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By Domenic Venuto
If Oprah were to endorse a content management system, which one would it be? There are so many options, flavors and variations in the market it isn’t easy to make a decision. Do you need an enterprise level CMS or a Web CMS? Will either of those handle mobile content publishing, or is there a separate system for that platform? Is a document management system the same thing or something entirely different?
If you even make it that far, the choices continue. Do you adopt open source or go proprietary? If it is open source, then what development language is it written in? If it is proprietary, then which vendor provides the best mix of features, future product roadmap and long-term support? Consider this partial list on Wikipedia and you understand how daunting the decision can be.
A publisher’s content management system is arguably one of the more strategic tools it has, although few think of it that way. Considering its strategic importance, CMS implementation projects have a remarkably high failure rate. Organizations that manage to get a Web CMS installed leave disgruntled Web editors and frustrated publishers in their wake. Traditional enterprise CMS software packages typically have long design and implementation cycles along with steep learning curves for both the end user and the back-end technical team. They are often criticized for their unfriendly user interfaces and the number of manual workarounds that seem to be required for simple business processes.
These are hardly criteria that will help the publishing industry in its quest for innovation, responsiveness and experimentation. New trends and advancements on the Web should be viewed as opportunities, not liabilities that introduce complexity and overhead on cumbersome technology. There’s just no time for it. If the industry didn’t have patience before, it certainly doesn’t have it in this economic climate.
Recently, open source CMS solutions have gained traction with publishers and have taken market share from the enterprise players. In fact, this post on The Huffington Post points to Drupal, an open source CMS, as “the platform for building scalable, community-driven Web sites.” It even recommends another open source tool, WordPress, for blogging applications.
One reason for the rise of open source solutions is cost. Without licensing fees, open source systems have a lower upfront cost of ownership. With shorter implementation timelines (for standard publishing functionality), the upfront cost is further reduced. Another reason for their rapid adoption is that editors have taken more interest in the tools that they use, demanding not only a core feature set, but systems that are easier to use and administer.
A good Web CMS should accept and integrate all forms of content from a variety of sources, including content directly from end users. It should pull the content together in a centralized repository that allows it to be tagged and organized using a standard vocabulary or taxonomy. An even better Web CMS should be flexible to support distribution freedom so content can travel elsewhere on the Web and across platforms (e.g. mobile). A perfect Web CMS should also be easy, enjoyable and fast to use—after all, creating and maintaining Web content is a publishing organization’s primary activity. With that said, one size does not fit all and no single CMS excels in all areas, so here’s a short list of questions to ask that will help narrow down the options:
- How complicated is the editorial approval process?
- What type of development support is required?
- Is there a need for digital asset management?
- Is there content that needs migrating?
- How important is content preview before publishing?
- What degree of social interaction is planned?
- Will scheduled content publishing be required?
- Are there existing technologies that need integration?
- How complicated is the content taxonomy?
- What degree of content tagging will be required?
- What type of content relationships and navigation are planned?
- What administrative tools and dashboards are needed?
So what Web CMS would Oprah recommend? Chances are it would be an open source solution with a standard suite of content tools; is lightweight; requires minimum training; and could be up and running in no time. However, since open source Web CMS tools wouldn’t meet all her requirements, she may change her mind and opt for an enterprise solution that provides a framework and tool set with complete flexibility.
Minsider Domenic Venuto is SVP and Head of the Media and Entertainment Practice with the New York City office of Razorfish. He can be reached at domenic.venuto@razorfish.com. The author gratefully acknowledges the contributions to this article from Basel Salloum, VP of technology with the New York City office of Razorfish.
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