The Classification and Evaluation of Content Management Systems

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For any business with a presence online, a Web content management system (CMS) is now part of the ‘basic requirements’ list. According to Forrester Research, the CMS adoption rate has been steadily growing over the last six years, such that in 2008, it is poised to be a $3.9 billion market. This growing demand for CMSs has seen the launch of myriad content management options, all the way from enterprise-class installed systems to Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) and open source applications as well. Each of these systems claims to be the most effective way to organize data and meet client expectations, with newer and better features, greater control for users, and more ease of use.

Selecting and implementing a CMS, however, can be a rather large and sometimes complicated project. It involves, first, an in-depth understanding of your business needs, then customizing of the CMS to suit your company’s requirements and finally planning for an enterprise-wide implementation. With costs of a traditional CMS running into hundreds of thousands of dollars, it is thus vital that the right package be selected. The coming years, however, are predicted to witness a return of the buyer’s market – and there will be many more resources for buyers to leverage to get the maximum returns for every dollar spent.

Key Questions
An integral part of the process which goes into evaluating a CMS is for your company to introspect and answer a few questions related to its CMS requirement:

• Why are we purchasing a CMS?
The organization must determine the goals that will be achieved by implementing a CMS; these goals must also be in line with future strategies.

• What are our requirements, really?
This is particularly important if the CMS is likely to be an enterprise-wide solution. Here your company will have to arrive at an accurate understanding of its requirements, best accomplished by a structured process that clearly identifies all stakeholders, drawing them in right from the initial phase.

Once these basic queries are addressed, it helps to study how CMSs are classified, to understand in fine-grained detail the various aspects of their structure, deployment, ongoing maintenance and upgrades. It is also important to conduct a thorough cost-benefit analysis on the various options available; just because a CMS is sold by a Fortune 500 vendor (and costs a fortune as well) doesn’t mean it is the right one for you. ‘The more complicated your requirements, the more expensive the CMS’ may be a rule of thumb, but modern hosted systems are seriously putting that theory to test. To stay within the scope of this article, we will now quickly look at how CMSs are classified and evaluated.

CMS Classification
Content management systems can be classified into six categories, based on:

1. Function
Apart from Web CMS, there are actually a fair number of software products that have ‘content management’ as part of their fundamental DNA. Examples include Digital Asset Management, Document Management Systems, Learning Management Systems, Brand Management Systems, Geographic Information Systems and others

2. License
How is the CMS available? A proprietary system, for example, means that the vendor ‘owns’ the product and sells it at a conventional cost with usually fixed licensing terms. This is also referred to as a ‘traditional installed CMS’. Apart from the initial costs (usually high), implementing these systems can sometimes take unreasonable amounts of time. And the real costs of such an implementation are only visible after ‘go-live’.

An open source system is supposed to be ‘free’, but we all know and understand that there are costs associated with installation, maintenance, upgrades – and having a technically-competent team around to deal with problems. A SaaS or hosted system allows you to ‘rent’ the CMS from the vendor, who assumes responsibility for content migration, ongoing maintenance, upgrades and troubleshooting. Such CMSs are often browser-based, which makes them convenient, cost-effective, and easy to access and use, even for non-technical users. A browser-based application also does not require purchase or installation of new hardware, software or code. The system and can simply be logged into by using a username and password.

3. Scale
You might be a small or midsize organization – with a big online presence. An Enterprise Content Management (ECM), Global Content Management (GCM) solution, or even a traditional installed CMS might, at the outset, look like something you need given the size of your online operations, but will the sizable cost be justified? Sure, these solutions have advanced workflow and approvals, archival, translation – and many other bells and whistles, but how many of those do you really need? Can you pick and choose? There are actually several lower-cost options that do just that, and offer feature-sets comparable to their enterprise-class brethren.

You can also choose to build your own system from scratch – often called a ‘homegrown’ system. This might look like the ideal way; after all, it is fully customized, right? But is building and running a CMS your core competency? Custom-coded systems also tend to have a shorter lifespan, working only in the environment they were created for, with few options to upgrade.

4. Platform
CMSs can be developed on many platforms – such as UNIX ®, Microsoft Windows ® , or Linux. Some may be built on solutions like Lotus Domino or Microsoft Exchange, and require the use of particular, system set-ups, plug-ins or internet browsers for optimal functioning.

5. Methodology
While the entire CMS ballgame is relatively new, some patterns of how online content is being managed have begun to emerge. Solutions can vary in small degrees, or use completely different logic to carry out very similar functions. Some systems, for example, will use a file-and-folder organization in an attempt to enable users who are accustomed to legacy document management solutions to make the transition to the new system with ease. Others (and this is the more common) will use a what-you-see-is-what-you-get (WYSIWIG) logic, allowing content creators the freedom to work in an editing environment without losing the look and feel of the site.

6. Underlying Development Environment
Interoperability – that’s the holy grail of programming these days it seems. But can you actually deploy diverse bits of software and make them work together seamlessly? By all accounts, this is not as simple as the ad-speak makes it out to be. Open standards such as RSS, XML and LDAP have definitely helped take steps in the right direction, but applications typically work better when they are integrated with systems that share similar development methodologies. If all your systems run on Linux, for example, then buying a new system that runs on a different code base may not be the wisest choice.

This classification should help clarify requirements – as well as aid you in avoiding typical pitfalls of platform incompatibility, mismatch of scale, or the attraction of supposedly ‘free’ software.

Evaluation of the CMS
Here are a few criteria to evaluate the CMS on:

• Content Creation – the CMS must provide a conducive environment for content creation. It must allow multi-user authoring, content re-use, Meta data creation and linking. It should also allow for removal and archiving of content.
• Content Management – the most important part of a CMS is its central repository, which is supported by a range of tools for manipulating and managing content. Some key requirements here are version control and archiving, intelligent and flexible workflow models, integrated audit trails, and flexibility for integration into existing business systems. It should also enable the production of an extensive range of reports, for both users and administrators.
• Publishing – the CMS should have flexible and expandable style sheets, templates and support for multiple formats.
• Personalization – the CMS must allow personalization, enabling users to work within their comfort zones.
• Analytics tools - a good CMS must allow for comprehensive usage statistics to be gathered, including most popular pages, daily usage, and search engine usage. This allows you to track your site and its usability.
• Presentation – The CMS must allow for customization to present data in the required format.

It is easy to say that ‘a good CMS must be usable, easy to learn, efficient, adhere to standards put down by the W3C Web Accessibility Initiative (WAI), and offer cross browser support.’ But the reality is that few systems will match all of this: you will simply have to find the best available combination of these attributes.

The right CMS must also be supported by documentation for users, administrators and developers; it must provide training materials for your users and have a maintenance agreement. In the case of purchased CMS applications, make sure you have a warranty. Whichever CMS model you eventually settle for, it is also useful to ask the vendor for reference sites where the application is successfully running.
Know Your ROI
Enough has been said about the importance of ROI, so we will simply provide a sample of an ROI calculator that should help you know just where your CMS dollars are doing their best work:

SaaS: Leading the Game?
Gartner pegs SaaS market size to reach $19.3 billion by 2011. Hosted CMS is fast breaking ground as an affordable and feature-rich option. With no hardware to buy or software to install, the subject matter experts within your organization can focus on what they do best – generate content – without worrying about html, formatting, or non-compliance with brand guidelines.

The SaaS option not only saves scarce resources, it also put the onus of installation, maintenance, and upgrades largely on the vendor. You only pay a fixed monthly or quarterly subscription fee. Vendors like CrownPeak offer an intuitive browser-based interface, smart workflow and publishing features, database management, wireless compatibility and more. With lifelong Active Support thrown in, it is easy to see the advantages of such a CMS model.
For more info: http://www.crownpeak.com