This is part 3 in our series of posts that outlines how we work with clients.

There are a very large number of content management systems (CMS) in the marketplace, 140+ in Australia alone. These vary hugely in price, design and capabilities, and we’ve often said that CMS products are only 30% similar and 70% utterly differently. Yes, they all have the same bullet-point list of features, but it’s how they work that makes the difference between success and failure.

The ever-changing CMS marketplace makes it very difficult for organisations to find a new publishing solution for their website, intranet or extranet. What features should we be asking for? Which products should we be looking at? Where do we start?

We are recognised world-wide as content management experts, with a specific focus on CMS selection (see the many articles we’ve published). We help organisations through every stage of the CMS selection process, from business requirements to a short-list of products, through to the final decision.

What we do

1. Initial workshop: a one-day workshop with the core project team and wider stakeholders to make sure everything is ready to run a successful project. Core project goals and plans will be reviewed, and expectations will be set around likely CMS capabilities.
2. Requirements workshop: the core of the methodology is an intensive two-day requirements workshop. Key staff are “locked in a room” for two days, and we talk through the requirements. As you talk, we cut-and-paste from previous tenders, tuning as we go. By the time we walk out of the room at the end of the second day, we have 95% complete requirements, fully documented, ready to go.(That’s several months of work done is two days.)
3. Creating the tender: we then work with you to finalise the tender/RFP document, which can be as simple or as complex as needed (depending on your procurement policies).
4. Scenarios: we’ll also help you to write scenarios, day-in-the-life descriptions that form a “script” for the vendor demonstrations. This cuts through the standard smoke-and-mirrors demos given by most vendors, ensuring that you see the products doing exactly what you need.
5. CMS short-list: once the tender and scenarios have been completed, we provide you with a short-list of five products, pre-selected according to their ability to meet key selection criteria.
6. Facilitating vendor demos: if requested, we’re more than happy to sit in on the vendor demos, to make sure they run smoothly.
7. Expert support: we provide expert support throughout the selection process, to get you to a final decision as quickly as possible.

What you will get

• Dramatically streamlined selection process
• Concise and meaningful requirements document
• Alignment between business needs and marketplace realities
• Short-list of potentially suitable CMS products
• Assistance throughout the selection process
• The right CMS for the job!

Demonstrated experience

We maintain a list of all the CMS products in Australia, and spend a lot of time researching current (and evolving) product capabilities. We have internal notes on a large number of products, which we use when constructing our short-lists.

As far as we are aware, we are the only truly vendor-neutral CMS consultants in Australia (we don’t have any relationships with vendors, implement products or develop code). We have never provided the same short-list twice.

A selection of our past CMS clients include: Australian Health Service Alliance (AHSA), Australian Film Commission, BHP Billiton, ClubsNSW, Department of Immigration (DIAC), Hunter New England Health, Kobelco CNH Australia, National Prescribing Service, Oxfam Australia, Sydney Opera House, University of Melbourne, University of Western Sydney, VicSuper, Westpac and Woollahra Municipal Council.

If you’d like to know more

Our CMS selection work is amongst the highest-value consulting that we do, and in a very short period of time we can greatly assist help web and intranet projects. To find out more, please drop us a line.