3 Things You Should Know When Choosing a CMS
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Closed Source vs. Open Source
It's the age old question of whether to go the proprietary route, or to go the open road of open source. Let's get a few key difference out of the way first. Platforms such as Kentico and Ektron are considered closed source because their platforms are like walled gardens: They have x amount of developers and architects on their payroll that work to build websites for clients and they don't let outside developers use their code or integrate their plug-ins with other CMS's.
Platforms such as Drupal, DNN, and WordPress are considered open source because there's a vast community of developers that support each (Drupal alone has over 30,000 developers in its community.) Open source also relates to open source code, which means that these platforms make their code and extensions available to anyone who wants to use them. So if you're a Drupal developer, you can integrate any number of Drupal's plug-ins (such as their e-commerce platform) free of charge, or, you can easily integrate paid third-party platforms (such as Salesforce CRM) into your overall digital ecosystem.
When people think of CMS (content management system) implementation, three words typically come to mind: web development tool. And while this definition, strictly speaking, isn't entirely out of bounds, Himanshu Sareen, CEO at Icreon Tech, suggests thinking of CMS platforms as tools that help businesses develop their overall digital experiences. Whether you're a customer-facing entity in the retail industry, a blogger with a million monthly readers, or are operating an e-learning company that's focused on educating the employees of enterprise-level companies — you need a CMS that's not only capable of handling every aspect of your business, but that's capable of creating a great experience for your end users, whoever they are.
In today's business world, it goes without saying that you need a website, but it's the sheer abundance of .com entities that often causes entrepreneurs and businesses to overlook the importance of choosing and implementing a CMS correctly. In a world where almost everyone has a website, one CMS should be as good as the next, right? Wrong. And it's in that spirit that Sareen would like to discuss the three things that any entrepreneur or decision maker should know when selecting and implementing a CMS.
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