The document discusses selecting the right content management system (CMS) for clients with diverse requirements, including features like blogging, email collection, SEO controls, and e-commerce capabilities. It emphasizes the importance of understanding client needs and the various CMS options available, particularly WordPress, Drupal, and Joomla, along with their strengths and weaknesses. The speaker shares client case studies to illustrate challenges and solutions in web development projects.

1. PICKING THE RIGHT CMS
ALAN LOK - WORDCAMP TORONTO 2014

2. THE ANSWER IS SIMPLE!
IS IT NOW?

3. My client is asking for a site…
that is editable
with a blog
that can collect email address for
newsletter
with great SEO controls
that increases social presence
with an events calendar
that sells products
to interface with third party APIs
with a membership portal
that can sell tickets for events
with a CRM
with forms and survey capabilities
that is multilingual
that has a Partridge in a Pear Tree

4. and by the way, it must be in…
Liferay
Drupal
Joomla
WordPress
TYPOlight
Plone
SharePoint
Concrete5
Alfresco
dotCMS
Radiant
Magneto
TYPO3
ExpressionEngine

5. and I have to host it at
A tier 3 datacenter with Windows 2003 server and IIS 6
Amazon AWS
Rackspace
GoDaddy Shared Hosting
Microsoft Azure
Google Compute Engine
My cousin’s basement

6. I need it
for $200in 3 weeks awesome
and it must look
http://theoatmeal.com/comics/design_hell

7. GATHER CLIENT INTEL
KNOWING IS ONLY HALF OF THE BATTLE

8. Answer these questions
Who
is your client
What
does your client want
Where
does it need to be hosted
When
does it need to be live
Why
is your client looking
How
it gets done

9. Who is your client?
Is the client tech savvy (or self-sufficient)?
Can your client afford your solution?
Will updates be required often?
Who is the client’s intended audience (type
and size)?

10. What does your client want
What is the end product? A bird? A plane?
Is there an site that you are migrating from?
Is there a proposed information architecture?
Any sites similar to your current client’s
domain to base this work on?

11. Where does it need to be hosted
Where will the website be hosted?
WordPress requirements:
PHP 5.2.4+
MySQL 5.0+
mod_rewrite (or equivalent)
From: https://wordpress.org/about/requirements/

12. When does it need to be live
Set proper expectations
Consider commercial templates
Hosting location
Don’t forget the domains!

13. Why is your client looking
Why does your client needing a CMS?
Educate your client

14. How it gets done
Will you do all or part of the work?
Will it be done in phases?
Do you need to work with the client’s IT team
and/or previous site maintainers?
Delineate responsibilities in your quote

15. MOST IMPORTANT CLIENT
PROJECT
DATE CLIENT
NOW
CONTENT MANAGEMENT SYSTEMS
KNOW YOUR COMPETITION

16. Versions: 3.3 (STS), 2.5 (LTS)
Platforms: LAMP
Strengths: relatively big commercial component market, mature OSS
component / extension community

17. Drupal
Versions: 8 (Beta), 7 (STS), 6 (LTS)
Platform: PHP, MySQL/PostgreSQL/SQLite
Strengths: Symfony-based (Drupal 8) for easy plugin development, great
workflow management, versatile database backend
What to watch for: A few enterprise-level hosting/support services are
available, all independent of Drupal (http://www.quora.com/GetPantheon-
vs-Omega8-vs-Acquia-pros-and-cons-of-each)

18. WordPress Joomla Drupal
Installs Worldwide
http://trends.builtwith.com/cms 12.7m 2.8m 730k
Actively Maintained Extensions
34,451
https://wordpress.org/plugins/
8,596
http://extensions.joomla.org/
14,688
https://www.drupal.org/project/
project_module
SEO Yoast SEO sh404sef SEO Tools
Calendar The Events Calendar jEvents Calendar
Community BuddyPress
Community Builder
JomSocial
Organic Groups
Event Registration Events Manager DT Register Entity Registration
Shopping Cart
WooCommerce
GetShopped
HikaShop, Virtuecart
j2store
Drupal Commerce
Newsletters MailPoet ACYMailing MimeMail/SimpleNews
Forums BBPress Kunena Forums (Core)
Gallery Gallery, NextGEN Gallery Phone Gallery (Core - content type)
Forms Formidable, Ninja Forms Chronoforms Webform
CDN/Acceleration W3 Total Cache, Super Cache CDN for Joomla CDN
i18n See Matt Smith’s slides! (Core) (Core)

19. Enterprise Web CMS
SSO/SAML
PaaS/SaaS integration
Commercial LTS services
Content staging
Gartner WCM/ECM
reports

20. CLIENT STORIES
IT’S NEVER SO BLACK AND WHITE

21. Low budget website (non-profit)
Original State:
Static HTML site with SnippetMaster
editor (PHP-based) for fragment
content editing
Designed and deployed by someone
initially for very cheap
Client was looking to add an events
calendar and blog.
Client possesses basic HTML skills
Proposal:
Move static site to WordPress
Install plugins to provide gallery
and events calendar functionality
Convert existing template via off-
shore service
Migrate content to WordPress and
preserve existing URLs

22. Low budget website (non-profit)
Result:
Client rejected proposal (cost)
There was a potential hosting
change to Windows/IIS/MSSQL
Continued to service client to
maintain HTML/JS/CSS files that
are restricted by the fragment
editor
Retrospect:
Client didn’t need WordPress or
its powerful features
Total money spent after 3 years
is still less than the WordPress
proposed

23. Activist Website
(case courtesy of GrassRiots.com)
Request:
Originally in Drupal
Single shared host at Bluehost
Client needs simpler edit interface
New digital team to take over
existing site
Internationalization required in 6
languages
Solution:
Converted to WordPress and
extended with custom plugins
and taxonomies
Migrated by starting in a
subsection and slowly
expanded to a full site
Scaled out using Amazon AWS

24. I want my blog back in my domain
Request:
Client has a Joomla site
Set up a wordpress.org blog
with content and bring her blog
hosting back in her domain
Solution:
Created WP blog in her
subdomain
Backed up and restored WP
blog to new subdomain site
Used RSS module to pull
newsfeeds from blog to Joomla
site

25. Doctor’s Website
Request:
Doctor has Office 365 Enterprise
subscription
Owns a domain with GoDaddy
Wants a simple website
Solution:
Used SharePoint (part of O365
subscription)
Selected a simple template
Added a contact us form

26. High traffic retail site
Request:
New API Integration to a SaaS
platform
Strong workflow management
and content staging/scheduling
Requires enterprise support, but
hosting to be done by the
retailer
Internal Proposals:
Deciding between WordPress or
Drupal as a development base
Need stable base for module
development to this SaaS
platform, which libraries are
provided in PHP

27. HOW DO YOU PITCH?
MY APPROACH TO TALKING
WITH CLIENTS

28. Research your client
Domain:
Understand the client’s
domain
Study the competition
Assess the kind of plugins and
components needed to
complete the job
Client:
Tech savvy
IT team in the way?
Qualification process? EOI?
RFQ? RFP?
Size of company = relative
cost/complexity

29. My pitch - the meeting
Allow the client to discuss needs and woes
Present your capabilities
Provide an ROI for why it needs to be done
Be prepared to offer other solutions

30. Why WordPress?
Easy-to-use interface
Extensive plugin library to increase functionality
Wealth of themes for clients who are looking to lower cost
Supported by most hosting companies
Name-drop on big companies using WordPress: CNN, Time, Global News,
Rogers Digital Media
Because you love WordPress!

31. THANKS!
Web: wlx.ca
Twitter: @alan_lok