Even though this site rides on WordPress platform, I have worked with Joomla application for a few years in managing an information portal. In my opinion, Joomla application is versatile and the setup is very suited to build sites that are geared towards managing information.
Like WordPress, Joomla is open sourced and hence the functions are continuously expanded and enriched through plugins and constant improvement with their versions. For those who also wish to introduce elearning, then the paid Joomla LMS (Learning Management System) would help the user to come out with online learning.
Joomla itself is free however if the user subscribe to elearning, it would come with licensing fees which requires renewal each year. Also, if development is required to customize a site, if the user is not familiar then one would require help to customize the site to include features, layout and navigation of the user.
If you are considering to develop an information portal for your company employees’ internal use and reference, I would strongly recommend that you consider building the site using Joomla platform. There are so many customization that allows for analytics, search and even JomSocial for social interactions between employees to add on to the stickiness of the site.
I have heard that Sharepoint is another popular option…..however from experience, I know that it requires heavy customization and costs hundreds of thousands of dollars. And if the user need to add in further changes, a little tweak can costs lots of money.
However, Joomla itself being open sourced can be tweaked. It is such a popular platform worldwide with a strong support community of programmers and users who are happy to help one another through many different forums and sites.
Companies considering to integrate Joomla may:
1. Work with a programmer/ company to customize based on requirement. You may search other sites for an idea of what you wish to have.
2. Get the site hosted in the company by working with internal IT. This function can also be outsourced.
3. Engage full time staff to update the site. No one would visit a site that is not updated.
