Sanity check: the final short-list of CMS products should be similar
Categorised under: Content management
There are literally hundreds of content management systems in the marketplace. The goal of any selection process is to progressively cut these down until only one remains: the chosen solution.
Regardless of which type of evaluation process is being followed, there is a final short-list of typically three vendors. These vendors are asked to give a structured demonstration, and then the final decision is made.
Too often I’ve seen shortlists with remarkably different products on them, and if the requirements and selection criteria are working properly, this just shouldn’t be possible.
Having worked on dozens of CMS selection projects, this is a good “sanity check”:
The products in the final CMS short-list should be similar, or the selection process is in trouble.
This means:
- All shortlisted products meet core CMS requirements.
- All products should be strong candidates.
- They should be the same “type” of products (and not a mix of web CMS, collaboration tools, IT platforms, portals or document management systems).
- The products should be roughly similar in size and complexity (eg there should not be an “enterprise” CMS alongside a small-scale offering).
- They should all run on the same (preferred) technical platform (IT can easily knock out products because of the platform they run on, leaving just one or two).
- They should all be affordable within the budget, or close thereto.
Now, this is not to say that there can’t be some variation. There’s no problem with having a mix of closed source and open-source options, as long as it’s managed well. There can be both “mid-market” and “upper-market” offerings, as long as this is done deliberately to help understand what paying more would get you.
At the end of the day, you want three strong candidates to pick from so you can be confident that the best solution has been found. If the final short-list fails the criteria listed above, double-check the whole process, and if necessary, get some outside expert input.
Your thoughts and experiences?
James Robertson is the Managing Director of 
3 Comments:
Great article – I often find that our clients don’t compare different CMS systems as closely as they could.
This’ll act as a good check-list for things to run through with people – thanks
You make an interesting point, but to some customers Drupal and Sitecore might be similar solutions, in particular since some agencies propose them as alternatives. You may think this is crazy, but I don’t.
I really don’t think customers should worry too much about whether the Final 3 are similar or not similar. What’s important is that all 3 meet the key requirements. Taking a closer look at a very big and commercial complex product alongside a less complex open source system can make sense.
There is no such thing as a perfect CMS, so customers will always have to make compromises and learn along the way.
Janus, I think we both agree and disagree. I’m sure we both agree that the right solution is the one that fits how it’s going to be used in practice.
For me, this comes down to three things:
1. Who the authors will be, and therefore how simple/usable the CMS needs to be
2. Who will be managing the site, including their technical expertise and how much self-sufficiency they want
3. How much development will need to be done, and by who
Based on these three criteria, Drupal and Sitecore are utterly different solutions. Being vendor-neutral, I’m obviously not going to talk about individual products, but safe to say that the two products you’ve highlighted have very different profiles across the three questions.
I agree that compromises are always necessary, and I’m always focused on making sure that everyone understands what they are, and why they’re making them. Taking a completely “hands off” approach to the selection process, and ending up with such a diverse list of products is never a good sign, in my books.
Cheers, James
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