A good CMS is only as good as the development team you have working on it.
This may seem obvious to some, but in my line of work, I’ve run across many people who are adamant that they work with one Content Management System (CMS) or another. I can certainly understand it to a degree- you’ve worked with one for a set amount of time, you’re familiar with the surroundings and you’d like to keep it that way. There may be pros that you are not willing to give up, and the cons of others are not something you are willing to deal with.
All that said, in my experience, a good CMS is only as good as the development team you have working on it. Anybody can fire up an instance of WordPress, for example, put together a nice design, throw in some content and launch a website. But just because that can be done, does that make it right?
What should be driving the decisions of an organization are accomplishing business objectives and solving problems. And, often, the solutions to those problems or objectives require a well thought-out development plan and — get this — a qualified development team. A qualified development team can analyze the objectives, find out what solutions already exist and either customize those already-existing solutions to meet the client’s needs or create a new solution that addresses the issue.
Often times, firms in our industry tend to be good at developing in one CMS or another. I’ve seen most of the CMSs out there and, frankly, there are a number that will do the job well. What you’ll want to find out (quickly) is whether or not your development partner has the expertise to accomplish your objectives. If that’s the case, having an open mind regarding the CMS you use will help you achieve your objectives and advance your organization’s cause. If that’s the outcome, I think everyone can agree: mission accomplished!
