Cascade in California
February 16, 2016

Cascade in California

Jeff Dillon | TrustRadius Reviewer
Score 8 out of 10
Vetted Review
Verified User

Software Version

Standard Enterprise

Overall Satisfaction with Cascade Server

Cascade Server is the campus central content management system. It is being used across the entire organization. Approximately 80% of our campus web sites are managed with Cascade. Cascade helps the central web team support campus web development through providing accessible, branded templates. Content managers can focus on the content and not the code behind the pages.

Pros

  • Cascade Server pushes pages to a static web server via SFTP so when we need to apply an update to the database or application, public pages remain available but not updateable. This is very tolerable for our users especially during off hours.
  • Cascade Server has a built in link checking so links don't break when pages are moved or renamed.
  • Hannon Hill does a great job of listening to its customers. The company is Higher Ed focused and feature requests are often included in future releases.

Cons

  • The way Cascade handles permissions can be difficult if users move between areas in a large organization. If users leave the organization entirely, it is easy to de-provision by removing from the global AD group.
  • Workflow is available in Cascade Server but is a bit complex and not as user-friendly as some other systems.
  • Cascade Server has allowed our small web team to provide a more accessible campus web environment
  • Cascade has helped create a consistent brand by centralizing the family of campus templates.
  • Cascade has allowed us to more easily move to a responsive-mobile design making University content more available to our audiences.
Hannon Hill was chosen because of the architecture with the Cascade engine being separated from the published pages providing stability and security. The company is also focused on primarily higher education, the user group and feature set. The releases are always well-documented and stable. It is very cross-browser and mobile friendly.
Cascade Server is a great solution for organizations where the users do not have advanced web programming skills. The more technical the users, the more frustrated they might become. A small technical team can get the system up and available but it is not built to really have a more advanced user that is not an administrator.

Cascade CMS Feature Ratings

WYSIWYG editor
8
Code quality / cleanliness
7
Admin section
9
Page templates
9
Mobile optimization / responsive design
8
Publishing workflow
4
Form generator
7
Content taxonomy
7
SEO support
8
Bulk management
Not Rated
Availability / breadth of extensions
Not Rated
API
Not Rated
Internationalization / multi-language
Not Rated
Role-based user permissions
9

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