Content Management Systems (CMS) are applications that allow the average user to manage the content/information on their web site.  Over the years a number of CMSes have been developed and more are being developed each year.  The process of choosing the correct CMS for your business can be fairly complicated.

Most people think that features and price are the driving factors however there are a number of additional considerations that should factor into the decision.   Below are some considerations that we hope can guide you in making an informed selection of a CMS.  These can be weighted and added to / deleted from as appropriate to meet your unique business requirements.

First, define the requirements your CMS needs to meet.  Second, add your requirements to those below and see which CMS options fit the bill.

Top Ten Things to Look For:

1. Features. Does the CMS offer core functionality out of the box that meets the web site requirements?  Does the CMS offer such features as Search, Taxonomy, Search Engine Optimization, Polls, Surveys, Membership and Subscriptions?

2. User acceptability. The primary purpose of CMS is to provide functional and intuitive interfaces for users to manage the content (files, pages, date specific publishing, etc.).  Does the CMS correspond with the user community’s needs and capabilities?  Is intuitive inline editing supported?

3. Workflow and Approval Processes. Does your organization require an approval process for content?  How complex is the workflow needs.  Different CMS systems offer varying levels of customization of workflow and approvals.

4. Stability and centralization of the CMS developer organization. Is it important that there be a single point of contact or is an open-source/developer community based system more functional?  A single provider, private company, can provide authoritative support for a cost.

5. An Open API. Can the CMS be able to meet the requirements as site traffic grows?  Can custom functionally be added to the system through and open API?

6. Architecture of the system. Are the systems required by the CMS available for acceptable expense?  Will these systems remain adequate in the future to meet scalability and technology upgrades?  These systems include the server(s) that host the CMS and concurrent database(s).  What are the physical and logical security needs for the application and data?  Will customization, coding or technical expertise be required?  If so, will the resources be available or will they have to be added to the overall costs?

7. Availability of support. The larger the volume of content and number of custom requirements dictate corresponding levels of support.  What is the support available for the CMS?  What are the rates for the different levels of support over time?  Is there an active and comprehensive user community providing “real world” experiences.  What guarantees are provided, e.g. “one week deployment”?

8. Demonstrations and user training. Is there an accessible library of “how to” demonstrations?  Are there comprehensive training resources that remain current with new versions of the CMS?  Are there significant fees for training or are there significant community based “how to” and problem resolution resources.  Some CMS providers sponsor extensive community based support services along with corporate training resources.

9. Application management capabilities. How are application version updates managed?  Is there downtime for the application to be updated?  Is any data (content, files, and settings) at risk during updates?  What is the time frame(s) between updates?  And, a significant question is how customizations are handled.  Some CMS will lose some or all customizations with version updates while others make extraordinary efforts to preserve all customizations between versions.  This can include templates, categories, custom coding, etc.

10. Licensing Schema. Weighting the requirements and the cost/benefits specific for each CMS can aid in providing a closer to “apples to apples” comparison between applications.

At MarketNet, we select the appropriate CMS system for our client’s needs.  Our CMS experience includes our own MarketNet CMS system as well as Ektron CMS400.NET, Joomla and Open Text Web Solutions.  Do you have a favorite CMS that you use?  We welcome your feedback.

Written by Jill Bach and Kenneth Rector