Cms Selection News & Articles

In a previous contribution I made suggestions about how to use scoring in an effective way in selecting a vendor shortlist. Now, based on the observations made at around 150 presentations I have endured over just the last four years, let's talk about the management of vendor presentations.

You've decided it's time to get a new content management system. Out goes the RFP, in come all the vendor responses. Next step: scoring.  Here's how to do it right.

If you followed the advice from the first two articles in this series (How to build a short list and Developing scenarios), you should have a good idea of what you are looking for and with what products you might find some content management system bliss. This next article provides guidance on how you can start evaluating actual products against your defined requirements.

It is easy to see why most companies struggle with the CMS selection process. The market is flooded with hundreds of products and there does not appear to be a "safe", market-leading choice.

Ultimately, you want to select a content management system that supports your requirements and that your users will find usable.  But evaluating CMS software for functionality and usability takes time.  You don't want to waste your time getting intimate with the wrong products, yet battling your way to a reasonable short list is easier said than done. There are some shortcuts, here's how to get started.

Bridgeline Software (site, news) thinks that the better informed you are about a CMS selection process, the better your return of investment can be. That’s why they’ve released a report called Choosing a Content Management System for Maximizing Web Site ROI.

Researching and selecting a web content management system is often an arduous process. On the outset, few organizations realize what they are getting into. And most team reps and decision makers have other daily responsibilities that compete for their attention. It's not surprising that simple looking decision making tools suddenly become attractive.

Once the requirements collection and product evaluation phases are complete, the most difficult part of a CMS selection process starts. In this phase the group must take all the information that was gathered and meaningfully use it to make an accurate decision. With project fatigue setting in, this is where things often go wrong.