Selecting and implementing a content management system (CMS) will be one of the largest IT projects tackled by many organisations. With costs running into the millions of dollars, it is vital that the right CMS package be selected.

This article outlines some of the lessons that we have learnt when assisting clients to chose a CMS. It offers ideas and tips, and provides an approach for identifying your business' actual requirements for a CMS.

With so many vendors and products, it can be very hard to compare between them. Preparation, and a disciplined approach to this evaluation process is critical.
What this article isn't

No vendors or products are mentioned in this article: this is not a survey of current commercial solutions.

Instead, it provides tools to assist you to conduct a review of suitable products. There is no "one size fits all" solution: no two organisations have the same requirements.
Assumptions

In developing these guidelines, we have made several key assumptions about the type of organisation purchasing a CMS:

* medium to large organisation
* current publishing systems will be replaced by the new CMS
* CMS will manage both the intranet and internet website
* CMS will be enterprise-wide.

A wide range of content will be published using the CMS. This can be characterised as:

* simple pages
* complex pages, with specific layout and presentation
* dynamic information sourced from databases, etc
* training materials
* online manuals (policy & procedures, HR, etc)
* general business documents
* thousands of pages in total
* extensive linking between pages.