Hannon Hill Corporation 1720 Peachtree St., Suite 405 Atlanta, GA 30309 678.904.6900

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CMS Buyer’s Guide

Inside:

What is a CMS? The benefits of CMS How to choose the right CMS

© 2012 Hannon Hill Corporation, all rights reserved. 1720 Peachtree Street ·∙ Suite 405 ·∙ Atlanta, GA 30309 o: 678.904.6900 f: 678.904.6901 w: http://www.hannonhill.com

Table of Contents

Introduction to Content Management Systems ........................................................ 3  

What are the Advantages of Content Management? ........................................... 4  

Assessing Your Needs .................................................................................................. 7  

Questions to Answer when Buying a CMS ................................................................ 8  

Installed Licenses versus Hosting ............................................................................. 10  

What to Expect during the CMS Sales Process ................................................... 11  

Comparison Checklist ................................................................................................ 13  

Top Ten CMS Buying Mistakes ................................................................................ 26  

Conclusion .................................................................................................................... 30  

About Hannon Hill ...................................................................................................... 31  

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Introduction to Content Management Systems

What is Content Management? Five years ago, the number of people and organizations who were not familiar with the concept of content management was much greater than it is now. These days, businesses and organizations of all sizes place great importance on creating and updating their web content, and most of them use a content management system (CMS) to make this process as easy as possible for their non-technical contributors.

Content management refers to the system and processes whereby information is created, managed, published, and archived. Information typically passes through this lifecycle for a finite period of time. A content management system provides the necessary infrastructure for multiple individuals and groups to effectively contribute content and collaborate throughout these lifecycles.

Information and Content Management on the Web Web communications has evolved significantly over the past ten years. Whereas previously, websites used to be a lot of more static, it has become more important than ever to continuously provide fresh content that is valuable to your target audience. Even Search Engine Optimization (SEO) has changed: In the past, SEO used to be much more HTML-focused, so organizations either used their IT team for SEO or outsourced those efforts altogether. However, search engines are updating their algorithms frequently, and now, the freshness factor of your content and the engagement that it fosters play a key role in SEO. What that means for you is that the more quality content you publish, the better SEO results you see, so it’s critical to empower as many contributors as possible to create and maintain web content. It goes without saying that typically, your content contributors are not necessarily technically savvy, so you want to make it as easy as possible for them to manage their content. That’s why it’s critical to have a content management system that is easy to use for non- technical contributors, easy to administer for your technical team, and that is scalable enough to allow your sites and your overall web presence to grow.

A CMS typically offers:

Easy content creation and editing for non-technical content contributors

Access rights for security

A content management system provides the necessary infrastructure for multiple individuals and groups to effectively contribute content and collaborate…

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Structured workflow processes for content approvals

Archival and versioning of content

Templates for consistent output

Content check-in/check-out services for distributed users

Content reuse across pages and sites

Ability to output a single piece of content in multiple formats to multiple destinations

What are the Advantages of Content Management? The question really should no longer be “What are the advantages of content management?” Instead, it should be changed to “What are the advantages of selecting the right content management system for your needs?” because these days, you would be hard pressed to find an organization who does not believe in content management. Here are some of the reasons why content management is such a key component for businesses and organizations, and why selecting the right tool is critical.

Empower Content Empowering content involves making better use of information and putting control in the hands of content contributors.

Content Ownership

Using a CMS, business users can update their web content quickly and effectively without technical intervention. Having full content ownership expands the opportunities for subject matter experts to make their information available to their specific audiences. In order to empower your contributors to produce the type of fresh, high caliber, and effective content that benefits your organization, make sure that you have a system in place that allows you to give your contributors the data that they need, such as analytics, pertinent search terms, and social engagement. By providing your contributors pertinent information on how well their content Is performing, you enable them to write even better, more targeted content in the future.

Content Accessibility

A CMS can repurpose content into multiple formats and helps ensure disability compliance is met. Content repurposing takes a single source of information and applies the necessary changes to automatically generate various outputs including standard HTML, lite HTML, printer-friendly HTML, mobile outputs (including responsive design), PDF, and XML. In addition, the content can be checked for compliance to make sure that certain conditions are met for individuals with disabilities such as blindness or epilepsy.

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Decrease Costs A CMS significantly lowers costs associated with managing web communications and online information sharing. Manual technical steps in the process are eliminated and the web master “bottleneck” is eradicated.

Content Creation

Content creation is less costly as business users can directly contribute information online without going through an intermediary. An IT specialist is no longer required to reconfigure content from one program into a suitable web format. Removing steps in the process frees up expensive technical team members for more specialized and strategic tasks.

Content Management

Managing information and valuable content is less costly as content is maintained by business users and standard processes are automated. Common tasks like checking for dead links and archiving outdated pages are done transparently by the CMS. Other tedious tasks like generating navigational menus or site maps and enforcing information architecture do not require technical labor when using a CMS.

Content Re-use

You can get a lot more exposure for your content if you re-purpose it. For instance, when you have a news article or a press release, you will want it to be included on your home page. This process can be completely automated with a CMS. In addition, a flexible and user-friendly CMS makes it easy to share assets, such as images, PDFs, and structured content pieces across multiple sites.

Content Publishing

Publishing is less costly as content can be scheduled in advance to be pushed to the web server at a specific date and time. Associated images and files for content are published by the CMS, reducing the technical burden of finding the necessary assets. In addition, publishing can be triggered based on specific events, such as the approval of content by a designated editor. The CMS is also capable of expiring content at a predefined time.

Increases Revenues A CMS provides multiple ways to increase revenues. With lower time-to market for content and the empowerment of business users, new opportunities are available on which to capitalize.

Time-sensitive Opportunities

New opportunities arise when content is published online in a matter of minutes as compared to hours or days. A good example exists in media publishing. Breaking a news story ahead of the competition brings a first-mover advantage, drawing additional visits to the site and increased income from sponsors. In this day and age, particularly since the social media avalanche, your audience expects to be kept up to date, since they use multiple channels to consume information. Web communications have

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become such a fast moving arena that you can’t afford to miss out on an opportunity to publish the most current information as quickly as possible.

Fresh Content Encourages Return Customers

Make no mistake about it. Fresh, quality content is the best thing that you can do for Search Engine Optimization, but also for fostering visitor loyalty and return customers. The more frequently you provide valuable content to your target audience, the more repeat visitors (and customers) you will generate.

Improve Accountability Accountability at both the user and content level is important when managing web content. With effective accountability measures in place, management is free to focus on more pressing issues.

Audit Trail

The audit trail, available at both the user and content level, provides a snapshot of the history of content changes. With detailed records available, a CMS institutes full accountability and helps motivate employees to complete work in a timely manner.

Version Control

Version control is the automatic backing up of content as changes are made. With version control in place, business users are given peace of mind that errant actions will not lose information. In addition, the versioning mechanism allows for full compliance with legal and government regulations.

Maintain Consistency Content published on a site is often displayed in an inconsistent manner, which is confusing the visitor. Rather than force a visitor to relearn navigation menus and layout several times for a site, a site (or even multiple sites for the same organization) should enforce display standards that maintain consistency throughout.

Presentation Consistency

Content should be presented within pre-defined templates whenever possible. Templates provide a mechanism for maintaining a consistent look and feel, thereby creating a professional image of uniformity for the site visitor.

Brand Integrity

Brand integrity is enforced with a CMS by limiting available logos and layout design in a manner consistent with corporate policies. Too often, a user, in a non-malicious manner, publishes graphics and content outside the corporate brand policies.

The Bottom Line: A CMS improves communication while reducing cost. The two most important advantages that a CMS offers are the functionality to help business users improve communication and

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the reduced costs of overall content maintenance and publication. Improved communication occurs at several levels:

Faster responds to customer needs

Improved content accessibility for employees

Enhanced content distribution for partners

More exposure of your organization and your website through better SEO and more effective content re-use

Similarly, costs are reduced in several areas:

No intervention by technical staff for content creation and editing

Automatic content repurposing

Navigation structures updated without technical intervention

Information accessibility standards enforced transparently

Automatic expiration of outdated, expired content

Assessing Your Needs These days, most organizations and businesses of all sizes have come to realize that in order to fully leverage the power of content in order to promote their company, services, or products, to provide great customer service, and to have a strong web presence while maintaining consistent branding, you need a content management system. Whether you have already used a CMS and are looking to replace it or whether this is the first time that you’re going through an evaluation process, what’s important is that you assess your needs in order to make the most educated decision. A CMS can be used in many ways within a company. Typically, a CMS is used to facilitate online information management and content sharing. A CMS can also serve as a document management system for maintaining versions and audits of files, in addition to being a method for online collaboration and content creation.

Bottom Line: A CMS improves communication while reducing cost.

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Of particular use with a CMS is the ability to publish new and frequently updated information. Examples of information published on a regular basis include:

Press releases Blog posts Newsletters Event calendar Product Updates Course catalogs Staff profiles Intranet and extranet information

Questions to Answer when Buying a CMS The following questions will help you evaluate how your organization currently operates, and how it could operate more efficiently with a CMS in place. These questions are meant to guide your thoughts and help you plan for a successful CMS implementation.

How is your content currently managed? How many websites does your organization manage? How many pages of web content do you currently manage? How do you currently share content across sites? Who in your organization currently manages/updates content? How do you currently update your information and content? What types of content are updated frequently? What types of content are updated infrequently? What is not working about your current method of managing content? Do you currently use social media to promote your content? If so, how do you measure your

social media ROI? Are you currently using analytics as part of your content strategy?

What do you hope to achieve with a new CMS? Who in your organization will use the new CMS? In an ideal set-up, how many sites would you like to be able to manage within the CMS? How important is cross-site sharing of content? How important is it to achieve organization-wide buy-in for your new CMS? How long should it take to train technical users on the new CMS?

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How long should it take to train non-technical users on the new CMS? How important is it to provide your content contributors with data they can use to create better,

more targeted content, and to measure the success of their content? What would your workflow steps look like for publishing content? Do you intend to integrate social media with your new CMS? What is the projected timeline for purchasing a CMS? What are some of the short-term goals to be achieved with the CMS? What are some of the long-term goals to be achieved with the CMS?

Technology Considerations

What type of client computing environment do you have (Mac, Windows, mixed)? What type of server computing environment do you have (Windows, Linux, other)? Do you have web programmers in house? Do you have other web applications that should interface with the CMS? Where are your business users located (single location, distributed offices, home)? Are your websites organized in terms of sections and sub-sections? What type of user authentication do you have in place (CAS, Active Directory)?

Once you have answered these questions, you should have a feel for how a CMS will work inside your organization, and give you a better understanding of the issues involved.

Next:

Provide feedback to all parties involved Establish organizational best practices from knowledge gained

Assess Results 1. Analyze the measurable results 2. Examine the change in online publishing activity 3. Inspect CMS usage among content contributors 4. Understand the amount o time now required by technical staff to support content management

and publishing 5. Assess the results of the CMS implementation

Successfully implementing a CMS is a time-intensive process involving different team members and organizations. As with most substantial projects, the potential rewards outweigh the risks. Some of the rewards of using the right CMS for your organization include:

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Faster publishing of new content Fewer errors and higher levels of quality Less intervention by technical staff Distributed content collaboration More engagement by content contributors More frequently updated content, resulting in better SEO and more exposure More effective content re-use Better Search Engine Optimization Better customer experience

Installed Licenses versus Hosting Just as the debate regarding whether a CMS is worth the cost has shifted to how to find the right CMS for your organization, the question about “outsourcing” your CMS has evolved into whether you want to host your CMS in-house, via an installed license, or whether you want the vendor to host the system in the cloud for you. Here are some of the things to consider.

Pricing structure: How predictable will your expenses be, based on the vendor’s pricing structure? Will you be able to grow your web sites without incurring additional cost? How does the hosted license cost compare with the installed license cost? How do upfront versus recurring costs compare for both models?

Your resources: Do you have the technical and the human resources in place to support an in-house installation of your CMS?

Support: How does the vendor handle support for installed versus hosted licenses?

Time: How much time does it take for someone on your team to manage all of the administrative tasks of a CMS, such as upgrades and backups? Is it something that you would like the vendor to handle for you?

Buying a CMS should be straightforward and based on continuous feedback between vendor and client.

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What to Expect during the CMS Sales Process Buying a CMS should be straightforward and based on continuous feedback between vendor and client. However, sometimes, the actual task of selecting a CMS can appear very daunting. The following sample timeline will help you formulate a practical plan for your purchasing process. While time frames may vary, understanding the steps involved will help you know what to expect.

Stage Considerations

Week 1

(Goals)

Answer CMS evaluation questions Determine project goals and objectives Assign a project leader Assign responsibilities to different team members

Week 2

(Evaluation)

Choose CMS products to evaluate Receive high-level business demonstration of products Narrow CMS choices Re-evaluate goals and features based on presentations

Week 3

(Technical Demo)

Receive technical demonstration with proof statements Ask final vendor questions Meet the vendor’s key team members (support manager, professional

services manager) Install CMS on a local machine (if applicable) or get sandbox from

vendor

Week 4

(Infrastructure)

Review program license agreement Complete purchase of CMS Set up CMS hardware and software (unless you decide on a hosted

option)

Week 5

(Planning)

Plan the information architecture (interrelation of information) Organize the appropriate users, groups, and roles Decide on the templates and page designs Create workflows for different content editing and publishing processes

Week 6

(Implementation)

Integrate the template with appropriate regions Automatically import existing content Create placeholders for new content Publish content to designated servers Test output in appropriate web browsers and devices

Week 7

(Training)

Develop training for specific business scenarios Deliver standard content management training for content contributors,

approvers, publishers, and administrators

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Receive training for specific business scenarios Begin using the application

Week 8

(Feedback)

Provide feedback to vendor based on experience Offer suggestions for improvements Set up open communication for continuing dialog

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Comparison Checklist With the plethora of CMS products on the market, you want to make sure that you select the one that’s right for your organization. The following is an easy way to compare different products. We’ve checked off the features available in Cascade Server and left space for you to review competing products.

Compatibility

Item Description Cascade Server

CMS 2 CMS 3

Browser-based Full application functionality from a standard web browser without plug-ins or downloads

Supported browsers

Support for Chrome, Mozillla/Firefox, Internet Explorer when using the CMS

Supported browsers for Content Output

Resulting content compatible with all standard browsers

Supported Client Operating Systems

Support for Windows, Mac, and Linux when using the CMS

Supported Server Operating Systems

Support for Windows, Mac, and Linux on the application server

Supported Web Servers

Support for Apache, Microsoft IIS, iPlanet, and Lotus Domino for published content

CMS Implementation

Support for the CMS to be implemented as a server-installed application or as a vendor-managed hosted solution

Server-Side Scripting Languages

Support for server-side scripting languages including ASP, PHP, ColdFusion, JSP, Perl, SSI, and Python

Supported Databases

Support for standard SQL compliant databases with an ODBC interface including MySQL, Microsoft SQL Server, and MSDE

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Security

Item Description Cascade Server

CMS 2 CMS 3

Encrypted Client/Server Interaction

Support for SSL (secure sockets layer) 128 bit encryption with the CMS

Encrypted User Passwords in Database

Password encrypted in the database to prevent access to the CMS through a compromised database

User Authentication with Sessions/Cookies

After a user is authenticated, a cookie with only a session value is stored in the browser preventing malicious users from accessing private information in the cookie

Content Audit All changes to content in the system are logged to the specific user, including their date/time, type of content, and content action

Login and Logout Audit

Every time a user logs into or out of the CMS, the IP address is logged in the database

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Open Standards Support

Item Description Cascade Server

CMS 2 CMS 3

XML Data Support for XML data in stored and published content

XSL Transformations

Support for XSL when transforming and repurposing content into different formats

Velocity Transformations

Support for Velocity when transforming and repurposing content into different formats

Unicode storage Support for Unicode content providing multi-language content management

Cascading Style Sheets (CSS)

Support for CSS-based design within the CMS

SMTP Email Support for sending email through a standard SMTP server (example emails include workflow notifications and content expiration messages)

XHTML Output Standards-based XHTML output of content

HTML5 Support Support of HTML5 for better output to mobile devices

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Content Editing

Item Description Cascade Server

CMS 2 CMS 3

Browser-based Word Processor

Inline WYSIWYG browser-based word processor for HTML/XHTML content input

Spell checker Spell checker with user dictionaries for adding custom words

Link checker Check for broken and dead links and notify the user

Accessibility checker

Check that proper table summaries and alternative values for images are specified to meet the standards for 508 compliance for web standards for people with disabilities

Separation of content and presentation

Ability to separate pure content from presentation elements, allowing business users to focus on information

Cross-site sharing of content

Ability to easily share content across multiple sites

Link tracking System automatically updates internal links when pages are moved or renamed

Photo Galleries Ability to create photo galleries in the CMS, as well as to consume Flickr feeds

Structured content blocks

Ability to optimize content reuse through implementing structured content blocks

Image Editing Ability to edit images from within the CMS

Metadata Support for Dublin Core metadata items like title, summary, and keywords

MS Word Support for copy and paste from MS Word

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integration into the word processor, maintaining the formatting and optimizing the resulting HTML/XHTML

Third-Party HTML Ability to copy and paste HTML from third-party programs like Dreamweaver

Library Services Ability to check out and check in content, thereby locking content to a specific user

Custom Forms Support creation of custom forms in the CMS with content validated via JavaScript

Advanced Forms Ability to create and embed advanced forms that have progressive profiling capability, autoresponders, and email alerts

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Content Lifecycle

Item Description Cascade Server

CMS 2 CMS 3

Standard Content creation

Ability to set up predefined content defaults, allowing the business user to create new content based on an existing standard (common examples include press releases, newsletters, events)

Version Control Automatically create retrievable backups of content with the ability to purge old backups

Track content changes

Track changes between content updated with highlights of content differences

Content Search and Retrieval

Ability to do a full text search of content and metadata in the system

System information about content

System stores relevant information about the content, including name, folder, creation time, creation user, time last modified, user last modified by, workflow status, lock status, last published time, and user last published by

Schedule Content Start and End Date

Support for scheduling a specific start date and end date (expiration) date and time for content

Content Expiration Notice

Emails automatically triggered at specified intervals notifying a user when content is about to end (expire)

Recycle Bin Ability to retrieve deleted items from a recycle bin

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Automatic Navigation

Item Description Cascade Server

CMS 2 CMS 3

Sitemap generation

Support for a complete sitemap to be generated automatically, with the ability for the end user to exclude certain pages on demand

Context sensitive navigation

Support for navigation menus to be automatically generated based on the current folder of the page

JavaScript Navigation

Ability to have custom JavaScript and DHTML pop-up menus created automatically

Previous and next page

Support for links to be automatically generated to the previous and next page as ordered in the system folder

Available page formats

Support for automatically generating links to the available page formats (examples include mobile or printer-friendly versions)

Flexible Templates Support for creating any type of template with no limitations

Separate Content from Template

Support for separating the content portions of a page out of the template

Definable Regions Ability to define regions in a template whereby content can be plugged in through a visual interface

Visual Layout Support for visual layout of the template with different regions and page content differentiated

Template development

Templates can be made with industry standard tools like Dreamweaver

Standard content output

Support for templates to generate HTML, XML, and PDF content

Content Syndication (RSS)

Ability to push out RSS feeds of content managed in the CMS, as well as ability to consume external RSS feeds and display the content on a page

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Users, Groups, and Roles

Item Description Cascade Server

CMS 2 CMS 3

User Management User management system that scales for organizations of all sizes at no additional cost

Group Management

Group management system designed to organize users according to their department and content access area

Access Rights Configurable content access rights designed to prevent unauthorized access – including no access to content, read-only access, and write access

Roles for Permissions

Roles-based system supporting common scenarios such as content contributors, approvers, publishers, and administrators

User Reporting Ability to report which users recently logged in, what IP address they logged in from, and what date/time the users logged out

LDAP integration Support for users to be authenticated against an LDAP-based system including Microsoft Active Directory and Sun Directory Services

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Publishing

Item Description Cascade Server

CMS 2 CMS 3

Multi-server publishing

Ability to publish the same content to multiple servers for load-balanced and mirrored server environments

Multiple Domain Names

Support for managing content for multiple domain names from a single content repository

Publishing Protocols

Ability to publish content through FTP, SFTP, VPN, mapped network drive, local file system, and an aggregate ZIP file

Publishing Formats Support for publishing content in standard formats, including XHTML, XML, and PDF

Publish reports Ability to generate a publishing report detailing what content will be published, length of the publishing process, and any issues that need to be addressed.

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Workflow

Item Description Cascade Server

CMS 2 CMS 3

Configurable Workflow

Ability to create custom workflows in XML for a structured business process with no limit to the number of steps

Email Triggers Support for email triggers at each step in the workflow process to notify the next applicable user

Step Publishing Ability to have content published automatically at a specific step with user approval

Extensible Triggers Support for developing custom triggers to talk to legacy systems or third party applications

Dashboard User-specific dashboard outlining the current workflows and completed workflows

Ad-hoc Modification

Support for users to modify the person responsible for each workflow step in an ad-hoc manner

Workflow Filters Ability to filter certain steps based on a specific group or role of user

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Social Media

Item Description Cascade Server

CMS 2 CMS 3

Social Media Connectors

Ability to connect to popular social media channels, such as Facebook and Twitter, allowing the system to push content out to those channels, as well as embed dynamic social content on pages managed in the CMS.

Blogging Ability to manage blogs inside the CMS, as well as ability to push content out to third party blogging tools, such as WordPress

Social Content promotion

Ability to send out social posts to Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn, both on an ad hoc and a scheduled basis. Automatically create tracked links for analytics.

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Search Engine Optimization (SEO)

Item Description Cascade Server

CMS 2 CMS 3

SEO-friendly URLs CMS supports and enforces search engine friendly URLs, based on directory structure

Problem checking Ability to quickly check your published site for problem links and page-load times

SEO quick check Ability to run an SEO score on your site and on individual pages

Keyword analysis Ability to view ranking difficulty for keywords

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Analytics

Item Description Cascade Server

CMS 2 CMS 3

Google Analytics In-context analytics through connectors to best of breed analytics tools

Social Analytics Ability to track traffic generated via social media

Search terms and keyword alignment

Ability to check if the search terms that visitors use to come to your site and your keywords are in alignment

Campaign tracking

Ability to tag all of your marketing efforts as belonging to one or more campaigns, thus enabling users to measure the effectiveness of their strategy and their marketing ROI

Advanced reports Ability to view reports on competitor sites, inbound links, referral sources, and traffic sources

Conversion rates Ability to track conversion rates of forms

A/B testing A/B testing of multiple content pieces, with detailed analytics to show which piece rendered the best results

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Top Ten CMS Buying Mistakes

Introduction You’ve finally convinced your organization that it’s time to upgrade to a new CMS. Now it’s up to you to select the right one. Considering the sheer number of CMS offerings out there and the various combinations of features they provide, it’s no wonder why buyers find themselves overwhelmed in the selection process. For many customers, the universal method of price comparison seems like the only reliable way to differentiate between one CMS and another. While price is no doubt important, it can become a pitfall that blinds you to other factors that will ultimately affect you financially.

To help you make an informed buying decision, the following is a short list, in no particular order, of ten major mistakes that buyers commonly make during the process of choosing a CMS.

1. Needing a specific feature, only to learn that it is an additional cost Many content management systems offer some impressive bells and whistles, which their sales reps are happy to demo them for you during the sales cycle. You may easily be able to imagine all of the benefits that these features will offer your organization, but the vendor might not have clarified that these wonderful features are only available at an additional cost. Be aware of add-ons that can drive your total cost up. Much like a person who test-drives a vehicle with power locks and air conditioning, you don’t want to drive a car off of the lot and realize that your locks are manual and there’s no AC— and that those features can only be installed by the dealership for extra money. It’s the classic bait-and-switch strategy, and it’s a dirty game, but you can protect yourself from this technique by making sure you understand what you will get for the agreed price—from support contacts to the quantity of sites and pages allowed to the number of users supported.

Most likely, you’re working within a budget; add-ons and extra expenses should never come as a post-purchase surprise to you.

2. Choosing a CMS that doesn’t help you manage multiple sites For many organizations, the decision to purchase a CMS arises from the need to manage a whole lot of content on a bunch of different sites. Whether you have one site or a hundred, however, some CMS’s can make your job much easier than others.

First, make sure the CMS you select makes it easy to share content assets, such as images, videos and pages, between sites. This functionality is crucial in order for you to gain the full time-saving benefits that CMS’s can offer so the same work does not need to be recreated multiple times. The right CMS will make it easy for different content contributors and different departments to share and repurpose content across all the sites of your organization.

Second, be sure you choose a CMS that allows unlimited sites and pages. This not only allows for increased flexibility within your organization, but can also save you a significant amount of money.

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Some CMS providers charge you more for more content, so this can also significantly drive up your total cost.

3. Being short-sighted A CMS is a big purchase, and the buying process can be a long one for some organizations, so it’s important to choose one that will expand according to your future needs. You will find certain CMS’s that are designed for very narrow purposes, and they arguably excel at those functions. However, a CMS that is designed specifically for article-based content, for example, may provide an outstanding interface for creating new articles at the expense of restrictions on other functionality.

Doing a little strategic planning before your purchase could prevent your organization from getting stuck with a CMS that won’t meet your future needs. A good content management system should allow for the implementation of new initiatives as business goals change and evolve; furthermore, a system should be built upon a framework that provides maximum flexibility. For example, you may use a Windows operating system for your servers now, but what will happen to your CMS if you decide to switch to Linux one day? Times change and teams change, so make sure the CMS that you choose is platform independent and provides as many options for you as possible. Finally, look for a CMS provider that shows thought leadership in the industry and foresees trends rather than playing catch-up. Your website will be at an advantage if it is supported by cutting edge CMS technology.

4. Not understanding access permissions for assets within the system Access permissions are a very important and basic part of any well-designed content management system. If no safeguards are put into place, there are many ways that a non-technical user can break the design of a template or enter in content that would not be approved by management. Likewise, users from different departments that are allowed to make updates to their respective areas of the site should be limited in the access that they have. For example, marketing shouldn’t be able to update pages from human resources and vice versa. Be sure to inquire about and understand the types and levels of access permissions that the content management systems you are evaluating offer. The more granular control that you have over system areas, assets and individual regions of a document, the better suited your CMS will be for your organization.

Additionally, consider the number of users that will need to use the system. We recommend investing in a CMS that allows unlimited users since it will be hard to determine exactly how many users will be needed across large organizations.

5. Failing to consider SEO Organizations looking to buy a CMS to manage websites usually appreciate the role that a sound online presence will play in their success. Large sums of money are invested in to the creation of a professional website and a system to manage its content. By making smart decision about search engine optimization (SEO), you can make your website even more valuable.

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Most CMS products offer some form of search engine optimization (SEO) through the use of metadata for each page that is produced. However, many systems on the market still do not allow you to associate metadata with other asset types, such as images, videos, folders and external links, which all help with SEO. Look for a CMS that has built in metadata fields for all asset types, allows for custom metadata fields to be added, and lets administrators require end users to fill out custom and pre-built metadata fields.

Another important SEO consideration is how well the CMS keeps track of internal links. Be sure the CMS that you select rewrites internal links when pages and other assets are renamed. Users of your website will get frustrated if you have broken links and search engines will penalize your website as well, so make sure your CMS has this functionality.

Finally, look for a CMS that offers a range of other SEO tools, such as keyword optimization, SEO scoring and page load time. Many SEO platforms offer some or all of these tools, but few CMS’s offer this functionality in a centralized location or within the CMS itself.

6. Understanding the importance of multiple output formats The surge in mobile web browsing over the last few years has been astounding, and it gets harder and harder to cater to users of your site as the number of devices to support continues to grow. It is more important than ever to have multiple outputs of your site for people using smart phones, tablets and full screen computers—all with different interaction methods, screen sizes and resolutions.

We recommend using a CMS that will automatically repurpose, edit and update new content for all your desired outputs and automatically propagate content changes throughout all outputs. This functionality is essential for maintaining the consistency of your content throughout all your outputs. It is impossible to tell which formats will be needed in the future, so choose a CMS that allows an unlimited number of outputs for each page.

7. Getting locked into pre-defined templates Many lower-end CMS products require you to use pre-built page templates provided with the system. While sample templates may be useful in some cases, if you do not have the option to design your own templates or modify the sample templates, you may find your organization is unreasonably cornered into restricted design options that are not suitable for different types of content you want to publish. Likewise, the ability to maintain a unique look and feel to your site (essential for consumer brand recognition) is also lost. A CMS must support any type of design layout.

8. Not evaluating the support community One of the most frustrating experiences a customer can have with their CMS is when something goes wrong, and there is no one available to support it. Some content management systems are sold without technical support or training to back it up. Even the most well designed CMS solutions still have an intrinsic level of complexity to them, and being able to call in the experts from time to time is an important safeguard to have.

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Be sure you take the time to evaluate the level of support and further education the CMS provider offers. Many providers limit how often you can contact them for support or, in the case of many open-source platforms, do not offer support at all. We recommend looking for a CMS that offers unlimited support contacts so you will not have to worry about ponying up more cash if you run into any complicated support issues. Also, look for a provider that allows you to determine how many people from your organization can contact support.

Find out if the company offers additional educational resources as well, such as regular blog posts, a webinar series, extra training and other resources to help you stay up to date on new trends, related current events, and product upgrades.

Additionally, research the user community that the CMS has. Do they have regional user groups that meet regularly? Are they active in social media? Do they have an annual user conference? How is attendance at the user conference? Do the users share code freely online? Does the company provide free code examples? Is there an email listserv? Do the users themselves offer to host webinars to share their tips? Do they help each other out on any forums? These are just a few ways the users of a CMS can support each other. Be sure to evaluate how much engagement there is between the users of each CMS you are considering since user-to-user support can be extremely valuable.

9. Ignoring Standards Compliance and Accessibility A CMS may offer some great features, but if it’s not written according to universal standards, you may have trouble integrating it in to existing systems. A platform-agnostic CMS that’s built on universal standards should run in any network environment, send and consume data to and from other applications such as portals, and integrate with standard protocols such as LDAP. Web Services or an open API will allow even greater flexibility and customization. It’s also essential that content managed by your CMS is compliant with the latest web standards for accessibility.

10. Not testing the CMS in your own environment Doing research, watching demos, and asking questions are important steps, but nothing beats actually testing out potential CMS’s in your own environment. A trial download or sandbox instance will help you find answers to questions you didn’t know you had, and give you a realistic understanding of what to expect.

Before you get started, spend some time identifying at least three to four specific scenarios that you would like to recreate in the CMS. If the provider offers and technical training at this stage, let the trainer know what you want to test, so they can walk you through those specific tasks. Block off a few hours per day to test it out immediately after the training or after you get access to the trial version. When you have a question, contact the CMS provider’s support team. Once you’ve spent enough time to get comfortable using the system, you can accurately evaluate how flexible the system is, how user friendly the interface is, and how well it will meet your needs.

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11. Using a CMS Provider that doesn’t understand Content Marketing

It is pretty safe to assume that most CMS providers in your consideration set use their own content management software to manage their websites. But, how do they use it? Do they update their website frequently with new blog posts and resources? Do they offer white papers and provide valuable content management tips? Do they tweet only about themselves or do they send out fresh article links and industry news?

Examine how each CMS provider you are considering implements a content marketing strategy. Do they understand how to use a content management system to effectively build community and credibility? If not, why would you trust their product offering? After all, aren’t you researching CMS’s to improve your internet presence and provide fresh, quality content to your readers? Don’t make the mistake of buying from a software company that doesn’t understand your most basic reasons for buying a CMS in the first place.

Conclusion The right content management system should really strengthen your business or organization by empowering end users to create fresh quality content and publish it without taking up precious IT time. Choosing the wrong one, however, could end up being ineffective and financially unsound. The above is by no means a comprehensive list of items to be wary of when making the decision to purchase a content management system. It should, however, provide a solid foundation to formulate sound judgment in determining the CMS that is right for your organization.

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About Hannon Hill

Our Company Founded in 2001, Hannon Hill is a leading provider of powerful web content management software for Higher Education institutions. The award-winning Cascade Server application provides advanced solutions for online information management and has won the Best of Show Award from Internet World Magazine. Most recently, Hannon Hill was recognized by Inc. Magazine and placed 247th amongst the prestigious Inc. 500 representing the top 500 fastest-growing private companies in the United States. Hannon Hill continues to accelerate its customers’ online success.

Hannon Hill’s niche lies in providing core content management software for management of online information for Higher Education institutions. Our CMS solution, Cascade Server, has been implemented campus wide by over 180 Higher Education organizations located across the United States. We focus on delivering a comprehensive tool set that provides all the necessary features/functionality to manage the complete content lifecycle.

Our Focus We want to empower Higher Education organizations to manage their websites easily and quickly, so that they can focus on what matters most: fresh, quality content. That is why we have dedicated ourselves to Cascade Server. Every feature is built, and will continue to be built, with Higher Education in mind. That is not to say that others don’t use the system. It is worth mentioning that due to its tremendous flexibility and power, other large organizations are using Cascade Server as their CMS of choice, as it provides them with an ideal platform to manage unlimited sites (while sharing content across sites) and unlimited users. This is a true testament to the quality of our product.

At Hannon Hill, we understand not just the current challenges and priorities for content management in the Higher Education sector, but we actually dedicate a lot of time to emerging trends and future needs. This is why we have been and continue to be thought leaders and pioneers with regard to agile and inbound marketing, social media

Cascade Server powers thousands of Higher Ed websites.

Click here to sign up for a demo with one of our solutions consultants

to find out if Cascade Server is a good fit for your organization!

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streamlining and analytics, and metrics- and ROI driven tools. We know that there's more to content management than just being able to easily create pages. Higher Education organizations these days need to be able to leverage modern marketing best practices with regard to campaign management, SEO, keyword analysis, social media, and comprehensive reporting on trends and ROI. That's why our solutions help Higher Education organization meet those emerging challenges.

Since we truly understand the importance of content marketing and content strategy, we built Cascade Server to be more than just a Content Management System, but a Content Empowerment System.

Our People, Culture, and Values We are approachable, fun technology experts who genuinely care about our customers, our products, our co-workers, and our community. Our company culture is extremely important to us, and we only hire individuals who embody our core values by being positive, self-starting, and supportive.

Openness and Transparency As a company, we pride ourselves in our transparency—both internally and externally. At Hannon Hill, we provide a greater level of open access to information than you see with most other CMS providers. For instance, you don’t have to be a client or even provide us with any personal information in order to access our Knowledge Base or to search our help forum. That’s because we want to earn your trust, and to let you experience the type of openness that extends itself once you become a client.

Fostering Community We strive to foster and grow the Cascade Server community because we enjoy engaging our clients. We invite them to share their ideas, to provide feedback on existing features, to share best practices, to host webinars showing to off their implementation, and even to share their code on our GitHub repository, just like we share our code with them. User communities are the driving force behind some of the most successful web projects these days, and we encourage collaboration with us and other clients to help you fully leverage the power of Cascade Server. Our annual user conference is the highlight of our year, because we get the opportunity to interact with our clients even more. But our sense of community doesn’t stop there. As a team, we make it a habit to give back to our local community by volunteering with organizations such as Boys and Girls Club, Atlanta Food Bank, and Junior Achievement of Georgia.

Exceeding Expectations Whether you are a prospect who has in-depth questions about Cascade Server or a client who needs help with a project, training, or technical support, we know that you have high expectations of us. It is our goal not only to meet, but also to exceed your expectations. We truly care about your experience, on a technical level and a personal level. As team members, we go out of our way to help and support each other in any way we can, and our relationship with our clients is no different.

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Our Customers Higher Education has been our number one focus, so it’s no surprise that over 180 colleges and universities trust Cascade Server to power tens of thousands of websites. For a partial list of our customers, please visit our website at http://www.hannonhill.com/customers/industries/index.html.

Contact Us Please contact us with any questions you may have.

Email: info@hannonhill.com

Twitter: @hannon_hill

Phone: 1.800.407.3540

Hannon Hill Corporation

1720 Peachtree St.

Suite 405

Atlanta, GA 30309