How to Choose the Right Content Management System for Your Business

When selecting a CMS solution, it’s first wise to detail what problems your organization has currently, and how a CMS can assist. Look at it from an operational efficiency and customer experience perspective, instead of solely an IT or management perspective. If for example IT recommends a solution mainly because it’s easy to work with, be sure the CMS is full featured and will allow your team to be more efficient and offer your website visitors an amazing experience.  

Perhaps your remote sales teams struggle with pulling on-demand resources to help close deals. Then you need a cloud-based CMS where documents are properly organized and accessible. The key is to have a roadmap around what the CMS can and should do for the organization in the short term, and the longer-term goals.

Pertinent Questions

Ask pointed questions of the CMS provider that are largely focused on the end results for your organization. You want a solution that blends ease of use with powerful tools, so dig deeper to find out if the CMS vendor has a refined solution and the right technical expertise. Here are some initial questions:

• What is the cost structure? Are there maintenance and other related costs over time? What about support?
• Describe the security in place to protect our proprietary data.
• Detail the solution’s UI and why it’s ideal for both non-technical and power users.
• Which systems are easily integrated with the CMS?
• Can you provide examples of other clients using the solution and realizing productivity, sales, or satisfaction metric gains?
• Is there a community that supports the CMS solution through applications and knowledge?

Creating and Sharing Content is Simple

Cloud-based CMS solutions are ideally structured so users can create content on multiple devices and then quickly share it with remote teams. Talk to a potential vendor about how content flows between teams and partners. You should also review the CMS provider’s structure for approvals and routing of content. This should be a streamlined and intuitive process that requires minimal action, otherwise the CMS risks becoming a bottleneck instead of a productivity tool.

Providers such as DNN (DotNetNuke) offer fully cloud-based CMS solutions that offer scalable solutions with data redundancy and instant global access. This type of solution can be implemented in companies that don’t have formal IT departments, as the implementation, upgrades, and system monitoring are all completed by the vendor.

Customization is Key (it usually is)

Every organization is unique, and needs tech solutions that allow it to leverage that uniqueness for improved efficiency, collaboration, and ultimately revenue. CMS solutions should be quickly customizable, preferably without the need for any coding.

The UI design is crucial to customization, and clients that are considering a CMS should ask detailed questions about leveraging the UI to build custom views. Organizations have several user groups, each of which will need to use the CMS in certain ways. Customization by such group needs is vital.

Coming back to the original point, it’s imperative to pick a CMS solution that enables you to work more efficiently and satisfy both customers and internal staff. Align your most pressing content management needs with the feature set of the CMS, and your organization will be headed in the right direction.

Unsure how to implement a CMS so it works with your other tools? Click here to learn how our consulting services can help you setup the optimal integrated solutions for your ECM and website CMS systems.

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