Byrne Tony Byrne

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One CMS, or two?

8-May-2006

Tags: Web Content Management, Building Business Case

"Can't we get by with a single CMS to support both our intranet and public site(s)?" That's an increasingly frequent query posed by CMS buyers, especially executives looking to rationalize technology investments. They crave an affirmative response, but as an independent observer, sometimes it's my job to deliver the bad news: that most CMS products will suit one use-case better than the other, so at best you end up with 2 different implementations of the same product, and at worst, one set of contributors truly suffers under a mis-matched solution. I occasionally see enterprises where website content is merely a less-protected subset of intranet content; in those cases, a single CMS for both can work well. But remember that while both are "web properties," public websites and intranets typically represent 2 very different information zones, one for public communication and influence, the other for internal knowledge-sharing and efficiency. In a small company, consolidating around one tool probably makes sense, but the larger the enterprise, the greater the case for different solutions. On the whole, it's a tough subject, so I'm glad Martin White of Intranet Focus has tackled it in some detail.

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