Comparison: Content Management Systems (CMS)

Selecting and deploying a content management system (CMS) is one of the largest IT projects that many organisations will undertake. With implementation fees being in the millions of dollars, selecting the correct CMS package for your company is critical.

With so many options available on the market, it can be difficult to compare them all. You must have a disciplined approach in order to properly evaluate the products and vendors. In advance, you will also need to have identified your company’s actual requirements for implementing a CMS system.

First off, we would like to assist you by identify the basic features that are addressed by all CMS systems. These include content creation, content management, presentation, separation of content and presentation, and in most cases ease of use. The general idea is to have a central repository for all content that can be easily managed by multiple resources.

More robust solutions can also include multiple-levels of publishing, workflow, version control and archiving, content re-use, and lots more built-in applications such as commerce functionality. Some of these features may have obvious as well as hidden value for your organization. It is our professional recommendation that you work directly with an agency to understand more about pros/cons of each solution.

Other benefits of working with a professional team include training, documentation, warranty, and maintenance agreements. In a smaller environment these may not be huge concerns. With a larger company however, high turnover can result in substantial loss of knowledge over time.

In a nutshell there is a solution for every situation. Below we have included a quick reference to assist in apples-to-apples comparison in a few critical areas of consideration.

On a final note, please remember that nothing replaces professional consultation. The upfront cost can save you thousands during the development of your project.