In the first part of this series I talked about the values, costs and risks associated with a CMS from users perspective. In this installment I’m going to take a quick look at the business side of things.
The Business Perspective
People have many approaches to this issue, some even go so far as to refuse setting up a content management system for a client so all maintenance work has to come through them. Obviously I, and the rest of us here, don’t subscribed to that philosophy. We see the whole CMS issue not as potential loss of revenue but as a revenue source and a way to save clients money at the same time. It’s a tough nut to crack so let me explain.
Value and Costs
The value to a potential client to have a CMS solution in place is fairly obvious. They can avoid having someone make content updates for them, and thus reduce their vendor costs. The interesting thing is that there’s still a lot of value in setting up a CMS solution for clients. The upfront revenue you can gain from setting up the right system for the client can offset that loss of revenue from maintenance. Like I mentioned before there isn’t a one size fit all CMS out there, so there’s huge value to the client for you helping them with that choice and then setting up a system that works for them.
Risk
That’s where the risk comes in, you could setup the wrong system. It could break, or it could just not work for them even though it seemed like the right choice at the time. By setting up a CMS you’re giving up control and putting a lot of the site in the hands of the client. It’s a small risk but with huge payoffs. Clients can avoid costly maintenance and you can avoid nagging clients and unexciting maintenance work. It’s a win win if you get it right.
Conclusion
Don’t look at a CMS as a revenue loss, and don’t set up something static or so convoluted that it requires them to contact you constantly to get it to work. Do the right thing, setup something robust and that works for that particular client. Yes, you’ll probably have a smaller maintenance contract, but you can offset that cost by spending time consulting with them choosing the right system and then the inevitable customizing of it. It’s not a loss of revenue it’s just a different distribution and one that’ll make your customers happier and in turn lead to more business.
It’s good for everyone.
Oh, and not to worry, I’ll delve into the whole technology issue in part 3 which is always where people want to head first.
What you didn’t mention was that website maintenence sucks. Nobody who has been in the industry for more than 2 months really wants that work. And if you’re a new company and this is a strong revenue stream for you b/c you can’t drum up new business, then you are most likely going to be stuck in the maintenance rut for longer than you would like.
I think we would all rather be tackling new projects, working out IA, usability, design, and interaction than converting word docs into HTML press releases.
It might be gravy, but you’re going to churn through a lot of lower-level web producers by chucking so much busy work on them. Also, enabling a customer to update their own site helps build trust between you and the client and they will most likely come back to you when more interesting work comes along because they recognize you’re not a sheister.
The other thing to mention is that many companies don’t look to CMS’s as a method of cost savings (especially not when they pour $25k to $100k on a CMS).
They do it as a means of minimizing bottlenecks and as a means of spreading content ownership.
Mimizing bottlenecks means that they don’t want to have to wait for their internal IT team or an external agency to post changes. And spreading ownership means more investment into the web site as a whole.
Sean: Yup, nobody wants to be the low level developer stuck converting docs into HTML markup. It’s fine in low doses, but it is definitely something you want to get caught doing a lot of.
Jonathan: You’re right in some respects since it isn’t always cost savings when you drop $10k on a CMS, but over the long haul with those bottlenecks minimized the company could end up saving time in human resource costs.
Understandable to hear your perspectives on maintenance (it isn’t as fun!) but we actually enjoy doing maintenance work for clients. Why not… since it is easy work, can be done by less experienced team members (think training) and you get paid well for it.
In terms of CMS solutions, I’m curious what others are using for their clients (or list they work from) because I have yet to find a solution that works well for general informational sites besides something like Contribute.