How to Research Enterprise Level Web Content Management Systems
Our clients are typically mid-level B2B firms with aggressive growth strategies, but we come across very large client needs now and then which are honestly, out of our scope.
I’m talking about multi-language translation issues for companies operating in a multitude of languages. Keeping content relevant to all the cultures, while keeping it fresh can be an absolute nightmare. Then you have the issues of keeping all these employees trained up on the system, which even with the advent of tools like gotowebinar, can take a toll on training budgets.
Problems with Researching WCM Software
Fortunately there are some excellent Enterprise WCM products out there. Often though, the person or team tapped to do the research is carrying on all their other daily responsibilities. Selecting a piece of software which will profoundly impact a 10,000 employee global organization and cost in the low 6 figures can paralyze even the best of us.
The solution we like is to leverage other people’s knowledge and not recreate the wheel. Forrester reports are some heavy b2b comparision studies which typically cost around $1000. Their value in just time saved going through demos from underqualified vendors are worth the cost in itself, but they also help b2b companies be better shoppers of enterprise web content management systems – how much could choosing the right (or wrong) WCM impact your company financially over the next 5 years?
Forrester Enterprise-level WCM Report for Free
The best part is we came across Web Content Management Review .com, which must have struck a deal with Forrester to offer this report for free. This isn’t one of those “valued at $995″ bonuses you see on late night TV – they really sell these reports (and people buy them) at this price. The WCM vendor comparison study can be such a valuable resource for clients. Personally I like it because now I can pass clients off to a trusted research document. Saves them time, saves me time because now we can mess around less with the guts of a site and go straight to the marketing, and everyone is happy in the end.
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As CIO, I’m always looking for ways to help my team, business teams, and ad hoc measures of various vendors, contractors and internal team members. A book that is required reading is I.T. Wars: Managing the Business-Technology Weave in the New Millennium.
It has a great chapter on Content Management and its implementation. That chapter is great if you’re struggling with your organization’s definition of CM – particularly if Business is having a difficult grasp of it – and the chapter helps any organization to the proper understanding and sizing of it for best return on investment. It even uses CM selection as a repurposable model for selecting a solutions partner and allied product in other areas for solution.
We keep a few copies kicking around – it would be a bit much to expect outside agencies to purchase it on our say-so. But, particularly when entertaining bids for projects and in the face of challenge and change, we ask potential solutions partners to review relevant parts of the book, and it ensures that these agencies understand our values and practices.
The author, David Scott, has an interview here that is a great exposure: http://businessforum.com/DScott_02.html
The book came to us as a tip from one of our interns who attended a course at University of Wisconsin, where the book is in use; I like to pass along things that work, in the hope that good ideas continue to make their way to me.