The CMS Myth - All Comments

at home job

at home job — Thu, 25 Jun 2009 22:04:52 GMT

Elizabeth Hanford Dole began her career in public service at the age of 29, when she began working for the Department of Health, Education and Welfare during the Lyndon B. Johnson administration and for the Office of Consumer Affairs. She was promoted

re: A False Choice for Web Content Management

chris — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:58:11 GMT

This article is excellent in that it has recognized the gap between a customers experience with a CMS and a vendors sales talk. This article is a good forewarning to those who plan to invest in a CMS soon. If you are planning to adopt a CMS, you might want to consider CrownPeak, one of the better known names in the market. CrownPeak has a product for every customer be it individual or business and their prices are attractive too. For details you might want to visit http://www.crownpeak.com/

re: Powering Corporate Content, Collaboration and Community with CMS

chris — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:57:25 GMT

CrownPeak has been playing a key role in the KM-CMS collaboration. CrownPeak is not just a leading CMS in the market, it also has numerous advantageous features, like that it easily lends itself to customization, can be used by non technical users, reduces time when creating landing pages, updating of web content and archiving etc. For details on how you can incorporate CrownPeak CMS into your processes visit http://www.crownpeak.com/

re: Powering Corporate Content, Collaboration and Community with CMS

chris — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:57:17 GMT

re: Why Metadata Matters

Omri Duek — Thu, 11 Jun 2009 13:56:49 GMT

Are there no "third order of order" people here? Of course, there's a fine balance between a flexible taxonomy and complete chaos.

re: Professional Services: Do you know what you are really buying?

chris — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:10:04 GMT

I think these are some great thought on selecting the right vendor for your CMS. We all agree that not much thought goes into choosing the right vendor and this leads to much hardships further into the implementation . One of the things a company needs to remember when choosing a vendor is whether the vendor has adequate domain expertise in CMS implementation or is simply offering it as one more of their products. Companies like CrownPeak have been in the business of CMS for years and have built up rock solid reputations. It might be safer to opt for companies like CrownPeak than be sorry later. For details about our CMS you might want to visit - www.crownpeak.com

re: Get your CMS vendor off their script!

chris — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 12:07:50 GMT

I'm totally with you George, most sales personnel hate to deviate from their presentation and address the real concerns of customers. this may be because the sales personnel knows little about the product or inadequately aware of the customers need. Thankfully we at CrownPeak have addressed this issue in a very decisive way. CrownPeak allows its CMSs to be customize to most needs, besides our CMS is also non technical and easy to work with. For details about the CrownPeak CMS you might want to visit - www.crownpeak.com

re: Does your CMS fit?

chris — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 11:59:33 GMT

I am totally with you Jeff, one CMS cannot fit all. However, companies often fail to understand the complexity of introducing a CMS and so rush into it without a proper understanding about their own needs. Secondly, a good CMS must also lend itself to customization so it can be worked into the company's system. That's the advantage a company like CrownPeak has. Our CMS can be customized to most need and be used by non technical users. To know more about the CrownPeak CMS you might want to visit - www.crownpeak.com

re: Does your CMS fit?

Jeff Cram — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:48:32 GMT

John - Which comes first (the integrator or the cms vendor) is an interesting question.

From our experiences, finding the right CMS vendor should come first, but it may take an external consultant to help get you there.

You may need two different types of partners. One that is more vendor neutral to get you through the CMS selection process, and one that is an expert implementation partner for the selected CMS.

Another consideration is that it's no longer JUST about the CMS. A CMS needs to fit into a larger web ecosystem, so having a trusted partner that is looking out for your overall web strategy is often more important than just having one that thinks about the CMS. Of course your in-house folks may have this covered.

I've found that even vendor neutral folks that specialize in CMS selection often have a hard time of understanding where CMS fits into the larger web strategy. It's complicated for sure, as the last thing you usually want or need is MORE consultants! ;-)

Jeff Cram

CMS Myth

re: Does your CMS fit?

Jeff Cram — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 15:37:32 GMT

Great comments.

Chris - I have a feeling you've been through some rough selection processes. I feel the pain! ;-)

Your comment about expectation setting is spot on. Organizations need to understand what it means to select an implement a CMS. Nine times out of ten, CMS selection projects are set up to fail before they even start.

With that said, it doesn't need to be all doom and gloom. I've been a part of plenty of CMS projects that have gone great. Having a good process to get there is critical.

Although I agree Alex, running for the hills is indeed sometimes necessary! Very funny.

Jeff Cram
CMS Myth

Digital Media Buzz - Does your CMS fit? | Digital Media Buzz

Digital Media Buzz - Does your CMS fit? | Digital Media Buzz — Tue, 02 Jun 2009 13:28:52 GMT

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re: Does your CMS fit?

Jon Marks — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 19:15:43 GMT

Nice post. I'm glad you've come to the same conclusion that I have. There isn't a perfect solution. I'm not even sure there is a good imperfect one.

An extra dimension that makes this even more difficult is deciding how to select the partner that implements the CMS. Do you do it in-house? Do you get the CMS vendor to do it? Or do you source a third party to implement it? If you go for the Systems Integrator option, then do you pick them after you've picked the CMS?

In my experience, the cost of the implementation is normally more than the license cost. You need to budget for the full implementation, which includes the implementation/customisation costs.

re: Does your CMS fit?

Chris Herring — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:46:09 GMT

TOTALLY agree @Alex. The CMS selection leader should make it abundently and tranparently clear that they are embarking on an imperfect, inherently flawed process to find an imperfect solution.

The best possible outcome is a solution that results in stakeholder-disappointment equality. ;-)

re: Does your CMS fit?

Alex Lindsay — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:31:13 GMT

I completely agree about the flawed criteria. So the fundamental problem is the free-market. All we need to do is remove the need to make a decision. One CMS for all!

To be fair - you did ask for ways to resolve the conflicts arising from the one product fits all equally badly - and all I could do was to outline what I would imagine would best document the process as being open, inviting of input, self-documenting, and providing evidence of having accepted (and utilized) the input provided. At least in the end you have a decision and a document demonstrating how it was arrived at and what factors were given consideration overall.

The is no perfect solution, so all we can aim to do is improve the process of arriving at an imperfect solution.

re: Does your CMS fit?

Chris Herring — Mon, 01 Jun 2009 18:20:34 GMT

@Alex: Because 1-7 are inherently flawed criteria, 8 is the correct next step. Buying a solution that needs to 'fit' so many different needs is the real problem and there is no easy answer (and there probably never will be).

It's like selecting the same house for everyone on a given block -- one person might like the plumbing, but hate the cheap vinyl siding. And his next-door-neighbor might love the zero maintenance siding, but hate the auto-flush toilets. So everyone hates the house that they're forced to live in. And everyday they wake up hating it more. Until they leave. And the next person who moves into the same house hates it, but for completely different reasons.

It's all inherently flawed and as an industry, we should stop fooling ourselves by designing different criteria, lists and approaches. There is no perfect solution. Period.