Best Practices for Developing CMS Architecture Criteria for selecting a CMS Support Evaluate the following aspects when you decide on the CMS architecture: • Evaluate the extent of intuitiveness in terms of: Evaluate: • Whether the CMS facilitates responsive design: • Prefer a mobile-first approach: • Cost factors, as in: Easy & appealing user interface User-friendly nature of CMS Allows marketers to do tasks without much developer support In-line editing options with responsive preview features Actual cost of the suite Cost to customize the CMS, if required Internal costs to facilitate & configure the new CMS Training costs Technical and non-technical support cost Opportunity cost owing to loss of productivity in adopting the new CMS • Technical support • Non-technical support • Reaction and response times for downtimes • Cost of support in general Support for installation – whether new site design required, or CMS fit into existing architecture Hosting related support – cloud, on-premises or hybrid Web server configuration support Troubleshooting 46% of customers do not return if the webpage doesn’t load properly on the device 81% of users access the CMS suite itself from multiple devices There are 5x more smartphones in world than there are PCs 55% of Internet usage in the US is through mobile devices Google’s algorithm changes penalize websites not optimized for mobile 1 2 Functionality & Integrations Managing Templates 3 4 • Provision for the extent of out-of-box functionality on offer: • Ensure scalability to co-opt new functionality & capacity when required • Evaluate the number & type of third party integrations supported • List the range of extensions available Web publishing tools Content management tools Collaboration tools Social media functionality “Nucleus Research estimates productivity increase of 26.4% when adding social networking and mobile access to CMS applications.” E-commerce integrations CRM integration Web forms 6 5 Define content re-use strategies Evaluate the current authoring process Asset management features • Have effective database management plan and options • Deploy backup options • Devise effective storage, versioning, and management options for : References: HTML5 templates for responsive websites Make provisioning for re-use of templates & layouts Blueprint importing templates from external sources Identify scope for creation of new layouts Evaluate the extent of ready to use customization options available Videos Images Documents Focus on making content sharing process simple Institutionalize tagging content, making re-use easy Have a global repository for common content Facilitate content sharing with established processes • End-user problems rather than system configuration • How to eliminate duplicate content • How to simplify content sharing • Automate ordering and sharing of contents • Add revision notes to content Pay attention to details in workflow 8 7 Allow users to cache content- more efficient access to web pages Establish consistent guidelines for how content appear Provision to classify contents for better search engine rankings Add field visible to content authors, to track revision notes 05 04 03 02 01 Tie workflow engine logs to analytics software http://www.nonlinearcreations.com/Digital/how-we-think/whitepapers/CMSArchitectureFullWP.aspx https://www.cmsbestpractices.com/sitecore-architecture-best-practices-part-1-understanding-architectural-basics/ https://www.universitybusiness.com/article/best-practices-using-cms http://www.cmdagency.com/13-search-statistics-convince-design-mobile-first/ http://mediumrareinc.com/articles/the-true-cost-of-a-cms/ http://ecdc.europa.eu/en/aboutus/calls/Procurement%20Related%20Documents/PROC_2015_009%20-%20Reference%20E%20-%20Technical%20Requirements.pdf http://www.bigcontacts.com/news/9-staggering-statistics-that-will-motivate-you-to-invest-in-crm-software-for-your-small-business http://www.superoffice.com/blog/crm-software-statistics/