Build or Buy a CMS?

Creating a content management system either from scratch, or using pre-existing building blocks, may sound like the ultimate way to get the exact solution you require.

However, careful analyses often reveals dangerous pitfalls and serious short comings with many custom built content management systems.

In comparison to today's mature, tested and carefully designed products, most home-grown systems are quirky, poorly thought-out, and difficult to maintain.

However, even now many will seriously consider custom development. Like any IT custom development project, you could be taking on serious risk when it comes to delivering your project on time and budget, not to mention the downside of expensive support and the lack of upgrades in the future.

Two main reasons organisations choose to build

Perceived Flexibility

The decision to build rather than buy is frequently based on the assertion that no off-the-shelf product could possibly meet the specific business needs of the organisation.

For many developers, customisation efforts quickly mean abandoning consistent architectures, or processes, in favour of meeting seemingly complex requirements. Such an approach is short-sighted, paying no respect to the need for change, and a consistent model to ensure scalability, security and true-flexibility.

In reality, the information management and publishing requirements of a broad range of possible applications can be successfully contained in a well thought out system. If requirements are found that do not fit the system, instead of developing at a tangent to meet some specific unusual need (and thereby creating an island of development investment), we rather prefer to adjust the system, so the need can be met predictably again and again.

With that in mind:

.A good CMS should offer a dynamic Information Store that allows any conceivable structure of content to be created. Any number of meta-data fields can be defined and complex database record structures can be configured, enabling structured data to be managed with the same ease as free-form articles. All this without any custom programming, and in a consistent interface for managing information.
The template system must truly separate presentation and content, and eliminates the need for any programming in order to create flexible page functionality. This may be made possible through a system of Skins (the HTML) and Views (the rules that bind information to presentation), and some form of rendering or mark-up language.
The end result is a template building system with extraordinary flexibility, enabling complex web applications including online catalogue based shops, portals and directories to be deployed rapidly, with no custom-ASP programming.

Cost

Some web development firms frequently promise to deliver a powerful CMS for an up front cost that may sound attractive.

It is a well known fact that IT development projects frequently run well over time and budget expectations. Heading down the custom development path is almost guaranteed to result in project blow-outs, missed deadlines, and unexpected complications.

Close examination of many custom CMS implementations reveals serious oversights in the design of the publishing engine and the flexibility of the system.

Considering a robust product based solution represents many person- years of development time, it is little wonder a comparable custom system cannot be constructed in a matter of a few weeks or months from scratch.

For example, many custom-built systems lack the following important features:

100% audit trail and roll back: Quickly built custom systems frequently present live database records to the web site visitors, rather than versioning approved content, and moving into a flat file format that can be more quickly served, with less load on your live web server.
This is risky from a security point of view, and could leave your organisation exposed to unnecessary legal risks because of a lack of historical data on your web site publishing.
True separation of presentation and business logic. Instead, templates are custom built with programming code, and presentation, in a single page, creating a tightly inter-dependent code base that is complex to maintain. Design changes need to be made by programmers rather than designers, meaning the cost of change is time consuming and expensive. There is system for managing template functionality, therefore change require further development. Cost of ownership rapidly escalates as the inevitable need for changes continues.
Consistent user interface for managing different structures of information, or content. Instead, many systems bolt-on separate modules, that don't truly integrate into the core platform, function differently, and don't work with the same security or publishing model.
Integrated security, down to the field level. Unless there is a consistent model for managing user permissions across all aspects of the system, security is difficult to manage, let along understand.
True support for concurrent users, with proper record-locking, and item check-out. In a complex web based client-server environment, proper management of concurrent attempts to edit information is critical to ensuring authors do not stomp on each others work.

The face of custom development

Heading down the custom development path is not for the faint hearted.

Custom development is time consuming, and requires considerable diligence in scoping and planning requirements to avoid becoming an iteratively resource hungry monster.
Web development is not like building desktop applications. The nature of the Internet creates inherently complex requirements from a client-server perspective. There are many layers of technology ranging from client-side browsed based code (such as DHTML, JavaScript, Flash) to Server-Side languages (VBScript, Jscript, PHP etc), query languages and procedures (SQL), server components (C, Java, VB) and more. Development of a sophisticated solution demands a clear understanding of all these layers.
Managing web based application and database servers running a customised solution is more complex than managing a documented product.
Testing on different platforms, and loads, can be extremely time consuming.
Documentation may never be written to cover 100% custom systems, or elements of a customised system. Working with pre-existing building blocks that are not properly documented, or are really only code libraries, can be as time consuming as building from scratch.
Support for a non-standard custom system can be painful to extract, and expensive to continue.
Maintenance is more complex, more time consuming and more likely to be fraught with the problems of undocumented functions, that have been long forgotten by programmers that have moved onto other projects.

Working with a proven solution

Better CMS products are not merely tools, or a collection of loosely defined modules. They are proven, solid solutions, that can be installed and operated out of the box.

Deploying a product leverages the expertise of a team focussed on development of a solution that has enjoyed the attention and tuning of thousands of hours of development.
Through minimal levels of configuration, a good system can meet the content management needs of a broad range of applications.
Customisation of your business presentation layer is fast, thanks to a well defined flexible template system that is managed by the product.
Deployment times are typically weeks not months, and cost a fraction of the product license cost ? not a multiple of it ? like some so-called heavy weight solutions.
Training and support, plus the on-going commitment to provide you a working solution that can grow with your needs, is a core part of the products vision.
Documentation is consistently organised, and growing as the system expands.
Online training is growing and becoming more sophisticated.

In comparison: Buy vs Build

Buy

Build

· Lower cost of ownership

· Higher cost of ownership

· Rapid deployment

· Lengthy deployment

· Rapid integration

· Slow integration

· High level of functionality

· Low-moderate functionality

· Easy to use and maintain

· Harder to use, complex maintenance

· Follows best practices

· Custom design may be poor

· Features you could never afford to build

· Lacks sophisticated features

· Committed support

· Contingent support

· Upgrades and improvements

· Limited or no upgrades

· High quality

· Low Quality

Andy Farrell is Managing Director of Gravitymax, a content management system developer based in Sydney, Australia.

RELATED ARTICLES

Web Content Strategy 101
Your content is what gets you in search engines, speaks to visitors, and ultimately decides the success or failure of your site. Meanwhile, your content has to be updated at least once a month if you want to get return visitors and search engine traffic. You need to have a web content strategy for your site to succeed.

Build It and They Will Come
Build it and they will come is not always true; you have to form a relationship with the company before you will get quality attendees or participants for a free service.

Maximizing ROI via Web Site Traffic Analysis
We are clearly well past the innocent "golden age" of the Internet ? Darwinian economics have become the order of the day today. Any company worth their salt must maintain a web site as an information resource and/or to generate incremental ecommerce revenue. Qualified traffic is the name of the game, as it's the oxygen that keeps a good ecommerce web site thriving. Consequently, it's very important to have an understanding of your web site traffic or visitor activity; i.e. baseline information that includes the number of visitors during specific time periods, originating location (domain), where the visitors went on a site and how long they stayed on specific sections or pages of a web site. The de facto industry standard traffic analysis tool application is Web Trends, manufactured/supported by netiQ, Inc., which we will focus on in this article.

Frequent Business Question: How Do You Start a Web Business?
Today it seems everyone is jumping on the entrepreneur bandwagon, and who could blame them? Setting your own schedule, working from the comfort of your own home, and never having to deal with a horrible commute or office politics again, this option is quite popular among all ages. With the advent of the technology age, it seems more individuals are looking to the internet to provide them with goods or services. Without having to leave your computer to shop for whatever your heart desires, web businesses have boomed over the past decade. More popular than ever, starting your own web business is an excellent way to earn an extra income or replace your current income. However, many individuals who wish to begin this new chapter in their lives do not have any experience in starting or running a business, spurring them to ask the question: how do you start a web business? The answer is: easy! All you need is a computer, internet connection, and a dream and you are halfway there.

The Number One Reason Most Websites Fail
Failure, just like success, is measured differently by each and every one of us. What one man treats as success another may view as failure. For the purposes of this article a website that fails is one that fails to attract and convert enough targeted visitors into paying customers. Yeah - positive feedback from your website visitors is great but let's face it - we're all in this ultimately to make more money.

50 Ways To Use Your Website
A website is the most versatile and cost-effective marketing tool on the market. It is also an investment. After all, you are building a shopfront. In a nutshell, you can use your website to: Enhance your professional image 1. Look professional and as BIG as large corporations. 2. Pre-sell yourself to new clients even before you meet them. 3. Supply a meaningful and intuitive address related to your type of service. It is easier to remember www.marketingcues.com rather than a long ISP email address such as www.yourInternetServiceProvidername.com/~marketingcues. 4. Provide a permanent address with up-to-date contact details and opening hours. You can change Internet Service Provider or move physical premises and your customers will always find you and your marketing efforts are not lost.

Web Sites ? Should I Learn or not?
A common dilemma most small and medium businesses face when coming to their web site is if they should take the time to learn how to build a web site or not? Here's my honest thoughts on this topic.

How To Evaluate Your Web Sites Performance
Setting up a website is the very first step of an Internet marketing campaign, and the success or failure of your site depends greatly on how specifically you have defined your web site goals.

How To Write More Powerful Online Text
Although there are significant differences among the various types of online communication, there all have one critical thing in common - they're read off a screen. There are substantial benefits, too, in that while your message is on someone's screen usually it has their undivided attention. You are genuinely "one-to-one" with them and that's something you must respect - you are literally "in their face" and encroaching on very personal territory. The bad news about online communications is that your message can be "disappeared" faster from a screen than with any other medium.

Top 7 Tips for Building an Antique Car Website
Like wine cars get more attractive to collectors as years pass by. The fact is there are only a finite number of cars made in the world in any model and make. As years pass by only a few of these manage to stay out of the graveyard. These are usually maintained by antique car enthusiasts. Then there is the collector who collects them for their value and sometimes as an investment. After the advent of Internet a lot of self made millionaires and billionaires are out there. These folk consider owning the antiques as prestigious. The current day business folks clearly understand the opportunity that is lying before them. This article provides 7 tips for launching a great antique car website.

Why to Have a Website for Your Company
After having decided to start a business, the next thing that arrives in your mind is How to market the Product/Service? How to create a brand? How to recruit people? How & where to advertise? etc? Next is creating departments like Marketing, Operations, Advertising, Branding and Human Resource. You need some way to represent each department?

Free Isnt Always Good - 5 Reasons Why You Need Your Own Website
Often time I've browsed sites and seen the same thing - general rep websites or free hosted sites. Pop ups irritate me from the free sites as does the blatant ads getting in the way of the text, and if you have seen one rep site you literally have seen them all. Boring, unoriginal, and unprofessional.

How To Get Your Customers To Trust Your Website
Research reveals three important facts:

MySQL Database Handling in PHP
Most interactive websites nowadays require data to be presented dynamically and interactively based on input from the user. For example, a customer may need to log into a retail website to check his purchasing history. In this instance, the website would have stored two types of data in order for the customer to perform the check ? the customer's personal login details; and the customer's purchased items. This data can be stored in two types of storage ? flat files or databases.

How Web Templates Are Helping Online Businesses to MultiplyTheir Income
Web templates by nature are created to aid and ease the strenuous process of a typical web development phase. Idea collection, analysis, research, design are just a small part of a bigger picture. It is no doubt with the availability of web templates, we can almost eliminate the need of research and initial analysis, although not entirely.

10 Things You Should Be Monitoring On Your Website
Every business needs to know how it is doing. That's the idea behind exit surveys, customer feedback forms, suggestion boxes and other devices. Without feedback from the customer, monitoring inventory, expenses, revenue and other benchmarks, a business can take a quick slide down a slippery slope, without the owner ever seeing it coming ? or being able to stop the slide.

Creating Websites that Cater to Exam Preparations
One of the things that Internet excels is disseminating information and knowledge across many brains and continents. In this global economy the aspirations of the younger generation is not bounded by countries or continents. They aspire to join the best universities or train to be part of great global business entities. The demand for these has become so high that aspirations are just the start but a lot of planning and taking courses is involved. For folks whose aspirations are quenched by local universities it is relatively easy as they can easily form study groups or circles. For the rest whose aspirations don't suit the popular trend in their current physical locality they don't have access to study circles. For these folks Internet is the main and sometimes the only tool available. There are many great Internet companies that cater to the needs of the folks. But this market is nascent and is evolving. This article provides a snapshot of what is offered by some of the popular online websites which would be really helpful for new comers who want to help for the countless dedicated niche areas.

Growing Your Meetings In CyberSpace
As increasing numbers of people search for information on the Internet, it becomes more imperative to have a compelling Website to promote and support your meetings.

10 Tips For Running A Profitable Web Site
1. Address your targeted audience on your business site. Example: "Welcome Internet Marketers". If you have more than one, address them all.

Should You Design Your Own Website?
If you're anything like most small business owners, you probably think that web site design is expensive - possibly too expensive for you to justify the expense. If that's the case, then it can be tempting to just design your small business web site yourself. You have a computer, complete with Microsoft Frontpage, you have a copy of Photoshop - why pay a web designer when you could just do it yourself?