IWS can build websites either in plain HTML or using any of a variety of content-management systems, including Macromedia Contribute and CommonSpot, the University's standard content management system. (IWS has built more CommonSpot sites than anyone at Cornell.)
While a content management system generally makes it easier to update or change the site's content once it's built, if you want anything but the most standard features, it often takes considerable expertise to build the site well in the first place. The IWS designers and programmers know CommonSpot's features and limitations inside and out; they've developed dozens of techniques for working creatively within it, and they've built, and continue to build, routines that extend and improve on the basic product.
IWS also has a close cooperative relationship with CIT Information Systems, the unit that provides website hosting for Cornell, and participates actively in the campus-wide CommonSpot Special Interest Group.
It's part of the IWS mission to help units throughout Cornell reap the benefits of content management, without having to develop or maintain this expertise in-house.