This is the second post in a series discussing return on investment for web content management deployments. In the opening post we provided an overview of four categories. Today we dive deeper into the first of those categories: acquisition.
There are a number of fixed costs associated with the acquisition of a new CMS product. Most apparent is the actual licensing fees associated with the product. There are other considerations that may be less obvious: the evaluation process and procurement process including contract negotiations. The costs here are largely associated with effort expended by staff and perhaps fees from an external consultant. The choice to include or exclude these considerations will depend on the financial reporting structure for your organization.
As licensing models of the various CMS vendors can vary widely they can be difficult to compare. To help you with this process we offer the following outline of potential pricing models. Many vendors will price their licenses based on one or more of the following characteristics:
- Number of servers or some characteristic of the servers such as number of processors (CPUs)
- Number of simultaneous or named users
- Number of unique URLs
- Inclusion of add-on modules that extend functionality
- Support agreement
Number of servers or server characteristics
The server based licenses may differ depending on the intended purpose of the server. If you require servers to house quality assurance and development environments, these licenses are often less than the production system licenses. For products that dynamically serve content from a database the fees for the authoring environment and actual web site are often different. If you are dealing with a clustered environment, be sure to get clear details from the vendor on licenses for web farm environments.
Number of users
If a vendor is pricing the product based on the number of users it is typically done on either a named user basis or number of simultaneous users. What can vary widely from vendor to vendor is the definition of user. Some vendors consider a user to be a person with access to the content authoring environment, where others might include visitors to the website or developers creating new templates and functionality for the site. Obtain clear definition of user when evaluating licensing costs and if the costs vary depending on the type of users.
Number of unique URLs / sites
Licensing based on number of URLs or sites is more commonly seen across all market tiers. It is probably most prevalent in products that dynamically serve content from a database or other repository. If you are in such a situation, be sure to discuss with the vendor how the URL restrictions apply to a single site with multiple vanity URLs.
Add-on modules
The CMS landscape is rife with add-on modules and products. While there is no hard and fast rule on how vendors break their offering into modules we would offer the following: be cautious. Talk to real customers to determine what modules you need.
Support agreement
Most vendors include some form or support or maintenance in their initial licensing fee. This support contract may entitle you to various forms of technical support or software upgrades. The support level provided in most cases is the vendor’s basic offering so be sure this level of support will meet your needs.
In our next post we will review the deployment costs of a CMS in greater detail.