I promise not to turn this into a rant. I further promise not to turn this into yet another dressing-down of portal and content management system (CMS) vendors. I will try to be unbiased and fair…. mostly fair and somewhat unbiased (after all there’s lots I could sell but I don’t sell anything on this blog).

Content management systems, like portals, continue to be a hot topic amongst intranet managers, consultants and analysts. They promise so much and the technology while nascent is so… well promising. The optimal word is ‘promising’. See how nice I can be if I put my mind to it?

The ‘challenge’ is that the technology is still so new and emerging – perfection is a long way off. In fact, I’ve met maybe two or three companies that are happy with their CMS or portal product.  And I’ve talked to many, many dozens (hundred). Now here’s where I get down right cozy with the tech vendors: your unhappiness with your technology solution is not just their fault, you are partially to blame. (Please hold-off on your vendor reselling letters and contract to me, I’m not done yet). If you’ve not purchased or using a CMS or portal product then really take this to heart…

It is your organizations responsibility to rigorously define and document the global, management and user requirements and needs for a content management system or portal before making any technology evaluations or purchases. Vendors have a job: to sell you as much as they can. If you don’t do your homework in a platform market of more than 2000 CMS and portal solutions, then you are looking to waste money and unfulfilled potential.

“Unfortunately, it’s common for organizations to buy more CMS functionality than they can use easily, or at all,” says Tom Marciniak, Senior Consultant at Prescient Digital Media. “As a result, organizations are forced to use overly complex enterprise solutions that are not well integrated into business processes and ultimately result in low adoption rates.” 

“Developing a list of must-have site features for a CMS to support cannot be done in a vacuum. Everyone, from technical support staff and site management to content contributors and end users, have to follow through and commit to the ongoing use of each item on the wish list in order to derive maximum benefit from the investment. Otherwise, you’re just buying a shiny toy that will be discarded when attention is diverted to the next cool idea or trend that comes along.”

Read Tom’s complete article: Can you realize the potential of your CMS feature wish list? 

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© 2006 Toby Ward - Prescient Digital Media