Guide to evaluating, implementing & deploying content management systems

Content Management System
Pocket Guide
| A guide to evaluating, implementing and deploying content management systems | „ A guide to evaluating, implementing and deploying content management systems
Table of Contents
Introduction..............................................................................................................................3
Anatomy of a CMS Project........................................................................................................4
Decide and Buy...............................................................................................................4
Developing the Short List.....................................................................................5
Request for Proposal Overview.............................................................................6
Sample RFP............................................................................................................7
Implement and Integrate..............................................................................................15
Best Practices......................................................................................................15
Manage and Maintain...................................................................................................17
Upgrade and Enhance...................................................................................................18
Conclusion...............................................................................................................................18
Appendix.................................................................................................................................19
Page  of 20Version 1 | ©2001-2007 copyright CrownPeak Technology, Inc. www.crownpeak.com„ A guide to evaluating, implementing and deploying content management systems
Introduction.
Congratulations you've decided to embark on the journey to implement a content management system (CMS) for your Web site. This document assumes that you have already built the business case for purchasing a CMS and has been signed off on by the appropriate stakeholders. If not you may consider our "Building The Business Case For CMS" white paper - which is also offered in the CrownPeak InfoCenter.
If you're decided, you're likely considering a number of solutions including installed software, open source software, hosted services and developing your own custom solution. Each have their own merits, limitations and unique require-ments, but all pretty much follow a basic set of considerations for implementing and deploying.
There are definitely a lot of horror stories floating around detailing the pain, frustration and expectations of imple-menting a CMS. The one thing that we would like you to get out of this document is to understand that it is not that hard. Each company and each vendor approach to the process is a little different, which is why we have consolidated best practices designed to arm you with a high level set of information that will guide you through the evaluation, implementation and deployment process. To be clear this is not meant as the definitive guide to content management. There are organizations and whole books devoted to that; rather, this is a "field guide" to the process. So let's begin to inspect the pitfalls and explore the opportunities available in rolling out this new solution for your organization.
Page  of 20Version 1 | ©2001-2007 copyright CrownPeak Technology, Inc. www.crownpeak.com„ A guide to evaluating, implementing and deploying content management systems
Anatomy of a CMS Project.
As with any project, implementing a new CMS for your Web site, starts with a set of ideas for the types of new ser-vices, new capabilities or other desired outcomes from your new solution. This Mandate should be communicated and approved by your project sponsors. For the purposes of this document, references to Web sites can refer to any Web property including corporate Web sites, Intranets, Extranet, landing pages, etc.
The CMS implementation project will typically fall into the following four-step process:1. Decide and Buy2. Implement and Integrate3. Manage and Maintain4. Upgrade and Enhance
Each step has it's ... [download for more]