The Practical Guide to Selecting a New Web CMS For Technology Companies

About Me

Tom Wentworth, Acquia CMO - 13 Year CMS veteran at vendors Interwoven and Ektron. - @twentworth12 on Twitter

What You’ll Learn in this Webinar

• Why Now is the Right Time to Select a New CMS - Mobile, Social, Open

• Running a CMS Selection Process - Defining requirements - Selecting vendors - Vendor demonstrations and presentations - Selecting an implementation partner

• High Tech CMS Case Studies

2003-2010

2010 +

First Generation CMS

•  Brochureware websites •  Vendor pioneers Interwoven, Vignette •  CMS part of Enterprise Content

Management Suites

Second Generation CMS •  Dynamic Websites

•  Marketing-driven •  Business results focused

Third Generation CMS •  Mobile, Social, Personal, Cloud

History of CMS

1994-2003

Putting it in Perspective

2000-2004 • ** This is probably when your CMS was built **

2006 • Facebook opens to the world

2007 • IPhone Launches

• Twitter Hits the mainstream

2010 • iPad Launches • HTML 5

2011 • Ethan Marcotte coins “Responsive Web Design”

2013 • Google Glass • Big Data • …

Legacy CMS Challenges • Mobile sites are an afterthought, or impossible • They are expensive to own - High maintenance costs - Difficult to find experienced development resources

• Plagued by Usability issues - Products were designed before the advent of modern user

interface best practices - Return of the “Webmaster Bottleneck”

• Require multiple point solutions to deliver integrated experiences - Content, Community, Commerce

Web CMS isn’t about Web Publishingit’s about Customer Experiences

Flexibility and Integration Drive Digital Competitive Advantage

What are the main drivers for a new digital experience platform?

1.  Limited flexibility

2.  Total cost of ownership

3.  Poor, inadequate functionality

4.  Inability to quickly innovate

8 Source: A commissioned study conducted by Forrester Consulting on behalf of Acquia, July 2012

The New Web Content Management MandateManage, Measure, Engage

Vendors are Taking Two Approaches:Monolithic Suites

User Generated

Content

Integrated Digital Experiences

CONTENT COMMUNITY Email

Analytics

Marketing automation

Personalization

COMMERCE

DAM

CRM

Be wary of vendors that promise a

big-bang solution; they are more interested in selling you all the components of their suites than they are in helping you leverage what you

already own.

Source: Harnessing the Convergence of Customer Experience Management Solutions

Running a CMS Evaluation

Identify Requirements +

Stakeholders

Define Vendor Shortlist

RFP Vendor Evaluations

Selections + Contracts

* Allocate 3-6 Months for Evaluation

Simplified Content Management Lifecycle

Create

•  In-Line Editing

•  Structured Content Authoring

•  Drag and Drop Page Creation

Manage

• Workflow •  Taxonomies • Metadata •  Permissions

Publish

•  Content Reuse

• Multi-format • Multi-

language • Multi-site

Key RequirementsContent Authoring •  Inline Editing - Edit content in-place

• Structured Content Authoring - Forms-based

• Drag + Drop Page Creation - Assemble pages without

developers

• Media Management - Resizing, Cropping,

Transcoding

Key RequirementsWorkflow • Approval Process for

Publishing - Draft, In-Review, Published

• Version History - Quickly compare versions

• Audit Trails - Capture feedback on

changes • Reporting - Bottlenecks

Key RequirementsMulti-lingual + Content Re-Use

• Separation of Content from Presentation - Create content once, re-use in

multiple locations - Categorize content using

taxonomies for automated placement

• Manage content in multiple languages - Manual or automation translation

support - Define relationship between

languages

Key FeaturesSecurity + Permissions

• Users - Authorized CMS users

• Groups - Collections of users and

other groups. • Permissions - Define access levels to

folders and content • Roles - Define access privileges

to users and groups

Key FeaturesSocial Communities & Collaboration

• Blogs • Networking,

Friending, and Following

• Ratings + Reviews • Collaboration • Content

Moderation

There are Lots of Vendors…

Defining a Vendor Shortlist

• Pick a Development Platform(s) - .NET, Java, PHP

• Pick a Deployment Model - Cloud, On-Premise

• Select Vendors to Evaluation - Work with Analysts

•  Forrester, Gartner, Digital Clarity Group, Real Story Group, others

- Evaluate Products •  Downloads, Trials

- Engage Partners

Picking a Development PlatformAnd Does it Matter?

•  .NET Framework - Microsoft-only - Mature development environment

• Java - Cross-platform - Popular among larger enterprises and specific verticals like

financial services • PHP - Cross-platform - Fastest growing CMS development platform

PHP Content Management Systems Growing Fastest

Open Source vs. Proprietary CMSTop Five Myths About Open Source WCM

1.  Open Source is just for blogs and simple sites 2.  Open Source isn’t secure 3.  Open Source won’t scale to handle the world’s largest

sites 4.  Open Source requires tribal knowledge 5.  Open Source won’t work well with my marketing

tools

Building a good RFP

• Project overview - Provide a detailed written description of the problems you are trying

to solve.

• Process - Clearly describe your end-to-end evaluation process w/ timeframes

• Requirements - Articulate your requirements. Avoid “Yes/No” questions in favor of

open ended

• Scenarios - Frame your requirements into actual real-world usage scenarios but

don’t prescribe the solution

Evaluate Scenarios Okay Example •  The Video Player module is one of the most heavily used features of

our current CMS. Demonstrate how to add video to a site..

Great Example •  One of the major weaknesses of the current CMS is not having the

ability to create a new website. Demonstrate how to create a new website including:

•  Creating a homepage

•  Developing templates and style sheets for the underlying pages. Templates will carry the same footer across all pages of the website.

•  Creating a subsite with a different homepage but with design elements that tie it to the overall website.

•  Show how subsites work with a different domain (e.g., xyz.city.gov)

Vendor Presentations… or the Dog & Pony Show

•  Allocate enough time to cover your scenarios and requirements - Typically 90-120 minutes

•  Ask the vendor to bring the right resources -  The Sales Engineer is your friend

•  Ask the vendor to minimize the “About Us” pitch -  Important, but should have already been

covered during initial diligence •  Segment the presentation by

audience - Developers/Designers vs. Business Users

Evaluate Usability not Curb Appeal

Typical License and Deployment Models

• Deployment Model - On-Premise: Software is deployed on owned servers. - Cloud: Software is deployed in the cloud. - Hybrid: Authoring servers on-premise, delivery servers in

the cloud

•  License Types - Perpetual: You buy the software up-front, and pay the

vendor a yearly fee for access to upgrades and support. - Subscription: You rent the software, services, and support

typically on an annual basis. - Open Source: No software license fee. Vendors like

Acquia provide support.

Selecting an Implementation Partner • Working with Vendor

Professional Services vs. an Implementation Partner

•  Types of Partners - Global, Regional, etc.

• What is their implementation methodology?

• Do they understand your key drivers?

• What is their comfort level with the technologies? - You’d be surprised…

Don’t Forget about Training!

• For Developers - Learn the fundamental concepts and techniques for developing

CMS applications, including page design, APIs, content models, and more.

• For Administrators - Lean server administration concepts and best practices, from

installation and configuration through ongoing health, performance, and availability.

• For End Users - Teach users the basics of content management including

authoring, workflow, and publishing.

Case Studies

Market Presence 1,500,000+ sites Global Adoption 228 countries Extensive Capabilities 22,000+ modules Broad Community 800,000+ members Active Development 26,000+ developers

Drupal is the Largest Open Source Platform in the World

Open source, web phenomenon

2X the size of Linux developer community

Bentley University

www.acquia.com/resources/casestudies

Active Developers 250,000

•  Improved Customer Experience •  Increased Brand Engagement •  Faster Innovation

Dream It. Drupal It.