to business needs. Further to this, because of increasing technological improvements, mobile application development can also be done with open source technology such as android.

Open source development can be done with integration of popular scripting languages such as C, C++, C# etc. The best and unique benefit is that developer can re-use the codes and components and because of this the application can be updated at any time in future. This flexibility is one of the major factors of its popularity across the developer community. Another benefit that makes it most cost effective way of web development is that there is large availability of plug-ins and tools which are free to download and use and large pool of talent and manpower is available across the globe.

PHP is one of the main technologies of open source development and is being widely used in developing websites, web applications with flexible options and customization. It works well with all open source platforms and provides variety of features and tools that help to develop custom web development with high security and quality.

There are various types of Open Source CMS (Content Management Systems) available in market that are being used for developing web applications, websites, portals, software, blogs etc. Drupal, Joomla, WordPress, Mambo are few most popular CMS that are used by developers. There are vertical specific CMS also available such as OsCommerce, Magento, X-Chart, Zen-chart, Presta Shop, VirtueMart are few widely used E-commerce open source CMS platforms. For other verticals such as Customer Relationship Management, SugarCRM and Vtiger are widely used as open source CRM CMS.

Since there are lots of options available in CMS, therefore it is very important to choose the right CMS as per the business need. There are few things that need to be considered before finalize the CMS. It should be clear that what is the scope of application and who will be the target audience.  It is important to understand what kind of content will be uploaded on application. Is it text, video, audio, flash, multimedia or some other format? It will help to choose the required tools & plug-ins to integrate the content. How CMS categorized the content across the website? Different CMS may categorize the content in different formats therefore; it is an important factor that helps to decide the structure and navigation of content across the site. It is advisable to check the customization features in a CMS that is one of the prime features for the same. 

Automation is one such factor that is important if you are not a technical person. There are various automated features integrated in CMS through which a non-technical person can also update the application without taking help of developer. At present, for any web application it is required to be SEO friendly. Considering this, while selecting CMS check SEO features as well so that, SEO specific changes could be made through CMS itself. Security has been one of the most critical concerns for open source development. To address this issue, most of the popular CMS are well equipped with security features and those need to be considered while selection.

Open source web development outsourcing has given tremendous opportunities to develop web, software and mobile applications according to business requirements across the globe. And in coming years it is going to be stronger with more innovations and advancements.