We talk a lot about content management on the RD2 blog… usually about which tool works best in which situation… Drupal vs. Wordpress, open source vs. enterprise solution… etc.

In determining the ROI of a CMS solution, there are several factors that need to be taken into consideration. There are the benefits - increased organizational efficiency being the major one for most users. The ability to easily keep their web presence up-to-date is invaluable to many of our clients. But there are also costs. I recently found this great article by Vitamin entitled: The 5 hidden costs of running a CMS system.

The costs Vitamin details are:

1. The cost of training
2. The cost to quality
3. The cost to functionality
4. The cost of redundancy and flexibility
5. The cost of commitment

I think my favorite quote of the article is a comment on the cost of commitment:

“Once your content is in a content management system it is not always a simple matter to get it out. With such an investment in both time and money it is important to make the right selection of system. Changing your mind later is expensive.”

All of these costs must be considered when selecting an approach to a CMS - often, even before selecting the CMS itself. As with most things, it’s important to have a plan. Start by detailing your needs, including future releases and potential functionality that may come down the road. Keeping all these factors in mind will help aid your CMS implementation, no matter where you are in the decision-making process.