Not All CMSs are created equal

How many times have you had a client say to you "But my kid brother says we should really use CMS X", "Our IT guy says Drupal isn't 'Enterprise'" or "We're moving from CMS Y and we hate it, why should we go with CMS X?"

This talk will be a comparison of various CMS platforms across PHP, ASP.NET and JAVA (closed source, open source, free and pay) to better enable you to make informed decisions for yourself and your customers. This session won't be overly technical but it will be focused for users who understand basic CMS concepts. I highly recommend it for anybody who will be involved in the CMS decision making or sales process for a CMS based project.

I have a small confession to make, Drupal was the first CMS I used and interestingly enough it gave me a very warped view of the landscape. When the time came for me to use other CMSs, I was shocked at the features (or lack of) that some offered. Fast forward to a few years later, I had a client come to me and ask which CMS I would use for their large project. After about 10 seconds deliberation I said Drupal, it's been my go-to for over three years now -- of course Drupal would work for what they wanted. Well, it turned out that Drupal couldn't offer exactly what the client actually needed so it was time to put on the research cap and really take a look at what's out there. To make a long story short I fell for the classic "When all you have is a hammer..." when it turns out for some parts of the project there were better tools (and for some parts, Drupal was the still right CMS).

Join me as I walk you through the decision making proces that we followed, the CMSs we reviewed, their strengths, weakness and overall questions that you just know the client is going to ask.

Disclamer: This won't be a Drupal, Drupal, rah-rah-rah (biased) talk.

I'll cover:

Why choose one CMS over another?
Strengths and weaknesses of the CMSs.
Comparison projects between two CMSs to show the time/cost difference.
Saas CMS vs hosting your own.
The dreaded "Enterprise" word
How does Drupal 6/7 stack up?
What I won't cover:

Language vs Language
Hosting architectures (aside from SaaS)
Andrew Riley is the Associate Director of Software Development at MindComet where he manages a team of developers as well as develops Drupal based sites. In addition to working at MindComet Andrew co-hosts the DrupalEasy Podcast, hosts the Module A Day podcast, is a founding member of the Central Florida Drupal User Group and was President of the Florida Drupal Camp.