A look at the appropriate selection process and criteria for a successful content management implementation

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How to choose and improve your
content management system
Asian Publishing Convention
July 2010
Andrew Duck

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Introduction
What is a CMS?
Managing Content
Selection Process
3 Phases
Summary

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What is a web content management
system?
“A web content management (WCM) system is a CMS
designed to simplify the publishing of web content to web
sites and mobile devices, in particular, allowing content
creators to submit content without requiring technical
knowledge of HTML or the uploading of files.”
Wikipedia, July 2010

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Why do I want one?
Simplify content management
Multiple languages
Workflow management
Component based
Roles and policies
No technical expertise

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Understanding the market

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CMS Vendors

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CMS Matrix
Currently lists 1136 CMS products
Provides a feature comparison of CMS solutions

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Gartner Magic Quadrant

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Open Source vs. Proprietary

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Selection process

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Not understanding the problem
Don’t rush into purchasing without understanding the problem to be solved
Determine business needs
Identify design and management issues
Create an overall web strategy
Identify what functionality will be delivered by the site (rather than the CMS)

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Conduct a needs analysis
Don’t ask about CMS functions or features
This has to be business driven (not technical)

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Be an informed consumer

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Try to understand the marketplace
Which features are widely available in products, and which are not
What are the key challenges in implementing CMS products
What are the common problems with the design of CMS products
What functionality and issues should the CMS project focus on
What is the best scope for the project

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Wide market
Don’t underestimate the size
More than 1000 CMS products
Don’t just look local
Products are hugley variable, 70% are different
Examining only a subset may mean you miss the best solution to your problem

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Get the big one!
There is no correlation between price and performance
Bigger is not always better
One-size-fits-all approach doesn’t work
It’s hard to reconcile technical requirements

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“The CMS must provide a web-based authoring environment”
“The CMS must support multi-stage workflow rules”
“The CMS must integrate with existing systems”

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Get specific
Distinguish between requirements and selection criteria
The stated requirements cannot be evaluated
Insufficient information leads to disaster

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Get simple
Don’t write long requirements
“If we don’t ask for it, we won’t get it”
Confuses key needs with nice to haves
Increases time and cost for vendors to respond
Discourages many vendors from responding at all

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Complies?
Complies
Does not comply
Partially complies
Get narrative rather than point based

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Focus on what not how
Identify business needs
Ask vendors how they can meet your business needs
“The CMS must provide powerful and flexible workflow capabilities”

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Separate design and CMS
Don’t do a global redesign at the same time
This is spurred out of poor performance
Increases risk
Driven by convenience more than strategic considerations

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Included?
Search
Portals
Collaboration
Mobile
Discussion groups
Mailing Lists

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Don’t run an IT project

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Gartner Magic Quadrant
CMS Matrix
CMS Wire
AIIM
CM Pros

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Features
Core functionality Versioning
Editor Multisite support
Managing digital assets Multilingual support
Search Mobile
Customisation Customisable content model
User interaction
Roles and permissions

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Feature-driven selection
Report from market analysis firm
Review against set of arbitrary requirements
Choose the product with the highest score
This is a flawed method

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Problems with feature-driven selection
Cannot assess arbitrary requirements to your unique business case
Reports contain only a handful of possible products
Generally reports contain only larger CMS solutions
You end up spending money on features you don’t need....
for a product that doesn’t fit your requirements

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“Leaders-and-laggards, magic quadrants, and
other horserace-style evaluation approaches never
work, and you should be very wary of them. In all
aspects of business, the best software for you is
the one that best matches your needs—your
budget, scope, and the type of project you're
engaged in.”
Theresa Regil, March 2010

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Requirements-focused selection
Identify specific business requirements
Involve all stakeholders
Align with business strategy
Requirements driven by business needs (not technology issues)
Minimises business risk

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3 phases
Implementation
Adoption
Improvement

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Implementation

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Adoption

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Improvement

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Costs
As with any website these systems have maintenance costs
They need to be maintained and you should be budgeting to do so
Security issues
Features and bug fixes
Emerging technology

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In Summary
Don’t use feature-driven selection (that includes CMS Matrix and Gartner)
Understand your business requirements and strategy before jumping in
Ask for help
Architect the best solution to suit your needs

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Questions

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Thanks
Andrew Duck
andrew.duck@quiqcorp.com
twitter.com/andrewduck