How to choose a Content Management System (CMS) for your company?

Choosing the wrong Content Management System can end up troubling your company for years. This is why choosing the right CMS for your business can be a daunting task. Mastering content management with flexible software is an absolute necessity for any organization that aims to stay competitive in today’s digital-first online marketplace. 

Finding the right CMS system for your company’s particular needs will allow you to adapt to changing technologies, to stay agile and deliver great customer experiences.

The experts at the offshore IT project development agency Bocasay list in this article, the key areas to consider when choosing a CMS for your business.

What is a Content Management System (CMS)?

At its most basic, a Content Management System is software that enables users to create, manage and modify online digital content – without the need for highly specialized knowledge like coding. CMS are used in anything from website building and managing, all the way to complex document management for large multinational companies. 

Key Components of a CMS

Content Management Systems generally consist of two core technical parts: 

Content Management Application (CMA): This is where you can add and manage all kinds of digital content like photos, videos, documents, graphics, product catalogs, etc. 

Content Delivery Application (CDA): The back-end of the application, the part of the system responsible for storing CMA content properly and making it visible to users. 

Common Mistakes When Choosing a CMS

The truth is that there is no perfect CMS solution that suits everyone’s needs. Here are some common mistakes businesses and individuals can make when choosing a CMS: 

⇢ Overlooking the long-term costs of really cheap CMS solutions – Just because an available CMS is inexpensive, it doesn’t mean it will be cost-effective for your company’s evolving needs in the long-term. 

⇢ Investing in a CMS that requires excessive maintenance and support – This can significantly reduce the ability of your teams to manage content, ultimately resulting to low-productivity and an unpleasant website experience. To avoid unpleasant surprises, you can include in your project, the subcontracting to an agency like Bocasay, specialist in offshore IT project development and application maintenance.

⇢ Underestimating the workload needed to manage an efficient CMS – When choosing a CMS, it is crucial to consider how much time you are willing to spend in developing it to your preference and managing it.

⇢ Forgetting to align their teams’ needs with CMS capabilities – There is no point in investing into an expensive and sometimes risky CMS if you haven’t already understood what your teams will need from such a system. 

𝕐𝕠𝕦 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕀𝕋 𝕕𝕖𝕧𝕖𝕝𝕠𝕡𝕞𝕖𝕟𝕥 𝕟𝕖𝕖𝕕𝕤, 𝕓𝕦𝕥 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕕𝕠𝕟’𝕥 𝕙𝕒𝕧𝕖 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕤𝕜𝕚𝕝𝕝𝕤 𝕥𝕠 𝕕𝕠 𝕚𝕥 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣𝕤𝕖𝕝𝕗? 𝔸𝕥 𝔹𝕠𝕔𝕒𝕤𝕒𝕪, 𝕨𝕖 𝕥𝕒𝕜𝕖 𝕦𝕡 𝕥𝕙𝕖 𝕔𝕙𝕒𝕝𝕝𝕖𝕟𝕘𝕖 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕪𝕠𝕦, 𝕚𝕟 𝟜 𝕨𝕖𝕖𝕜𝕤! 𝔸𝕣𝕖 𝕪𝕠𝕦 𝕤𝕜𝕖𝕡𝕥𝕚𝕔𝕒𝕝? ℂ𝕠𝕟𝕥𝕒𝕔𝕥 𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕥𝕖𝕒𝕞 𝕠𝕗 𝕖𝕩𝕡𝕖𝕣𝕥𝕤 𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕒𝕤𝕜 𝕗𝕠𝕣 𝕪𝕠𝕦𝕣 𝕗𝕣𝕖𝕖 𝕢𝕦𝕠𝕥𝕖!

Tips on choosing the right CMS for your company

Evaluation

CMS is a major investment that will impact almost every aspect of any organization regardless of size. There is no way you can choose a particular CMS, without first receiving input and feedback from key stakeholders – that is the people who will ultimately be using the system. This is why it is crucial to carefully evaluate your current and future business needs before you invest in a CMS.  

Personalization

With pervasive digital technology running our everyday lives, users and customers have grown accustomed to all-time convenience, multiple choices and immediate, personalized service. You need to choose a CMS that can facilitate efficient and personalized communication between your users and clients across multiple platforms. 

Multi-Lingual

This is an age of interconnectedness and that means your company will often have to deliver content and services in multiple languages and countries. An efficient CMS will allow you to streamline multiple workflows with translation services and easily offer content in the language and tone of your intended customers. Why stay local when you could operate globally?

Scalability

Almost a no-brainer, change is an inevitable aspect of any growing business, and that’s why the ability to scale easily is really important for any CMS. Your choice of system must be able to facilitate key business decisions and to scale-as-needed according to your company’s evolving needs.

Developer-Reliance

Better avoid a heavy developer reliance when choosing a CMS. Developing your CMS should not dictate your business moves. It is important to choose a CMS that enables your teams to focus on core tasks that boost traffic to your website, instead of spending excessive amounts of time managing the system itself. Avoid the paradox of having to waste time managing a management system!  

Support

A lot of the time, platform support is more important than the software itself. You might have the perfect system for your company’s needs, but without efficient platform support available when you need it, you can end up wasting business time and money. Choose a CMS that allows your teams and developers to work without disruption. 

Multi-Code

Without qualified programmers, even if a CMS is great, it will eventually fail and become obsolete. Don’t limit your CMS to one coding environment because you might end up struggling to hire highly specialized programmers who are experienced in a specific CMS infrastructure. Choose a CMS that is flexible with programming languages, enabling your programmers to reach their full potential in their preferred programming language. 

Testing

Make sure to test and get a proof-of-concept before you implement a new CMS for your entire website. You should only implement a section of the website first, and get team members and end-users to test the performance of all tasks and workflows. Testing a CMS can eliminate a lot of previously undetected issues and ultimately save your company time and money.

Implementation

Without a large in-house development team, your company will most probably have to hire an implementation partner, or a digital strategy agency. They can help you define and refine an overall digital strategy and help you choose a CMS that facilitates its goals. In addition, they can often provide support after the initial implementation. 

Why is Bocasay your ideal IT partner?

Bocasay is an offshore IT project development agency, which operates on all aspects of digital. The multidisciplinary skills of our experts, based in Vietnam, Madagascar and Mauritius, guarantee you a quality result for the development of software, application, website and much more.

Your business is unique, and it is possible that no CMS is perfect for you. But don’t panic, if you don’t find the right fit, have your own CMS developed with Bocasay!

 Discover our collaborators and start the adventure with Bocasay now!