There are no best or worst content management systems, only appropriate ones! So the starting point for deciding on what CMS you are going to use, if any (yes you may be better off staying with what you have now), is to understand the context of your organisation and it's current and likely future capabilities.
This sounds like fairly obvious advice, but far too many organisations make the mistake of giving this kind of decision over to technical staff or even their technical partners. After all, it's a technical decision, right!? (No, it's a business decision). And technical staff, bless them, aren't always great at making business decisions! This is because, if left unattended, technical staff can be tempted to make decisions based on;
- The technologies they are familiar with
- The skills they would like to acquire
- What will maximise their earning potential
- what won't get them fired
- What might mean they get new hardware
- Which one creates the most amount of activities they enjoy (like programming)
- Even, what is 'coolest' or increases their mystique
and not always on the choice that;
- Has lowest total cost of ownership
- Makes best use of existing resources
- Creates the least amount of programming possible (because programming creates problems that always cost money to remove)
- Makes users and other stakeholders lives easiest
- Makes integration with other systems and support and maintenance easiest and least expensive
At Chilli Digital, we have collectively worked many of the worlds CMSs and even built a few of our own. We understand the technical AND business implications of such choices and can help your organisation make the right and most beneficial decision. Contact us for a no-obligation discussion about choosing the right CMS for your organisation.
And, as for specific CMS solutions;
- First of all, HTML (using for example DreamWeaver) is a terrific solution for up to 50 pages, particularly if they are not going to change much
- For large or complex sites, Drupal is very powerful, but takes a while to really master (and it's really more than a CMS.) Modules like NavTax can provide you with an incredible SEO architecture
- Joomla is a good basic open source CMS for building a medium sized site, but inflexible and with some limitations in the area of SEO
- Microsoft Sharepoint is a safe choice, but expensive
- Writing your own (because your needs are So Unique) in Java, CF or .NET (for example) is expensive and slow and locks you in to the staff who create the CMS. It should be done only if you are absolutely certain or are genuinely building something new and different
