war and peace of cms selection
DESCRIPTION
Choosing the right CMS is like ‘War and Peace’ – it’s long, it features a great many characters and keeping track of the names can be quite a struggle!The CMS selection process begins with gathering business requirements, building a business case and writing an RFP. Everything is possible at this stage. All opportunities are open. But the challenge lies in differentiating key needs from nice-to-haves, and keeping the number of requirements below one bazillion.The next step is researching CMS marketplace, identifying key players, understanding their history and future potential, and getting to know industry analysts and experts, who’ve been there and done that.Then there’s reading and evaluating vendors’ responses – War and Peace indeed, no less! – followed by skillfully rehearsed vendor demonstrations. Somewhere within reach there are also CMS implementation partners who keep your both feet firmly on the ground.Then there’s an interesting part. Negotiations. If there were any doubts over how the licencing and pricing of CMS systems works, these are now multiplied many times over.Then, finally, there’s a moment of peace. Or is it a moment of truth?TRANSCRIPT
WAR AND PEACE
of the CMS Selection
8-10 May 2012
Philadelphia
Marianne KolodiyWeb Designer / CMS Administrator
at Yorkshire Building Society, UK
CMS Selection:
• Reasons to buy a CMS • CMS Marketplace, Shortlist• Collecting requirements• RFI / RFP• Business case for a CMS• Vendor demonstrations• Implementation partners• Negotiations • Decision making
Reasons to buy a CMS
• increase revenues• reduce operational costs / increase
efficiency• reduce or eliminate risks• consolidate multiple platforms,
manage increasing complexity• simplify governance processes,
automate record-keeping and archival
acquisition and efficiency
CMS Marketplace
…how many systems available?
Over 1,000 solutions
(J.Boye)
Where to start?
Gartner Magic QuadrantEnterprise Content Management
Gartner for IT Leaders: $30,000 per year
• Research• Analyst interaction• Peer connect
The Forrester Wave™: Enterprise Content Management, Q4 2011
This report: $2495(The Forrester Wave: ECM 2011)
Subscriptions:
• basic: ~$8K• core: ~ $30K
Real Story Group
• ‘Fit’ assessment instead of overall rankings
• 42 solutions evaluated
• Report: $2,450
J.Boye
• Technology experts
• Stubbornly vendor-neutral
• Clear, simple, plain language
CMSs to considerWho should be on your CMS shortlist? (2009) http://jboye.com/blogpost/who-should-be-on-your-cms-shortlist/
• Day Software (Adobe)• Drupal • Ektron • EPiServer • FatWire (Oracle) • Plone • SDL Tridion • Sitecore • Typo3 • Umbraco
Plone and its competition: choosing a CMS (2009)http://www.martinaspeli.net/articles/plone
-and-its-competition • OpenText• Ektron• SharePoint• Alfresco WCM• Umbraco• Morello (Mediasurface, Alterian, SDL Tridion)
Leading Requirements (Filters)• Architecture, Technology, System
requirements • Page based / asset based• Bake vs fry• De-coupled vs coupled• Open source / proprietary• Build, buy or rent (SaaS/cloud)
Other questions
• Budget• Single vendor for all the content
management needs, or separate ‘best of breed’ systems?
• Other projects and needs within your organisation?
• Dedication of the vendor to CMS• Implementation partners
“In the beginner's mind there are many possibilities, in the expert's mind there are few.”
Shunryu Suzuki
Shortlist – how many?
“Somewhere between 5 and 7 vendors is ideal, and more than 10 is too much.”
(Irina Guseva @irina_guseva, 2009)
Homework – current state of affairs• Size & scope:
- Number of pages- Number of page layouts (templates)- Online stats: pageviews, peak times
• Content model- asset types, document types, navigation…
• Complexity: - Web tools and online applications- Integration points: LDAP, analytics software, CRM / customer database
Homework (contd)
• People:– developers (skillset)– trainers– authors (skillset)– approvers– technical support
• Technology preference, architecture• Focus groups with current and future
users of the system• Capture real tasks and build CMS
Scenarios
Requirements
If collecting requirements is a good thing, - collecting more requirements must be an even better thing, right? Wrong.
Prioritize Vision before Detail!
Seth Gottlieb @sggottlieb, 2011 http://www.cmswire.com/cms/web-cms/selecting-a-cms-how-to-build-a-short-list-006519.php
RFI / RFP
• Deadlines• Background• Requirements • Response Format
– Executive Overview– Company Background– Company / Product Vision– Pricing– Partner network– References
• Selection criteria• NDA agreement
Questions from vendors
“Like many RFP processes, this was gated by the ‘great wall of procurement’, determined to prevent any sort of collaboration with the key stakeholders to determine fit and scope.”
Death by RFP: Don’t let it happen to youhttp://www.cmsmyth.com/2012/02/death-by-rfp/
Review the responses
Response #1235 pages
Response #2120 pages
Response #311 pages
RFI - 14 pages
CMS Licensing
• Core product (CMS server)– Per site / per domain– Per CPU– Per number of users, number of concurrent
users– Non-production environments: development,
test, staging, production, disaster recovery
• Modules– Personalisation, Social Media, Mobile-specific
• Support fees (usually around 20%)• Vendor’s own Consultancy Services
Implementation costs
• Scoping exercise with potential implementation partners
• In particular, pay attention to requirements which are: – ‘partly met’, – can be done with ‘some customisation’, – not ‘out-of-the-box’ features
Business case
• Executive Summary• Situation• Proposed Solution• Benefits (financial & non-financial)• Impacts• Alternatives Considered• Implementation Approach, Timelines & Resources• Governance• Financial Analysis• Risks and Success Factors
(Writing a Business Case, Graham Oakes, 2011)
CMS Return on Investment (ROI)“ROI of a CMS Replacement project is like ROI of moving from one office to another. It is a cost of doing business that has very real but complex and difficult to estimate value.”
Seth Gottlieb http://www.contenthere.net/2007/11/cms-business-case.html
Vendor demonstrations:smoke, mirrors and magic tricks
Vendor demonstrations - Agenda• Background / Intro• Product demo which follows Scenario
script• Implementation case study• Technology• Functional Requirements• Project approach• Explain licensing, implementation and
migration costs
The Fili Council of War (1812). Aleksey Kivshenko, 1880.
Scoring matrix
• Adherence to RFP• Company Strengths/stability• System Requirements• Functional Requirements• Ease of Use• Architecture• Integration with other systems• Additional modules, plug-ins and extensions• Quality of Support• Performance• Security
Negotiations
• At least 3 shortlisted solutions• Sign the contract just before
implementation starts (not years in advance)
• Challenge up-front payment terms – consider small up-front payment, then the rest when the site goes live
• License fees are negotiable, support fees are usually not
References
• http://www.contenthere.net • http://jonontech.com • http://thecontentwrangler.com • http://jboye.com• http://www.slideshare.net/psejersen/cms-selection-
the-process-pitfalls-and-best-practices • http://www.martinaspeli.net/articles/plone-and-its-
competition• http://www.realstorygroup.com• http://www.gartner.com• http://www.forrester.com
Marianne Kolodiy
Web Designer / CMS Administrator
at Yorkshire Building Society
http://uk.linkedin.com/in/mariannekolodiy