To CMS or not to CMS?
November 16th, 2009 // 12:49 pm @ admin
After attending countless agency presentations, we have gone though our normal process of familiarizing ourselves with companies and their specific needs/requirements. Once we discuss their websites, almost 9 out of 10 companies that are in the market for a website, ask for a content management system (CMS).
Of course, a lot of the marketing executives have done their homework. They ask for a CMS because of certain needs and requirements and they know the exact features of the CMS that they would be using in order to meet their requirements.
On the contrary, another group of potential clients don’t quite know why they would need or currently have a CMS and they either solely rely on the agency’s recommendation or follow the trend. This is the point and time when we ask the reason why and which features of the CMS is of interest to them and in response they say, “Well, the last agency that we met with recommended that we should go with a CMS package” or “We are not really sure why but our predecessors had one in place and we are going with it”.
When we explore their requirements further and dive deeper into what was offered to them, it appears as though they really don’t need a CMS package and the agency was just trying to tie them into a long-term contract by hosting their own customized CMS package.
On many occasions we also encounter clients that ask us to build their website on their existing CMS package that resides on another agency’s server and they explain to us that they have signed a contract with them and have no choice but to continue. This is also another testament to the fact that there are agencies out there that use this tactic to guarantee themselves long term clients.
Now, let’s explore some of the common features of CMS packages and why a company should consider a CMS website rather than a basic html website.
1) Non-technical people will be able to add and edit content.
2) Allows for various users to have limited privileges.
3) Allows for localization of content for companies that require multiple languages either now or later.
4) Workflow management that allows sequential and parallel tasks such that content does not get published until appropriate individuals have reviewed and approved it.
5) Automated templates allow the appearance of all content to be changed from one central place and the site to have a standard formatting and text style throughout.
We often recommend using a CMS only (and we mean only) if there is a clear benefit from the features it offers. We ask our clients to picture their website one year or two years down the road and really take the time to think whether or not such functionality will be required. If not, we highly recommend that the site be built via html as an entire CMS package would be overkill. Also, if you decide to go with a CMS-based website, please don’t be hesitant to ask about the legality and rights to the site. Ideally, we recommend that the customized CMS software should be installed and hosted directly on your own or a third party server.
Category : Website Design
