The recently re-developed Salvation Army website is a good example of how a single instance of content management system can serve up several different front-end websites, each with their own design and unique URL. Within their main corporate website (which contains core content relevant to the average user looking for information from the site), we have developed a system whereby the Salvation Army is able to create "microsites" for specific events or business units, each of which can be customised to have its own look-and-feel.

Content can thus be shared between the main site and those microsites, and all content editors have access to a common media and document library, meaning images and files don't need to be added to multiple sites whenever a piece of content is revised. Content editors can be given a mixture of roles, whereby a microsite admin will have the ability to add, edit and delete content on their own site, but a super-admin will have an overview of all the content on any of the sites using the system.

This allows the Salvation Army to maintain several websites, each with their own content and administrative teams, but with the benefits that come from having a common CMS: e.g. allowing for the ability to train staff on a single platform, to utilise a common document and image library, and to make back-ups and apply updates and fixes to a single source thus saving on overall IT administration costs.