Paul Smith’s College launched its new website on December 17, 2013, to become the first college or university to leverage mStoner’s new Buzzr Higher Ed Edition CMS. We couldn’t be more excited for the people at “The College of the Adirondacks” and the opportunities this new site will provide them.
We have really enjoyed working with Ken Aaron and the rest of the team at Paul Smith’s and appreciate their commitment as we worked to bring the Buzzr Higher Ed platform to life. Congratulations Ken and team!
mStoner and Buzzr designed the new Higher Ed Edition content management system as an alternative for smaller colleges and universities who value a dynamic and professional web experience. It’s an incredible opportunity for a number of reasons:
- Most institutions, regardless of size and resources, face challenges that benefit from custom strategic and creative services. mStoner offers our core strategic services as part of every Buzzr project, tailored to the needs of each client partner.
- Many institutions cannot afford or sustain — and, frankly, do not need — a customized technical solution. Buzzr implementations have no upfront license fee, and launch in a fraction of the time and at about half the cost of typical higher education website projects.
- Drupal, the most popular CMS in higher education, requires technical expertise and resources that most institutions do not have. Buzzr leverages Drupal for its strengths, but simplifies the user experience for the benefit of non-technical content editors. mStoner provides ongoing maintenance, support, and hosting for all Buzzr websites.
So, what comes included with Buzzr Higher Ed CMS?
- An intuitive, icon-based user interface for managing content.
- Editing options presented in-line, on pages throughout each site.
- A drag-and-drop interface for placing widgets (e.g. news feeds, Twitter streams, etc.).
- A simplified user interface for managing user roles and permissions.
- A basic calendar for presenting campus events.
- A built-in site search tool.
- Integrated Google Analytics and search engine optimization tools.
mStoner further customized the platform for optimal use in higher education to include:
- A fully customized and responsive website design.
- An expanded list of content types that includes faculty profiles, news articles, feature stories, and dynamically generated list pages.
- A special interest feature system with randomized sidebar content.
- A homepage slideshow and subpage banner image system that allows for randomized images.
- A menu of widgets that includes news, events, Twitter, Facebook, and social sharing options.
- A system for tagging content and generating dynamic views, widgets, and pages.
We are excited about the future of Buzzr Higher Ed Edition and eager to speak with other colleges and universities interested in the platform. We’re also excited to start this month on the next Buzzr project with our client partner Palo Alto University.
Interested in learning more about how your college or university might benefit from Buzzr? Please feel free to contact me or Mallory Wood.