Do I need a CMS?

You probably will need a CMS if the following are TRUE:

  • Does your business and the services/products that it offers change often? Does your site need to be current?
  • How many people are involved in updating your web site?
  • Does you current site have a consistent look throughout? Are some pages 'broken'?
  • Is there someone on staff who could assume the additional responsibilities of maintaining your site?
  • Would your business benefit from maintaining archives of past data for your web site & syndicating its content?
  • You should revisit this regularly at least quarterly and whenever you add additional functionality or content areas.

You probably don't need a CMS (yet) if at least 4 of the following are TRUE:

  • You have a small organisation where web publishing is in-house, and can communicate exceptionally well with content providers & producers
  • Your site is small and doesn't update frequently in content or structure
  • Your online operation doesn't perform any personalisation
  • You don't integrate content between the web site and retail outlets, call centres, email newsletters or other channels
  • You don't need to manage specifications from Retail & Development to customer support
  • You are not offering customers a community where they can contribute to a site
  • One individual has intimate knowledge of the entire site (and others have intimate knowledge over their own sections)