Hi everyone, this is my first post as part of the w.illi.am/ team, and I’m excited to share this with you. We recently analyzed different Web Content Management Systems for a client, and we learned a few things in the process. Here are some notes that can help you select the right CMS for your organization.

Selecting a CMS usually starts when you’ve already decided to redo or create your website. You already know your visitors expect to have content updated often, maybe a twitter feed, blog, an RSS feed, or a contact form. Maybe you have a community or web application that needs single sign on, a catalogue and payment integration. Perhaps your team needs to have an approval process for all content, create dozens of landing pages for marketing campaigns, do A/B or multivariate testing, and handle multiple languages. I mean, there are many things a CMS powered website can do. At the same time, the number of CMS options available is huge, and it is easy to get lost on the sea of options.

If you already know you want one, and are unsure of which one to get or how to start the process of selecting a CMS, here are a few pointers to do before even googling « web content management system ». You should take time to do the following:

• Define your goals
• Create a prioritized requirements list
• State your constraints
• Create a shortlist of potential systems.

Defining your goals

Web Content Management Systems come in many shapes, sizes and flavours. Understanding what you really need it to do is the most important step. Most websites have very specific needs, even if it is just for a brochure website, its purpose can be clearly stated. Brainstorming about goals and writing them down will only help you shape the perfect CMS. Ask yourself questions like:

• What is the main purpose of my website? Is it informational, is it a community site, is it a store, is it a portal, or all of the above?
• What do I need to fulfill that purpose?
• Do I need a blog to publish information and updates?
• Do I need to sell online?
• Do I need to serve personalized content?
• Do I have to manage several websites from a single system?
• Do I need to have different languages?
• Do I need to support digital marketing campaigns?
• Do I need to control who creates and publishes content?

Most probably you already know most of the answers to these, and other questions regarding your needs, but it is important to have the right vision of what you want the final website to do.

Creating a requirements list

After documenting your goals, you should create a requirements list built on top of your answers to illustrate your needs. A requirement should be phrased as an actionable item that the system or user must be able to perform, for example:

• Users are able to edit content in-context
• The marketing team must be able create dozens of landing pages a month
• The system should support A/B and multivariate testing
• The system archives different versions of content and is able to display the difference between versions
• The system has an ecommerce module with catalogue, shopping cart and payment integration
• The system allows administrators to manage several users and define workflows for approval processes?
• The system allows digital assets to be categorized and classified through meta data

With a big list of requirements, and some wishful thinking, it is easy to feel overwhelmed. Let’s divide and conquer. Categorize your requirements into functional groups. Some groups could be content creation, content management, content delivery, technical, etc. With clear groups, you’ll be able to see which dimensions are more important for your company.

Not all requirements are created equal. Some of them may be more important than other, some might even be critical, and some might be just wishes. Be sure to prioritize your list, clearly indicating which ones are critical.

Most of the times selecting a CMS is about balancing tradeoffs between features, functionalities, and budget.

Stating your constraints

Now that you have defined some of your requirements and prioritized them, take a look into your constraints, that is, what limits your choices. Constraints could be either budgetary, resources related, or IT related, sometimes even internal politics play a role. Understanding these constraints will help you reduce the number of systems to consider and avoid wasting time with systems that simply don’t make the cut. Keep in mind the following:

• How much are you willing to spend? Approximately?
• Are you tied to a specific technology, web server, programming language, or database?
• Do you need a web hosting environment in the cloud, or a SAAS (Software As A Service) option?
• Do you have the internal resources to carry out the implementation, create templates, and maintain it, or do you need a reliable partner (like w.illi.am/)?

Create a shortlist of potential systems

Now, here comes the legwork. Do your research of what systems might be aligned with your needs and constraints. You’ll be surprised by the number of options out there, but don’t despair, all your hard work will pay off. Make a list of systems you are interested in and start doing some research about each of them.

Your requirements list will help you evaluate each system. Give each requirement a numerical score (for example from 1 to 5). Start by evaluating the critical needs. If one of your critical requirements is not met, move to the next system; don’t waste time with that system anymore. If no system satisfies that critical need, do you really need it? Could you build it? Soon you will have gone through the whole list, and all systems could be ranked by performance.

In many ways, the old adage of « Measure twice, cut once » applies to selecting your next CMS. Be sure to do your due diligence with respect to what the CMS is able to deliver, and do not rely on vendor documentation, do your research.

With a better understanding of your needs, and how each of the selected systems performs against your needs, you can do a better decision of what your next steps are, for example: find a reliable partner.

Right now we are done measuring. The next phase, implementing a CMS, is a different story, but at least you know that you have selected the right CMS for your organization!