Is a Content Management System (CMS) right for your business?

Nowadays, there are a hundred different platforms you can use to create and publish content on the web— choosing which one makes the most sense for your business can have a large impact on your bottom-line, and ultimately can make or break your company. Once you commit to one platform, the process of switching becomes more and more arduous as time goes on, so making a smart and informed decision in the beginning is critical.

So which platform should you use? Well, that depends. We’re going to spend a little time figuring out how to decide what type of content delivery system works for you, and which CMS makes the most sense for your business. The following are a few considerations you must make and some questions you can ask yourself to properly decide which platform will work the best for your business.

Technology Stack

One of the biggest deciding factors for which platform makes sense is the technology stack that you currently use or would prefer to use. There are pros and cons to using both open-source and non-open-source options for your business, such as the software cost and support options. Also, if you already use a particular technology, the barrier for entry and the ability to support the software going forward become much easier. Much of this decision depends on what type of talent your development team already has. If you do not have a dedicated development team, the decision can be easier as you’ll have flexibility to find a team to help with the initial build-out and support beyond that. Most open-source communities are vast and offer a lot of help, but finding a specialist in your platform is probably the way to go. You’ll also need to consider whether you are hosting the site on-premises, in the cloud, or using a SaaS (software-as-a-service) model— where the software is maintained by the vendor and all support and updates are done by them.
Questions to ask: What tech stack do I currently use? How do we host our current website / custom applications or how would we like to host them? Do we already have members of our team proficient in a particular technology stack? Do we need to integrate this in with our existing business ecosystem?

Costs

Each solution will also have various costs associated with it— so that even free open-source options will end up costing you something in the long run. While some of the platforms themselves are completely free, there are add-ons, support, development services and other associated costs to get your site up and running. Even after you’ve launched the site, there are long-term service/support costs like refreshing the look/feel, upgrading the software, adding additional integrations and functionality and maintenance.
Questions to ask: How much is the software license? What are the support costs? How much will hosting be? Will we need to hire a team to implement this or can we do it internally? What functionality will we need and is it included out of box or will we need to seek external API integrations, add-ons, additional modules, etc.?

Feature Requirements

What each technology offers out-of-box has a huge impact on your decision for what platform will work the best for your needs. Some vendors only offer a base features and require add-ons or additional modules to add additional functionality. Some have basic workflows— allowing users to create content and have that flow through an approvals process before being published— while others offer more robust options and functionality. The learning curve for non-technical users is also something to carefully consider when picking a system, as you’ll likely have the marketing and sales department creating content. If the system is too difficult to understand, or doesn’t allow the flexibility of limiting the functionality of what non-technical folk can do and see, it might cause more problems than benefits. Finally, how flexible the software is to be extended beyond its out-of-box feature-set is important for your business. We all know each and every business has a unique set of goals and ways to measure those goals. Sometimes business rules dictate functionality that isn’t readily available and we must call in some developer “big-guns” to add new custom functionality to your system. Can your system handle this? How easy will it be? Thinking even beyond this, how will this affect upgrades and support in the long term? These are all questions to ponder before making a decision.
Questions to ask: Where does this fit into our existing business ecosystem? Do we need to integrate our existing systems with this new one? How complex will that be? What features or functionality are MUST HAVEs vs NICE TO HAVEs? Does this system handle much of those out-of-box or is a custom solution the way to go? Can my system support customization or custom features? Who is goin to develop those and maintain the application?

Of course this is not an exhaustive list of what you’ll need to consider before deciding which platform is best, but this should at least get you started along the correct path before you make this vitally important decision. If you have any additional questions, feel free to reach out to Refined Element. We’d be happy to work with you through your decision-making process.