I wanted to share a little eulogy to Drupal. This is a system I came accross around 12 months ago now. Previously my web development had been completed working with tools like Dreamweaver and for more heavy-weight coding - Eclipse (with the PHP add-on).

Then I discovered the wonderful entity that is Drupal. Basically, for the non-technical reader, Drupal is often placed in the category of "Content Management System" (CMS). Websites that make use of a CMS system (and the underlying databse) offer many advantages to the business using them with the main one being that staff can add and edit their own content. This keeps any website up-to-date. New campaigns and products or services can be promoted on your website quickly and easily. You do not have to go back to the website developer and ask them to add pages. This saves time and money and offers maximum control.

Drupal offers this and updating a Drupal driven site is as easy as using a word processor. But, Drupal goes much much further. It offers out-of-the-box web 2.0 features likes surveys, page comments, user registration etc. But of most importance to you with a business that will hopefully grow - it allows the website developer to add new functionality extremely easily and that means very cheaply.

You might decide it is time for you to sell online. Great, with Drupal there is a fabulous online shopping cart and management module that will meet the needs of most online shops. This can be added to your website quickly, configured and tested - all at a fraction of the cost you might expect. The Drupal "toolbox" comes to the rescue again.

True you or your staff will need some training to get going with it - but as I am a fully qualified teacher (I taught for a few years after graduating) and an experienced software trainer (having trained for Oracle, Siebel and others) you can rest assured that I can build it - and I can train you to drive it.

For me as a website developer Drupal saves me time. For you as a client - this means saved costs.

You can read more about Drupal here: www.drupal.org