A content management system (CMS) is a computer software system for organizing and facilitating collaborative creation of documents and other content. Content management systems are crucial in organizing a variety of data so that it benefits the business as a whole and increases profitability. A content management system is frequently a web application used for managing websites and web content, though in many cases, content management systems require special client software for editing and constructing articles.Some businesses need them to help organize transactions, others need them for managing data put on the web, still others need content management systems to organize and classify all the documents and content of a company.   There are several recognized types of content management systems:

• Web content management systems assist in automating various aspects of web publishing, can be used to create information portals which serve as the backbone of data management. Along with the database handling facilities, the software modules also allows anyone to contribute information to a website via a graphical user interface (GUI).
• Transactional content management systems (T-CMS) assist in managing e-commerce transactions.
• Integrated content management systems (I-CMS) assist in managing enterprise documents and content.
• Publications management systems (P-CMS) assist in managing the publications (manuals, books, help, guidelines, references) content life cycle.
• Learning management systems (L-CMS) assist in managing the web-based learning content life cycle. See also managed learning environment.
• Document imaging systems are also generally considered under the family of general content management.
• Enterprise content management systems (E-CMS) vary in their functionality. Some support both the web and publications content life cycle, while others support the web content life cycle and either transactional content or customer relationship management content. The ECM concept is not restricted to web based technologies but includes client/server and hosted / On-demand solutions.