Choosing a Content Management System can be daunting and no single solution is appropriate for every organisation. We put together a handy case for the Custom CMS and considered everything from security to cost in comparison to other systems.
Problems with some existing CMS platforms
One size fits all
- Not user friendly
- User interfaces and administrative workflow aren’t specific to your business
- Timely navigation
- Limitations
- Lack of intuition
Lack of customisation and creative control
- Limitations in suiting the user experience to your business
- Forced to work within a predefined template
Third party plugins
- Unknown, unsecured and vulnerable source code
- Mass produced, easily hacked
- Navigating the development side can be difficult
Massive licence fees
- Added costs to your bill
- No ownership of code
Slow support
- Gaining support from off-the-shelf CMS can take weeks/months
- Specialists not reputable, don’t know who you’re talking to
Slow loading times
- Open source CMS are known to be bogged down by traffic
- Built to cover a wide range of often unused applications, so it can use up resources needlessly
Why Custom CMS?
1 – Customisation, uniqueness, freedom, specific to your business
- Designed around your goals and objectives
- No limitations
- Clean canvas, one-of-a-kind solution
- A custom platform for any and every device
- Matched for YOUR business, YOUR workflow and YOUR needs, built from scratch
- Complete control over the platform’s functionality, interface and updates
2 – Security
- Secured above and beyond
- Not taken off the shelf
- Increased safety of your user’s personal information ensuring you won’t be affected by mass security exploits
- Less/easier-to-read code enhances debugging, making it easier to spot problems within the architecture
- Not mass-distributed, float under the radar, unknown to hackers
- The code can be optimised to serve specific functions, thus increasing the site speed
3 – Long lasting, lifespan
- Average installation lasts 5 years
- Designs & experiences change – your platform doesn’t have to
- Avoid having to rebuild or reinstall your entire platform during large scale website redesigns
- The ability and flexibility to keep your platform unchanged even when your front-end experience changes drastically
- Make iterations to the design of your product or redesign entirely without fear of breaking the back-end, which is essentially just a admin portal, a content management tool.
4 – Ownership
- A valuable asset
- Unique asset in your company
- Not a liability
- A system you can rely 0n to serve your requirements for many years to come
- You have ownership of the technology which solves your exact business challenges, no matter how complex
5 – Scalability
- Plan for high-traffic scenarios
- Responsive – make updates to your website on any device (mobile, tablet, desktop) – your admin panel is as big or small as you need it to be
6 – Workflow, user interaction
- User management and workflow can be tailored to your specific needs
- Build taxonomies from a business requirements’ perspective. Labelling and naming conventions can all be customised to match your business
- Save time by not having to work within the constraints of a system that doesn’t fit your needs and spend more time building your product and focusing on business drivers like differentiating yourself
- A seamless extension of your other marketing efforts, integration with other tools are not at the mercy of plugins and third party products
- Extremely intuitive and easy to use
The CMS Cost Spectrum:
Where does a Custom CMS fit from a costing perspective? The diagram below compares a typical custom CMS with some of the commonly used content management systems. 
Who Benefits?
News and publication sites
- Sophisticated editing, workflows, required documentation management
- Major publishing operations
Portals and web apps
- Interactive experience requiring security and custom features
Complex integrations
- Application integrating to third party platforms
SAAS platforms
- Softwares of service or subscription
Lead generation sites
- Complicated systems, advanced requirements, reporting
All industries
- E-commerce/product based/retail/utilities/lifestyle/corporate
