Web CMS Solutions, Build or Buy?

I was just reviewing an RFP document today and ran across this paragraph: "The Information Technology Unit of the ############# District in developing its Strategic Plan (####) has identified a high priority need to improve project accounting and ######### management capabilities by reducing the number of custom-developed and redundant applications and implementing commercial off-the-shelf products where available." When considering the build vs. buy question in the context of WCM projects, this is one of the most relevant points. When an organization implements an off the shelf product, yes there can be un-needed features, yes there is often a high price tag, yes you may learn later that you've made a bad choice. Despite all these things, an off the shelf product does something for your organization that people often overlook. Off the shelf products provide focus to your IT strategy and IT project efforts. This is something that is lost to some degree or another when project solutions are developed from scratch. This lack of focus leads to a lack of methodology, inconsistent and incompatible design approaches, and typically, loads of redundancy. There are appropriate circumstances in which the decision to build a custom web content management solution makes sense. However, as the market consolidates, prices drop, and WCM functionality is commoditized and integrated into the middleware, these instances will become far and few between. For more information on Web CMS buy decisions, read our brief overview of Web CMS ROI.