Don’t buy a CMS system!

Have you too been subject to a vendor or consultancy CMS system sales talk recently? If you have depressive tendencies in these challenging times, I encourage you to attend one of the many sales events and listen to the sales people, product evangelists, solution architects or whatever they call themselves. They are bound to put you in a better mood. According to the ever-optimistic tribe of sales people, their products are flawless and almost all household names are already on the customer list.

It is never good for your career to make mistakes, so always ensure you find the perfect system and the right implementation partner. Perhaps you are among the many finding yourselves unhappy with your existing web publishing tool, and so you are under pressure from your colleagues to find a replacement quickly.

Do you remember the old saying: “The customer is always right”? To me, this means that even thought the vendor or consultancy might actually be more experienced in executing web projects, you as the customer deserve to be listened to and your requests acted upon. Unfortunately, this is still a young industry and too many projects fail. That’s why I say: Do not buy a CMS system!

No matter who tells you that a CMS system is what you need, I urge you not to give in! Even if you hear it from all sides: analysts, the papers, or fascinating talks at a trade show, you still should not buy a CMS system.

Instead, consider buying either a :

• Content Management System
• CM System
• Web CMS
• Web Content Management System

If you say CMS system (content management system system) one more time, I’ll forgive you, because you are the customer. But, if I hear it from one more industry insider, I’ll stand up and shout that the Emperor has no clothes on.

PS: I’m also running out of patience with CMS tool (content management system tool?)

PPS: GPS system is also a bad thing to say