CMS & Experience Platform Selection Process

One of the most common tasks that fall within your responsibility as a lead, director, or architect, is the decision making process around CMS platforms. You’ll have to evaluate different platforms, their capabilities and functionality, map it out to business, technical and functional requirements and the end result is a POV (point of view) or direct recommendation of which platform to use, with solid reasoning on how you reached that conclusion. 

The context in which you are presented with this challenge varies. It could be that you are in charge of your organization’s IT/Marketing Operations tech stack, or if you are a consultant or working on the service side, it could be a client that’s asking you to help out with this process. A quick note on who finally owns the decision making: 

• If you are a consultant or working on services – the outcome will probably be a POV/recommendation, since the final decision and accountability of the decision will fall within the client’s CIO/CTO/CMO. 
• If you are part of the organization making the decision – as stated before, the organization direction and technology strategy is typically led by the CIO/CTO/CMO or a combination of them. It also depends on who owns the budget, and how the internal IT operations are set up. 

Before we go into the details of the process and recommendations, a quick note on what’s being evaluated, just a CMS, or is it an Experience Platform?

CMS or Experience Platform

The first question or assumption you need clarify is exactly what is being selected. Long gone are the simple days where the CMS could be thought as just the simple content repository that powers the website. In today’s world, or at least in most larger and mature organizations, there is an entire Marketing Stack that you need to consider. The CMS is just one of the pieces that make up that stack. So, what is the ask? Is it really just to recommend the CMS component within an already defined client stack? Or is it that you need to consider all the different functionality that powers today’s modern websites?

The diagram below (Fig.1) visually shows what I mean by that. On the left, you see the old or simplistic approach, where it was all about the CMS, where is it going to be hosted, and maybe some analytics on top of it. The new approach, the one where organizations are quickly moving towards to is a slightly more complex one. Organizations that are moving towards personalized experiences, optimization via A/B testing, single-sign-on, connected web site experiences with CRM, etc., likely fall on the scenario on the right. 

If that’s the case, then your task it’s not just about comparing CMS vs CMS. It’s about identifying which role the CMS plays within the marketing stack ecosystem:

• Content strategy
• Integrations DAM or external data sources
• Understanding how internal marketing operations use the different tools
• Is it going to be a content-hub with a decoupled frontend or an integrated platform?

The ecosystem on the right, it’s what I call an Experience Platform or an Experience Ecosystem. 

Thinking Beyond the CMS & The Single Platform That Does It All

What if my organization, or the client has a simplistic, narrow, or short-term view of their current need? They might present compelling arguments to why they just need a CMS, at least for Phase 1, and then move to more mature capabilities (e.g., personalization & testing) on future phases. 

You’ll have to reason how the more holistic the approach (beyond the website), the greater the chances of maximizing ROI and running an effective marketing and communications program.

A common mistake that organizations make is to divide their efforts into two mutually exclusive phases:

• Phase 1 – CMS, content and websites
• Phase 2 – Marketing stack, analytics, personalization, etc.

This Phase 2 is sometimes referred to as the “Mythical Phase 2,” because rarely do enterprises have the time, resources or budget to even think about Phase 2 after Phase 1 is completed. Usually they invest heavily in the technology stack and CMS platform, and end up using only 10% of the capability, only serving content.

While the CMS platform can still be the focus of the first phase, planning, architecture and design of the entire marketing stack should be considered from the start.

What is an Experience Platform?

Even defining what’s the Experience Platform will differ between organizations. You’ll have to go through the technical discovery to find out. Most likely, at the very least, when you talk about an Experience Platform and the evaluation criteria to use for comparison purposes, you’ll be talking about the following:

• CMS: workflows, WYSIWYG capabilities, multi-language support, governance & security, content-hub, etc.
• Front-end framework, tools and standards: web-standards alignment and compliance, ability to work well with other frameworks, approach (e.g., decoupled/headless vs. integrated)
• Optimization layer: marketing operation tools, personalization, A/B testing, analytics, etc.
• Application development framework & testing: open vs. closed ecosystems, automation, release management, app versioning, testing and rapid releases/iterations.

With that out of the way, let’s talk a little bit about the key considerations and evaluation criteria. 

Platform Considerations & Evaluation Criteria

When evaluation platforms, it’s not all about CMS vs. CMS capabilities without organizational context, in fact, most of the decision making process will happen based on organizational inputs/requirements. To name a few of these considerations:

• Business, functional, tech/IT requirements
• Scalability, flexibility & modularity
• Client / organization’s technology landscape and current stack
• Organizational match: readiness, alignment with IT roadmaps and understanding of tech platform drivers
• Organization’s vision: beyond the current state, where does the organization/client see’s itself in 3-5 years?
• Organizational processes, workflows, roles, teams and marketing operations maturity
• Budget, work effort, licensing
• Time to market
• External factors: the world & industry analysis

The list could be shorter or longer, it really depends on the client, scope and context, but this should give you a good idea on where to start or how to frame this task. 

The Process

The process itself should be simple, once you have a framework of tools, considerations and evaluation criteria. Typically my process goes as follow:

1. Build a scorecard – this would be your spreadsheet with all the key capabilities/considerations you are evaluating. You can find many downloadable references on the Internet, or you can build your own. 
2. Evaluate platforms – with a mix of going through documentation, personal experience, demos with vendors and RFIs, etc. 
3. Score & rank – add your scores to your scoreboards. Note – your scoring system will need to make sense and be consistent. Tip: something that a colleague taught me, make your scores go from 1-4, or an even number, since you will avoid mid-point scores. 
4. Choose finalists – depending on how many platforms you are evaluating. If they are only a handful, you would skip this step. 
5. Proof of concept – if you have the time and money, this is a great way to see your platforms in action. 
6. Reference gathering – if you don’t have first-hand experience, talk to other people and teams that have. 
7. Tie-breaker (if needed)

What if it’s Really a CMS Recommendation?

So, what if you really need just to compare CMS vs. CMS. There are still very real and valid scenarios when you need to compare CMS platforms without going overboard with analyzing organizational fit, 3-5 years roadmap & vision, marketing maturity, CRM integrations, etc. Process-wise, it’s the same, but of course, the key considerations are very platform-specific. Below it’s a starting list you can use:

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