The CMS landscape is changing rapidly. Factors like the economic downturn, prevalence and evolution of Open Source platforms, commoditization of complex technologies, and legacy technologies failing, have all driven the current change. The recognition that content is king has also driven the CMS into a business critical tool.

1. Choosing the right CMS for you Laurence Cornwall-Watkins
New Business Director
Agree/Disagree?
Let Laurence know:
laurence-cw@brightblueday.co.uk
The CMS landscape is changing rapidly. Factors like the economic downturn, prevalence and evolution of Open
Source platforms, commoditization of complex technologies, and legacy technologies failing, have all driven the
current change. The recognition that content is king has also driven the CMS into a business critical tool.
How are the CMS vendors responding? 1. Basic 2. Plug-in architecture
Some vendors have merged or are merging platforms and companies, Basic is the wrong word to use, as this is not a CMS that lacks These are middleweight CMS products currently available. Newer
trying to shift large scale legacy systems into current delivery functionality in the content management solution sense. These products companies produce some of the best I have encountered; these don’t
platforms. Newer vendors have taken advantage of their lightweight are amazing at creating, maintaining and developing a website, with all have the architecture legacy issues of longer standing CMS vendors.
architecture and upscaled functionality. Some have moved to SAAS the features you need to complete these tasks quickly and efficiently.
models and others have integrated other business systems to They have increased their basic content management functionality to
differentiate themselves. They are designed with the end user in mind, namely the marketing include some amazing business critical plug-ins such as: ecommerce,
managers or content editors, ensuring the interfaces aren’t over-fussy document management systems, workflow engines, SharePoint
or complicated. connectors, advanced image manipulation, elearning packages, social
I have broken the evolution into three distinct categories networking tools (forget blogs or wikis: some are replicating Facebook
which I believe now form the basis of the options available to One drawback is building costs. Because of their open platform like functionality), flash integration, multilingual management and
you if you’re procuring a CMS at the moment: advantages, upgrade paths, build times and security are still content publishing to multiple sources.
considerations for some companies.
1. Basic The downsides are minimal; most issues are based upon the client
2. Plug-in architecture The downsides are minimal if you just want to manage content. appetite. It’s said that 80% of the functionality you launch with isn’t
3. ECRM-CMS However with more content created in one year than in the sum total of used, so starting with the essentials and enhance based on what users
our entire existence do we just want to create more content? If you want do/want/say is vital. Otherwise you can quickly rack up costs.
to engage a customer with different types of content, different channels
or different tools these may not be the best. Best examples: Kentico, EPiServer, Sitefinity
Best examples: Wordpress, MODx
To find out more please call 01202 669090 or visit brightblueday.co.uk

2. 3. ECRM-CMS The future – what’s next?
A powerful and interesting combination if your website is delivering I believe the shift they are making across the board is to integrate Don’t be sold by the shiny veneer of some CMSs: within a short space
a lot of information to a wide audience. They combine powerful CMS themselves into all business critical content functions (just look at of time you will be kicking yourself that you didn’t get further under the
technology which feeds into an ECRM layer capturing the interaction on what MS Dynamics and SharePoint have tried to do). It’s the logical hood to understand the real delivery capabilities. In fact, and I don’t say
the website of an individual. move, but until social media I think the appetite for this was relatively this often, maybe you should get someone from IT in to help with the
small. However with social media comes a real need for content procurement. But get the one who owns a MAC as they will understand
The result: you know more about an individual on your site than ever dissemination. Your article, video, image, product etc. can’t exist that ease of use, beauty and technical brilliance can go hand in hand.
before and can personalize, profile and serve content based on actions. on just your website, or even your website’s forum. It needs to exist
Very powerful stuff and in my opinion great future potential. through all communication channels. If you would like an honest opinion on what CMS is right for you or want
to discuss your current requirements then please contact me on the
Downsides are quite a few at the moment. If you have an EMEA website Website, mobile site, your forum, Facebook page/app, Twitter accounts, details below.
with hundreds of thousands of visitors and multiple servers, expect a Foursquare locations, Flickr, YouTube, extranets, intranets, portals,
very high cost for the software and licences. There is the question over digital point of sale, the list is endless. And the CMS solution that We are happy to roll our sleeves up and get stuck into any CMS,
what you do with your current ECRM and I have yet to see a website manages that single published, multiple location, content push will even ones we haven’t worked with before, but our core experience
truly be capable of changing the information architecture, content and form the next generation of CMS technology. includes: Alterian, EpiServer, Modex, Kentico, Sitecore, Ektron,
interface based on my interaction with it, but that could just be the RedDot, SharePoint, Tridion and Sitefinity.
random way I browse. In summary – it is as complicated today as it always has been, but
business process and effective content delivery need to be at the heart
Best examples: Sitecore, Sharepoint of your decisions.
To find out more please call 01202 669090 or visit brightblueday.co.uk