Avoiding a CMS misfit

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Avoiding a CMS misfit - going beyond technology fit and looking at cultural fit

North Patrol Oy 2014 / 2014-02-04 / CMS Expert Group / Copenhagen

Perttu Tolvanen, Web & CMS Expert, @perttutolvanen

CMS Expert Group Europe / Copenhagen

meeting at Sitecore HQ

2 © 2014 North Patrol Oy

Advisor for large web projects

- Vendor-neutral CMS consultants- Helsinki-based, but most clients

operate in Northern Europe / Scandinavia / Russia

- CMS selections and partner selections for large projects

- Founded 2012, growing

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Agenda

North Patrol Oy 2014

Requirements & technology fit

we know – what else needs to considered?

Cultural fit as an idea and as approach to

selecting products that

live “with you”

Elements of cultural fit, eg.

community fit, partner fit, roadmap fit, ecosystem fit …

Elements of CMS selection

North Patrol Oy 2014

1) Concept requirements & technology fit

getting along the first year or so

2) Cultural fit

getting along the following five years

3) The random stuff: politics,

existing partnerships,

who likes who, the money

- Background for this model is in ”current situation analysis” projects where clients have asked North Patrol to evaluate the current state of CMS and give recommendation of development efforts (eg. continue with the old or buy something new)

- Typically this model is used to give structure to interviews of key stakeholders, editors, web team members, marketing people…

- Sometimes the client has already done concept designing, sometimes they are just beginning…

Overview of cultural fit

• Current state analysis as a starting point: – How does the client operate their Websites

currently? How many people, what roles and competences? What kind of software development has been done to the current platform?

– What kind of existing partnerships? What kind of improvement expectations?

– What kind of future ambitions? What kind of ambitions does marketing have? Business divisions? IT?

– What kind of integrations and add-ons is required in the future? 7. Add-on /

integration expectations and

availability

3. Web team competences

5. Partner competences and

availability

6. Roadmap ambitions

1. Current agency relationships

2. Style of in-house software development

8. Ecosystem expectations and

availability

CMSThe Client

4. Content producer network

The Client

The Client

1. Current agency relationships1. Current agency relationships

b) Ad agency + technical partner

a) Creative partner agency

c) Strong technical partner

In-house team (eg. media companies)

• How does the client operate right now with agencies?

• Eg. Does their marketing work tightly together with the web team / agency or do they just ”order stuff” from them?

1. Current agency relationships1. Current agency relationships

b) Ad agency + technical partner

a) Creative partner agency

c) Strong technical partner

In-house team (eg. media companies)

• How does the client operate right now with agencies?

• Eg. Does their marketing work tightly together with the web team / agency or do they just ”order stuff” from them?

Logos: If this were the ONLY thing that

mattered in what CMS would get chosen

in Finland (typically, without expert

consultation).

2. Style of in-house software dev2. Style of in-

house software development

b) Integrate to other systems

a) ”Build everything on top of CMS”

c) CMS as a tool, Website as a stand-

alone service, minimum integration

• Is the CMS seen as a platform or as a tool?

• How much custom development the client has done to the current platform? Is it business-specific tailoring or general add-ons?

2. Style of in-house software dev2. Style of in-

house software development

b) Integrate to other systems

a) ”Build everything on top of CMS”

c) CMS as a tool, Website as a stand-

alone service, minimum integration

• Is the CMS seen as a platform or as a tool?

• How much custom development the client has done to the current platform? Is it business-specific tailoring or general add-ons?




consultation).

3. Web team competences 3. Web team competences

a) ”Web marketing team”, 5+ people

c) Communication team is responsible

for the web, 2-3 persons

• What kind of competences does the ”core web team” have? Search engine optimization? Marketing optimization?

• Eg. What kind of future plans there is to expand the web team? b) Web team has in-

house developer / front-end skills

3. Web team competences 3. Web team competences

a) ”Web marketing team”, 5+ people

c) Communication team is responsible

for the web, 2-3 persons

• What kind of competences does the ”core web team” have? Search engine optimization? Marketing optimization?

• Eg. What kind of future plans there is to expand the web team? b) Web team has in-

house developer / front-end skills




consultation).

4. Content producer network 4. Content producer network

• How many content producers there are?

• What is a typical task for a normal content producer?

• How often different tasks are done?

a) Large network, de-centralized, independent

authors (think universities)

c) Centralized content editor team

b) Large network of content producers that have specific tasks

(think global brands)

4. Content producer network 4. Content producer network

• How many content producers there are?

• What is a typical task for a normal content producer?

• How often different tasks are done?

a) Large network, de-centralized, independent

authors (think universities)

c) Centralized content editor team

b) Large network of content producers that have specific tasks

(think global brands)




consultation).

5. Partner competences5. Partner

competences and availability

• What is expected from the partner? User-experience skills? Concept design skills? Training support for content authors? Integration skills?

• What kind of project manager would be ideal?

• Do we want specialized partners or a ”fat cat” partner?

• Are we skilled in partner management? c) Technical development

partner

b) Technical CMS partner

a) Creative CMS partner

5. Partner competences5. Partner

competences and availability

• What is expected from the partner? User-experience skills? Concept design skills? Training support for content authors? Integration skills?

• What kind of project manager would be ideal?

• Do we want specialized partners or a ”fat cat” partner?

• Are we skilled in partner management? c) Technical development

partner

b) Technical CMS partner

a) Creative CMS partner




consultation).

6. Roadmap ambitions 6. Roadmap ambitions

• Where is the company’s web presence going? Towards ecommerce? Deeply integrated order tracking? Automatic content suggestions? Automated email marketing?

e) Multilanguage ambitions

c) Development platform ambitions

a) eCommerce ambitions

d) Marketing optimization

ambitions

b) E-service ambitions (think government)

6. Roadmap ambitions 6. Roadmap ambitions

• Where is the company’s web presence going? Towards ecommerce? Deeply integrated order tracking? Automatic content suggestions? Automated email marketing?

e) Multilanguage ambitions

c) Development platform ambitions

a) eCommerce ambitions

d) Marketing optimization

ambitions

b) E-service ambitions (think government)




consultation).

7. Add-on expectations7. Add-on / integration

expectations and availability

• Does the web team expect that new things can be experimented fast and cheap? (”WordPress-style”)

• Is the web team trying out every new social media platform when it comes out?

c) ”We want to try new stuff all the time”

b) ”We want to develop lot of new

stuff fast and cheap”

a) ”We know what we are doing” – just give me a basic system that works

7. Add-on expectations7. Add-on / integration


• Does the web team expect that new things can be experimented fast and cheap? (”WordPress-style”)

• Is the web team trying out every new social media platform when it comes out?

c) ”We want to try new stuff all the time”

b) ”We want to develop lot of new

stuff fast and cheap”

a) ”We know what we are doing” – just give me a basic system that works




consultation).

8. Ecosystem expectations8. Ecosystem


• What kind of training and manuals does the web team expect?

• Are there expectations of code sharing with partners or with other user-organisations?

• (Does the web team expect that knowledge of this CMS will be good ”career-move”?)

c) Professional manuals, training possibilities,

reference clients nearby

b) ”We want new friends, career-boost

and free beer”

a) ”We roll our own, just give me a support

forum”

8. Ecosystem expectations8. Ecosystem


• What kind of training and manuals does the web team expect?

• Are there expectations of code sharing with partners or with other user-organisations?

• (Does the web team expect that knowledge of this CMS will be good ”career-move”?)

c) Professional manuals, training possibilities,

reference clients nearby

b) ”We want new friends, career-boost

and free beer”

a) ”We roll our own, just give me a support

forum”




consultation).

Analysis: Cultural fit

• Example results:– Drupal has strong agency support, especially

from creative agencies.– Drupal has an extensive add-on ecosystem

and there are available expertise and training possibilities in the area.

– EPiServer is feature-rich for the centralized web team and user-friendly for the expanding content producer network.

– EPiServer also has a roadmap that fits with the ambitions of the marketing department.

• And like in technology fit… there rarely is a perfect cultural fit. You just have to get the expectations right!

7. Add-on / integration


3. Web team competences

5. Partner competences and

availability

6. Roadmap ambitions

1. Current agency relationships

2. Style of in-house software development

8. Ecosystem expectations and

availability

CMSThe Client

4. Content producer network

The Client

The Client

Examples of cultural CMS misfits personal favorites

1. Going Drupal without in-house development team or without development-focused attitude…

2. Going EPiServer or SharePoint and expecting lots of free add-ons and widgets…

3. Going Drupal and expecting the partner to ”know the product”…

4. Going EPiServer and expecting the partner to be skilled in designing impressive websites and consulting in web marketing…

5. Going Drupal and expecting the community to develop all the modules that the organisation needs in the future…

6. Going Drupal and expecting that it somehow supports a strong web team to do a lot of stuff without buying expensive development time…

Note: Examples are true-life stories from Finland

Summary: Getting the cultural fit right is a

requirement to still be satisfied to the CMS

selection also after the first two years.

24 North Patrol Oy 2014 / www.northpatrol.com

Thank you.

http://www.northpatrol.com/