Have your ambitions outgrown your CMS?
20/05/2010 - Brisbane
Over the past twelve years we’ve seen a lot of Content Management Systems come and go and the pace of change has been remarkable. There has been consolidation but choice has not suffered. New players have entered the market and open source has developed sufficiently to be a serious option for organisations of any size. One thing is certain, if you are considering upgrading your CMS then you face a mesmerising variety of choices. So, how and when should you upgrade your CMS and what should you choose?
In most cases changes to Content Management Systems come hand in hand with the decision to launch a new web site, but this is not always so. Sometimes a change to your technology platform will be the driving force. Perhaps your current system’s limitations are holding your organisation back to the point of costing you money. It’s not impossible to take a perfectly functioning website and migrate it onto a new CMS platform. But, the larger the site the greater the challenges you will face and the more likely it is that building a new site will be the more pragmatic option.
The key is to understand the advantages of moving to a new system and whether they justify the investment of time, energy and most importantly money. Out of date or problematic CMS implementations absorb manpower and often prevent your business from expanding or developing its online presence. Sometimes they require significant maintenance support and development just to keep pace with the demands of your business.
If your site is a source of revenue the decision is fairly straightforward. The latest CMS offer a range of powerful marketing options that make it easy to build a case centered on return on investment. If your site is a communications platform then you have to prove that the new capabilities on offer will help get your message across or demonstrably enhance your brand reputation. No matter what your situation, decision makers may also be swayed by a case built on manpower efficiencies. Today’s user friendly interfaces and simplified publishing routines free web teams from passive administrative work and enable them to focus more on making websites work harder, and that’s good for everyone.
If there is a case for change then the market has probably changed considerably since you last looked at it. In the good old days you simply looked at the features your business required and matched them to the available product. Now it’s a little trickier, when it comes to content management functionality there is little to separate the top-tier giants from the minnows. Even the new pretenders waving the open source flag can boast pretty sophisticated functional capabilities. It’s now a buyers market, product differentiation focuses on additional marketing capabilities and bolt-on integration modules whilst core-product licence costs are at their lowest point in years. So what are the main reasons to choose one type of CMS over another?
Deploy simple websites quickly
Want to keep things simple? If you need to launch a blog, deploy a campaign microsite or service a relatively small communications platform then open source or possibly even a bespoke CMS might be the way to go. If you avoid tricky custom functionality then these types of CMS can be very quick and inexpensive to launch.
Save money with open source
First off let’s explode the myth that open source equals free, but it is true to say that in most cases you won’t have to pay for a licence. That comes with a few risks mind, support and development comes from developer communities centred on each product so there’ll be no 24hr hotline when things go wrong. There are other benefits too - most open source CMS use licence- free databases and operating systems too – a real money saver if you have lots of servers.
Superpower your marketing
A number of the larger more established players have added marketing capabilities to their offering. You can manage email campaigns directly from your website database, run analytics against your content, track specific users and even personalise content. Using these powers properly has the potential to deliver spectacular results but these come with a price tag. You’ll spend money on licensing (often per server) but also on configuring your site to take full advantage of these capabilities.
Integration, integration, integration
Here’s where the big boys start to come into their own. Most of the key players offer some form of integration with the major CRM systems and Microsoft’s ubiquitous SharePoint Services. Factor in the additional marketing offerings and the potential efficiencies that emerge may start to make that business case add up. You’ll have to dig deep though – integration projects require significant investment in licensing and require major change programmes to implement effectively.
Manage multiple platforms
If you manage mobile apps, profiles on social media sites, affiliate partners or have an iPad project in the pipeline then you’ll be getting to grips with the administrative challenge that the proliferation of communications platforms presents. The question ambitious organisations need to ask is how the different CMS will help you maintain a single platform whilst deploying your content out to mobile applications, social media and your website. Our top tip - many providers publish a road map for their development plans so you can see what may be around the corner too.
Has this got you thinking? Does your CMS suddenly seem old and dowdy? If so why not pop in for a chat and a cup of tea...
