It would seem to be a statement of the obvious that organisations should do their planning before embarking on the implementation of their new content management system (CMS). Yet all too often this doesn’t occur.

Let’s state this more strongly: the day after the contract is signed with the CMS vendor, the vendor will show up asking: so, what are we actually implementing? If there is not a clear and simple answer to this, the project will go poorly, and the vendor will be more than a little frustrated (which itself may have consequences).

This briefing explores the specific details that should be worked out up-front, ideally before the tender or RFP is even sent out.

Product versus project

In many cases, the selection of a new content management system is seen as a technology project with the goal of obtaining a new ‘product’ or piece of ‘infrastructure’. When driven from this perspective, it is seen as reasonable to ‘put a CMS in place’, and then consider how best to make use of it.

The first problem is that vendors will be asked to provide a fixed-price quote for the implementation, which will then be locked in as part of contract negotiations. When the vendor turns up on day one of implementation, they therefore expect that everything will be in place for an immediate start.

At the end of the day, vendors want the implementation project to go smoothly, not least because it means that they will get paid sooner. With a 6 week implementation plan standard for mid-market vendors, there is only limited scope for additional planning and design.

[CMb 2006-22, read the full article]