web cms vs. custom applications - different approaches
DESCRIPTION
This presentation offers you examples and tips in choosing whether to build your custom application on top of Web CMS or to do it as a stand-alone custom application (built using some framework).TRANSCRIPT
Perttu TolvanenWeb & CMS Expert, Partner
North Patrol Oy, 20131
Web CMS vs. Custom applicationsJ. Boye Philadelphia 2013, Web Content Management Track
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Agenda
• Background overview• The challenge: ”unified customer experience”
• Solution 1: Create ”service brands” (...and forget the unified experience)• Solution 2: Differentiate conceptually (content areas from custom functionality) • Solution 3: Build on top of CMS• Solution 4: Build on top of framework
• Comparison of different solution scenarios• Summary
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We used to build everything on top of CMSs...
CMS
Website
eCommerce
Website
Extranet
Intranet
Web-site
Web-site
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”Intranet CMS”
Then we understood that internal systems are a different playing field...
”Web CMS”
Website
eCommerce
Website
Extranet
Intranet
Web-site
Web-site
The landscape of concepts and products in 2013
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HR systems(Oracle, SAP, etc)
Intranet News, guidelines,
phonebook, important documents, search
Phonebook / people profiles
ERP (+ other line of business
systems)
CRM
Partner extranets
Document management
& project sites
Websites
Customer extranets
eCommerce
Custom apps
ERP (+ other line of business
systems)
CRM
Partner extranets
Document management
& project sites
Websites
Customer extranets
eCommerce
Custom apps
Challenge: “Unified customer experience”
Trends related to this:1) The role of the Web CMS is
getting smaller in many cases – even though sites are getting more massive!
2) Building custom applications has become more cost-effective by the use of frameworks.
3) The role of APIs has grown due to different systems and mobile applications.
Solution 1: Create “service brands”
Websites
Customer extranets
eCommerce
Need: Best possible experience for the users of each service
Custom apps
Solution 1: Create “service brands”
Customer extranets
Websites
Example case
Solution 1: Create “service brands”
Customer extranet
Example case
Solution 1: Create “service brands”
Customer extranetWebsites
Example case
Solution 1: Create “service brands”
• Different websites for each concept.• For example many cities separate the public
website and the self-service website very clearly.
• Strengths– Easy to use best-of-breed products
– Minimum tailoring requirements
– Conceptually very mobile friendly (”apps ideology”)
• Challenges– Possibly lot of integrations
– Customer needs to understand the roles of each service
– Unified login (identity, SSO) often a requirement
Customer extranets
Websites
Example case
Solution 1: Create “service brands”
Example case
eCommerce
Solution 1: Create “service brands”
Example case
eCommerce
Solution 1: Create “service brands”
Customer extranet
Example case
Solution 1: Create “service brands”
• Different websites for each concept.• For example many cities separate the public
website and the self-service website very clearly.
• Strengths– Easy to use best-of-breed products
– Minimum tailoring requirements
– Conceptually very mobile friendly (”apps ideology”)
• Challenges– Not a ”unified experience” – different sub brands!
– Possibly lot of integrations
– Unified login (identity, SSO) often a requirement
Website = marketing &
product information
Customer extranet = additional
orders, support, FAQ,
community
eCommerce = bulk
products and services
Solution 2: Differentiate conceptually
Websites
Customer extranets
eCommerce
Need: Best possible experience + desire for unified user experience
Solution 2: Differentiate conceptually
Example case
Delta is a car dealer network that also works as an importer (eg. Kia).
The main website is using a CMS (DotNetNuke), but the used cars portal is a custom product that is integrated to several
back-end systems and databases.
Solution 2: Differentiate conceptually
Example case
The user experience is similar in all areas
even though the technology/source
of service is different in main
navigation sections.
Solution 2: Differentiate conceptually
Example case
YLE is Finland’s national public service broadcasting company. YLE operates four national television channels
and six radio channels.
YLE News is using Escenic CMS, the Web TV ”Areena” is built on Zend framework and most other websites
are built on Drupal.
Solution 2: Differentiate conceptually
Example case
Solution 2: Differentiate conceptually
Example case
Solution 2: Differentiate conceptually
Example case
Solution 2: Differentiate conceptually
• Unified website experience for users, but different segments of the website are built using different technology/products
• Strengths– Possible to use best-of-breed products
– ”Unified customer experience” with minimum cost
• Challenges– Building and maintaining consistent user experience
– Larger conceptual changes harder to design
– Liftups from different segments can require integrations
– Content targeting or content suggestions are manual work
– Hard to re-use elements or content
Website Extranet eCommerce
Unified navigation / header
Websites
Solution 3: Build on top of CMS
Websites
Customer extranets
eCommerce
Need: Unified user experience + lot of changing content + data from back-end systems
Ministry for foreign affairs of Finland is a massive
content website built on CMS product (.Net based
NetCommunity).
During the years there has been done lot of
customizations and applications on top of CMS.
Solution 3: Build on top of CMS
Example case
Solution 3: Build on top of CMS
Example case
Sitra.fi is built on Drupal platform. It was one of the
first large responsive websites in Scandinavia.
The website has a lot of content, but mostly it
aggregates content from different social media sites
depending on project/issue.
Solution 3: Build on top of CMS
Example case
Websites
Solution 3: Build on top of CMS
• Unified website experience for users and good tools for content producers.
• CMS implementation can become quite heavy and complex.
• Strengths– ”Unified customer experience”
– Possibilities to do rich liftups and content targeting
– Possibilities for multi-language management exist
• Challenges– Complex to further develop and apply updates
– A CMS is an ”extra layer” for developers of custom solutions and that can increase complexity and costs
Websites
Customer extranets
eCommerce
Need: Unified user experience + lot of changing content + data from back-end systems
Websites
Solution 4: Build on top of framework
Websites
Customer extranets
eCommerce
Technologies typical in this scenario are eg. Django, Zend, Symphony, Microsoft ASP.net and Drupal.
Need: Unified user experience + lot of custom functionality + data from back-end systems
Solution 4: Build on top of framework
Example case
Valio.fi is built using Microsoft technologies
without any CMS product. Most of the content comes from background systems.
Editors have custom made ”CMS tool” for controlling site liftups and templates.
Solution 4: Build on top of framework
Example case
Valio.fi is built using Microsoft technologies
without any CMS product. Most of the content comes from background systems.
Editors have custom made wysiwyg interface for
controlling site liftups and templates.
Websites
Solution 4: Build on top of framework
• Unified website experience and good possibilities to further develop the custom areas and functionalities.
• Content producers have limited capabilities to change the website design.
• Strengths– ”Unified customer experience”
– Good possibilities for custom feature development
– The CMS speaks the language of users
• Challenges– Highly tailored solution to maintain and support
– Content producers might become unhappy
Websites
Customer extranets
eCommerce
Technologies typical in this scenario are eg. Django, Zend, Symphony, Microsoft ASP.net and Drupal.
Create “service brands”
Best of breed productsPlenty of limitationsContent producers value
Overview to different solutions
Differentiate conceptually
Maintaining consistent UI is hardIntegration risks are fairly limited
Build on top of CMS
Unified experienceContent can be redesigned Build on top of
frameworkNo restrictionsContent redesign limited
”App-friendly” strategy
Not really a strategy... Just of a tactic
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Summary
1. Solution 1: Create ”service brands” if you want to use best-of-breed products and your business can operate with several different service brands. Building separate services is also usually the most cost effective choice - and fastest to redesign/rebuild.
2. Solution 2: Differentiate conceptually if you don’t have clear vision or resources to build a unified experience. Conceptual differentation can be cost-effective choice and a good way to try out if building a unified experience would make sense.
3. Solution 3: Build on top of CMS if you absolutely need unified and complex user experience – and you have a lot of content - and content producers that need to manage the user experience. Just be prepared to struggle with the CMS updates and improvements.
4. Solution 4: Build on top of framework if you absolutely need unified and complex user experience – and your biggest future plans relate to building more custom features and integrations. Just be prepared to maintain and improve the system periodically.
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