With an explosion of online content is therefore an explosion of content management systems (CMS) available to help you manage that content, with literally thousands of sellers to sift through. But most CMS ‘end at a too expensive, too difficult to maintain, and ultimately inadequate. This is often the result of the purchase decisions based on technology and not on business requirements. So, what about CMS solutions? You will usually compare product features, ask friends and colleagues, and look at various analyst ratings. In theory, this is a great way to choose the correct solution and sometimes it is. But content management systems have been more than two decades and the features and functionality for the most part begin to be commercialized. The “bells and whistles” that these solutions are trying to distinguish themselves with, ultimately have no impact on your content-specific needs. And this is why most solutions you buy will end up being discarded after they do not do what is asked of them. To ensure successful implementation and adoption, the CMS solution should be implemented as any other large enterprise application, with clear objectives and systematic planning mechanisms. Let’s look at some best practices that should be on the checklist for the deployment of a CMS anyone within your organization. # 1 Define CMS Goals To install a CMS, it is extremely important to key business objectives to achieve identification. Business objectives can be defined around parameters such as productivity, efficiency, quality, ROI, or branding. Without this clear vision of the business goals are very likely CMS implementations fail. It is not surprising that most CMS implementations often exceeded budgets and long term, consuming much more time, energy and resources than ever expected – just to remain functional. Think of this step as an exotic vacation locale. There are two ways: hope that if you are, everything you need and want will do for you. Or as most of us you plan accordinly: where you’re going to stay, what sites you visit, and find the best deals in the process. Which makes more sense to you? # 2 assesses the information content landscape The next step is to start collecting data from your data on the content landscape. Rather than looking only at technology, look at how processes, business rules, and the contents are defined. These details about the content information landscape can be fixed parameters for CMS selection. The CMS should also bought easily integrate with multiple systems this landscape as necessary to help meet your business objectives defined – such as campaign management systems or CRM applications. The sequitur here is: to purchase CMS not before clearly defining your needs. You save yourself time and resources with a clear roadmap to guide you in mind. # 3 Choose the right CMS solution for your organization Selecting the right CMS concerns the treatment of numerous factors, including: 1. Convenience for users and IT managers Like any other business application, the success of a CMS is subject to approval by the end user community. Subject matter experts (SMEs) with no technical knowledge absolutely comfortable using the system to achieve the right look and feel they want for the content of the presentation. IT managers also need to easily Policy on multiple websites using a single console to enforce, and the integration of the CMS landscape effortlessly in IT organization. Consider everyone’s roles and responsibilities and ensure that CMS can meet these requirements. • Speed of deployment There is a direct correlation between CMS implementation / configuration time and costs. A comprehensive CMS that will certainly grow coding implementation required. Therefore, CMS will only be effective if they can be quickly configured and deployed, and as such, requires minimal training for use by non-technical professionals. • Total cost of ownership (TCO) Most organizations make the classic mistake of buying a CMS based on the license price. The real work of owning a CMS begins after the site is live and as such, CMS maintenance / support costs are much higher than purchase costs. Make sure that factor into your overall costs and consider the TCO of an application to establish an informed decision. # 4 Involve all stakeholders critical Just as the importance of top management support for CMS implementations, it is also crucial to the participation of internal stakeholders. This content owners should be identified and their feedback on usability leveraged to build and customize the system. Involving non-technical SMEs in the design of the new CMS will also help minimize reluctance to use the system. The success of the CMS is based on acceptance of the CMS by the shareholders. # 5 Do not Forget the Service Aspect As we step 3 in the real work in a CMS implementation begins after the launch. There is a peak in the effort at the beginning of each performance – but for a relatively short period of time compared to the average lifespan CMS. Change is a constant with most websites and your CMS be as flexible as your organization, be it a simple template change or a whole site redesign. You must take into account and expect that you need a certain level of service they have your internal IT department, your agency or your Web software On top of ongoing support and management, you also need basic applications and infrastructure to support the installed software. This requires the deployment of a dedicated team responsible for managing hardware, software and network. For some organizations this is no problem: with special in-house teams for HTML template creation and modification, workflow revisions, architectural changes, website redesign support and training, they can prepare for the worst. But for the vast majority, it is often overlooked as part of an ongoing CMS implementation. Without this dedicated team of small businesses often outsource these “services” to third party vendor to add the implementation. To prevent the suffering of exceeding the budget, these costs are included in the total construction. # 6 Plan for the Future How is the flexible and scalable CMS when it comes to integrating new functions or managing an explosion of content? You must ensure that the chosen CMS partner / vendor has the technological capacity and bandwidth to quickly take advantage of new communications media. Conclusion CMS implementation process is a lengthy and energy. But according to the guidelines illustrated here: clearly defined goals, processes mapped to the application, gaps and looking for a reliable custom application with scalability and flexibility, you can help yourself avoid some common potholes and choosing the right CMS for you.