“Dialogs is the most flexible CMS I’ve ever had the privilege of working in, allowing me total control over the way the backend coding is constructed. I’ve yet to find anything we could not do - just the way I wanted it done.”

— Jeniffer J., developer partner

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Data integration and custom applications made easy.

Websites in Dialogs can easily import and export content.

One benefit of a Dialogs-powered website is that all content is contained in an SQL database. This means importing and exporting content is straightforward.

Often site owners have portions of website content in electronic form. For example, a brand manager has a spreadsheet that contains the specs for an entire product line. Dialogs can easily import that spreadsheet within minutes.

Most Dialogs users leave the spreadsheets behind as they recognize the advantages of maintaining content in Dialogs:

  • any number of content editors can simultaneously work with the data
  • content editors can access Dialogs from any browser anywhere in the world
  • Dialogs can streamline content entry and reinforce data integrity (e.g., providing drop-down lists to ensure data consistency, etc.).

Exporting data from Dialogs to use in other applications is just as simple. Dialogs can export a comma-delimited file (CSV) - a common data file format because of its compatibility with Word, Excel, Numbers, Pages, InDesign, and more. For example, CSV export is the perfect way to hand off a list of newsletter subscribers (collected by Dialogs) to email campaign software like Constant Contact, Mail Chimp, etc.

Dialogs can talk to external systems.

Large organizations frequently need to exchange data between their website and other systems. Using industry-standard practices such as XML and webservices, Dialogs can communicate with most contemporary systems:

  • accounting software
  • inventory control systems
  • HR software
  • CRM systems
  • and much more.

Dialogs Professional Services can extend Dialogs’ built-in communications capabilities to talk with virtually any back-end system. We’ve built data bridges to talk with AS400 systems, .NET solutions, and databases built in SQL Server, Filemaker Pro, Access, Visual FoxPro, and many more.

Websites should not share a server with business applications.

Business applications such as accounting and CRM contain information that is vital to the success of a business. Most of the time, keeping that accounting and customer information out of the hands of the competition is a key component to that success. Running a website alongside such critical data is not the most secure apporach. A web server by design is more accessible than a server configured for internal use only. For a website to be seen by the world, the web server must open up access to visitors.

As a site owner, you may be running a Windows server and have already spent thousands of dollars for a license of Sequel Server. Consider it an investment in your internal systems. It's risky to try to extend that investment to your external systems.

Your internal systems and applications likely support webservices for the very purpose of publishing certain parts of your internal data in a secure way. Placing your website on a different server requires nominal investment, but the security you gain is invaluable.

Dialogs can efficiently integrate with external applications - even those running in a Microsoft environment.