Pricing for purchasing and integrating a content management solution varies depending on the number of and size of Web pages needing to be updated, as well as on the complexity and frequency of updating. For example, a small 30-page Web site, with ten business users updating content on a weekly basis could cost between $10K and $50K. A mid-size site with 150 pages and 50 employees making daily updates may require a $100K to $200K solution. However, an enterprise level Web operation, with thousands of pages, hundreds of content contributors, and very sophisticated needs may require a $250K to $500K CM solution.

As more and more CM solution vendors enter the marketplace, prices may soon become more affordable for small and mid-sized companies. However, there are some very good CM solution providers which have built their businesses on offering solutions priced in the $3K to $25K range.

Labor Savings

When organizations create a Web site, the investment in personnel far outweighs what they spend on hardware and software. Included in personnel costs are application development costs, which are a one-time expenditure, and maintenance costs, which are ongoing. According to International Data Corp, personnel costs associated with maintaining an Intranet stretch the resources of many small and medium-sized companies.

In order to calculate the labor saving potential of using a CM solution, U.S. median salaries in October, 2000, were compared across several typical job titles within Web development/IT and non-technical staff. (See Figure 3)

The savings in cost if using non-technical staff instead of IT staff for basic content Web site updating averages $6.84 per hour (i.e., $23.91 less $17.07). However, because the originating content contributor still needs to approve the content, and revise if needed, an estimated 10% of the contributor’s salary (i.e., $1.71) should be added yielding a total average savings of $8.55 per hour.

With a CM solution in place, the potential annual savings ranges from just under $18K for a small Web site with one person (full-time) to more than $175K for a large Web operation with ten full-time people responsible for updating Web content on a daily basis.

The Old Way — without a content management solution

·         Higher cost per hour for Webmaster, IT, and/or Web developers to do the work.

·         Hidden operational costs, such as the cost of not publishing current material on the Web site resulting in more calls to customer service and lost revenue from missed sales opportunities.

The New Way — with a content management solution

·         Lower cost per hour for business users (e.g., sales, marketing, customer support, public relations, human resources) to update their own content instead of higher-paid Web professionals (e.g., Webmaster, IT, Web developer).

·         Surprisingly low training costs (i.e., almost zero) with CM solutions that incorporate a familiar and easy-to-use interface. This is especially important in large organizations where many people must receive training or when upper management or distant employees must receive training. (From Examining Return on Investment for Web Projects, Part I-Intranets)

·         Other savings: reduced office waste and lower publishing expenses from replacing hardcopy versions of human resource department policies and other frequently updated documents with online versions.

“Build” versus “Buy” argument for content management solutions

Does it make sense for small and medium-sized companies to use in-house IT and Web professionals to build their own CM solutions? Or, is trying to select an affordable ready-to-configure CM solution a better path?

Consider both the fixed and hidden costs of “building your own” should be considered when making the “build vs. buy” decision. The following explores several critical issues to consider when making this decision.

Develop your own internally built CM solution:

·         Developing a custom build is a major commitment in time and resources. It may be appropriate for extremely large sites (e.g., Disney.com, CNN.com, IBM.com) with hundreds of staffers available for development and support and the luxury of a long project time frame. However, it is not appropriate for small and medium-sized Web operations with limited resources trying to get a workable solution up and running quickly.

·         Extra learning time for IT/Web teams may be needed. Internal IT staff may need to learn new programming languages and/or techniques before undertaking a custom build.

·         Additional IT investment may be needed to retain temporary technical talent to help existing the IT/Web team with the custom build.

·         Testing and fixing of reported bugs may take IT resources away from higher-priority projects.

·         Software documentation may be weak or non-existent. Updating documentation is critical to maintaining a successful CM solution. However, creating and updating documentation for an internally built solution can become a “back-burner” item for the already overworked IT/Web department.

·         Training of employees must be supported. All users (existing and new) of a custom-built CM solution, as well as those responsible for upgrading and maintaining it will need to be trained on an on-going basis.

·         Consistent support may not be possible because of a constantly changing IT/Web staff.  Since IT staff turnover in many organizations today is high, having a core staff knowledgeable on all aspects of an internal solution will be difficult.

·        In-house developers must plan for and integrate future user functionality and address major organizational changes with future internal releases. The custom-built CM solution must keep pace with the needs of its users in order to be useful and successful.

Purchase of a commercially available CM solution:

·         Leave the lion’s share of the “development” work to CM solution vendors. Companies creating Web sites tend to focus on their core business, not usually on becoming a software development house. As IT departments struggle to keep pace with new hardware and software upgrades as well as training new and existing staff, do they have time to create a mini-software development company focusing on all aspects related to developing and supporting a software product?

·         Company-specific needs can be met with customization of an existing application without the major commitment in time and resources needed to develop a “complete from scratch” CM solution.

·         Quicker time-to-implementation can be realized with ready-to-configure CM solutions pre-tested and designed for ease-of-implementation.

·         Training and support becomes the responsibility of the application vendor, not the overworked internal IT staff. Training can be minimized by vendors using familiar Windows-like tool bars and creating easy-to-use interfaces, as well as with update and complete documentation.

·         Documentation is consistent and constant, which means that users of a system always get the latest documentation matching the latest software release.

·         CM solutions can be affordable (i.e., less than $25K), making the “internal build” decision that much harder to make.

·         Access to ever-expanding CM feature sets. Providers of CM solutions add many new features with each software release. A particular new feature may not be anything an internal IT/Web department ever considered, but the result is that all customers using a purchased solution can benefit from this increased functionality.

Table of Contents

Index
1—Introduction
2—Implementing a Content Management Solution
3—Benefits of using a Content Management Solution
4—Market Overview
5—Keeping User Needs in Mind
6—Cost Considerations
7—Recommendations and Conclusions
8—Reference
9—Glossary
10—Sources

Copyright 2001, All Rights Reserved, Ektron, Inc.
No material herein may be copied or duplicated without the permission of the copyright holder.

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