How to Choose the Right Web CMS Solution for Your Next Project |
Posted: June 30, 2021 |
Due to the rapidly increasing digital ecosystem, at present, there is no single statement that could define a Web Content Management System. Thus, a productive and intelligent way to frame the conversation is to start by defining what a CMS should mean for your business's evolving content needs. What factors should you consider while choosing a Web CMS solution today? We have thrown some light upon them to help you make an informed decision. Open Source Vs Commercial Web CMS SolutionOne of the important parameters that play a vital role while selecting a web CMS solution is "Which CMS hosting model should I choose?" and "Should I go with an open source or commercial solution?" According toGartner's Magic Quadrant, CMS players are divided into four quadrants—leaders, visionaries, niche players, and challengers—positioned within a specific market. Completeness of vision and their ability to execute the business requirements are two parameters on which this categorization is based upon.
The choice of Content Management System entirely depends upon your business requirements—it is advisable to go with the niche players in the industry rather than the leaders if they could better support your needs. Using a trending CMS, whether commercial or open-source is not always the best solution for your product development. Small and medium businesses or even enterprises looking for a simple website can go ahead with an open source web CMS solution with a set of plug-ins. On the other hand, businesses with complex requirements are advised to choose a commercial CMS, which is customizable and can be tailored according to their specific requirements, and has robust security features as well. While the technical and cost considerations of selecting a CMS are important, so are the following business considerations:
Stakeholders Involved in the Web CMS Solution DecisionFirst of all, stop looking at the CMS features to make your choice. Rather, sit back and figure out who decides what web CMS solution is best for your organization. It is not as easy as it might seem. As the size and requirements of your business grow, so does the number of stakeholders involved. Your Marketing team might prefer a solution that juxtaposes with their marketing tools. IT might need a CMS that plugs with their current infrastructure stack. On the other hand, Sales would look forward to CRM. Your primary objective must be to keep your stakeholders happy and on the same page, which can be a potential minefield. Even asurvey led by Forrester reveals that most web content management system initiatives fail because of internal politics.
This is why it is important to prioritize the requirements of your stakeholders. Since every department involved in the process of choosing a Web CMS solution will have different requirements, it is vital to prioritize their requirements using the MoSCoW method.
Traditional Or Headless CMS: The Better Choice?Agreed that the term "CMS Architecture" might force you to step a little back, especially if you are a non-technical marketer whose aim is to just create, manage, and deliver content more efficiently. However, choosing the right CMS architecture for your next project is vital to your content operation, both in terms of what is possible and how it gets done. The basics of CMS Architecture Without Going into DepthThe CMS software includes multiple application layers. The purpose of application layers is to support CMS functionality and guide how different parts of the software connect to each other.
Now, to deliver content to an audience, the delivery layer, through the medium of an API requests content from the content layer. That content then moves through a presentation layer. It takes what the delivery layer has produced and renders it on a screen. Headless Vs Non-Headless ArchitectureHeadless and Non-Headless architectures are responsible for presenting the content from CMS to the audience.
Why Headless Web CMS Solution is a Better Choice?As we discussed, Content, nowadays, is being delivered everywhere: from smartphones to televisions, from watches to voice devices. Thus, all of them have unique presentation requirements. For instance, there is a difference between an Apple Watch, or Amazon's Alexa, or Facebook's Oculus virtual reality headsets. They only require the desired content from the CMS, not the page layout, styles, management framework, etc. Headless CMSs retrieve raw content as data through API calls and enable developers to build as many front-ends or "heads" as your various channels support. According to the State of the Headless CMS 2018 survey, 29% of respondents who know headless CMS have already used one, and an additional 38% plan to use it in the next 12 months.
Thus, it's very likely we will see strong adoption of headless CMS in the near future. Multichannel ScalabilityThe first query that may arise in the mind of a marketer is, how can we make use of various channels to push content to our target customers? For instance, an advertisement that constantly pops up on TV, radio, websites, and social media platforms is an example of multi-channel advertising effort. It is one of the important features of all the multichannel CMS. Thus if your business requires you to deliver content to multiple channels and devices, make sure that your web CMS solution helps you do it efficiently.
New devices and channels will continue to explode in the near future. Therefore, purchasing a simple, less customizable CMS might seem intelligent today. However, you will likely have to rip and replace it in a few years. Choosing an extensible CMS means developers and integration partners can help you adapt to new channels as they take birth. This makes delivering the same piece of content multiple times across different form factors and screen sizes from a single action. Apart from this, also make sure that your web content management system vendor moves in tandem with trends and regularly updates its software development kits (SDKs), application programming interfaces (APIs), connectors, and pipelines. Else, it will become challenging for you to distribute content on the latest devices, apps, and other platforms.
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