If you've ever wondered why enterprise organizations choose expensive CMS platforms, it's because they need to have promises of optimal performance to keep up with customer demands. While this is a general statement, there are many reasons why a mid-level or large enterprise would invest more money in a quality CMS system.
When you see the more expensive CMS options out there, various choices are available, like Adobe Experience Manager or Sitecore, though you'll find that few actually help to bring more profitable relationships with customers. The alternative to enterprise CMS systems of that caliber is a custom CMS, which is capable of the same functionality if not more.
Both enterprise and custom CMS systems allow you to do more than the average CMS which directly affects your ROI. However, it's not the only expensive CMS option on the market. Many of them are well worth investing in for reasons frequently outdoing off-the-shelf platforms.
So why should you consider paying a little more for a CMS? While off-the-shelf systems are still useful, they don't have specific features you may need.
How Much Accountability Do You Want In Your CMS?
Open-source systems have many advantages that align with custom CMS systems. Many problems come in relying on off-the-shelf completely and thinking any issues you have are going to be attached to someone immediately accountable.
Off-the-shelf templates come as they are, meaning they have no liability when something goes wrong. If something in the design or development causes serious issues within your business, they aren't liable toward what caused you harm due to being the open-source nature of the template.
Ultimately, whoever chooses your off-the-shelf system has accountability for whatever happens. Maybe it's someone you hired to select the system, and this could lead to an entirely different internal business issue.
When you commit to a more professional CMS like enterprise or custom, you sign a license or employ a web agency giving them liability and accountability. If anything goes wrong, they already have a strong support system to help you through it.
Using a high-end CMS platform will be expensive, but it's important to remember your ROI is ultimately higher from using them. Considering they help to automate your workflows, you already cut time and expenses as opposed to the off-the-shelf weaknesses that eat up time.
Why You'd Initially Gravitate To An Off-The-Shelf CMS
Cost would be the first reason you'd cite, though you may find out off-the-shelf CMS systems provide other convenient things for your particular site. Many of them are already feature rich, and they're quick to deploy. Most provide excellent support systems when you want testing already done by the vendor.
An off-the-shelf CMS may even have enough features to suit your business needs if you don't require anything overly complicated.
The problem comes in guarantees of performance, including no accountability.
Do you know what you'd do if an off-the-shelf CMS gave you performance problems in the middle of a busy work day?
Getting The Best Possible Performance
It’s not always possible to know if the design performance of a site is up to expectations once experiencing sudden growth. Can you immediately scale features to keep up with customer demands?
You don't want a slow-running site during a sudden customer influx. Using a more quality CMS like an enterprise or custom system lets you update immediately without having to wait for updates from the initial developers.
Most of all, it comes down to accountability when you need someone to respond to issues.
As with any good website, whether it’s design or a CMS system it’s an investment. Do the research and understand what you are getting into before signing the dotted line. It all comes down to quality, lifespan, and accountability.
