Well, not really a shocker...more a reality check. This is in reference to a recent article published on CMSWire about mid market web CMS vendors raising prices.

Having used a number of content management systems over the last 10 years including Reef (ironically this 'sank' without a trace), Microsoft Content Management Server, Obtree, Immediacy (gulp) and Sharepoint (if you can call this a CMS) and sat through a number of other platform demonstrations such as Sitecore and episerver. I am aware of the weird and wonderful world of vendor pricing models.

Some are per server, per domain name, per developer seat, per licence, or a combination of all these. Then there are the added (some hidden) extras such as installation fees, enforced training courses for developers, annual maintenance which is usually anywhere between 15% and 20% and of course the cost of actually implementing the system.

The Shocker

But, just how high some of the licence fees can escalate has actually surprised...no...shocked me!

"...more than 3 content managers, you must purchase Sitecore's Professional Edition (includes Web CMS and OMS), which starts at US$ 60k (£40K) for the first server...you are more likely going to want a second server to support higher levels of traffic or internal development environments, etc. This means additional costs of anywhere between US$ 20 (£13k) and US$ 40k (£25k)"

So in summary you are talking a figure approaching the $100,000 (£65,000) mark. And I'm sure this could quite quickly escalate in some circumstances. This is without any annual support, development fees, consultancy, hosting or integration with 3rd party applications.

Lets just take a second and look at that number again...that's £65,000 (sixty five thousand pounds), or in real terms 65,656 things from your local 99p shop, admittedly you'd need a bigger trolley, 82,278 downloads from iTunes (UK) or 650,000 1p sweets, I like rhubarb and custard if anyone's feeling generous :)

In terms of a full project, I'd expect the total cost to be nearly double the licence fees and then some, so you'd be looking at a total project cost of somewhere in the region of £130k - £150k by the time you'd tweaked, toned, perfected, mended and launched.

This sounds like a huge sum of money, and don't forget those extras, there would also be the ongoing annual vendor support costs, which, if we take an average of 18% of the licence fee, would be in the region of £12k per year to cover upgrades and bug fixes, but this would not include the partner fee for installing the upgrades or further development work.

So Why?

My biggest question is why do companies feel they need to spend these sorts of fees on content management systems?

Is it the number of extra features provided? Is it the perceived quality of the codebase? Is it the feeling of security spending a lot of cash gives? Or is it the fact that the decision maker feels they have someone else to kick if it all goes wrong?

And don't forget, the systems highlighted in the article are just 'Mid Range' systems. I can't even begin to imagine the fees involved in the projects for the Vignette's of the world.

The Open Source alternative...well Umbraco of course!

There is an alternative out there...one that doesn't cost the earth and is as robust and secure as any commercial system. The alternative is the world of open source.

I guess the historical perception of open source products is that they were written by Metallica t-shirt wearing, non-speaking, zero personality geeks in a dark room somewhere with no control or credibility (I gave my t-shirt away when my hair fell out by the way!).

This is obviously not the case, given the success of systems such as Wordpress, Drupal and Umbraco.

Taking Umbraco as an example, because this is what I know best, the reality is that there is as much control and structure as with any commercial offering, sometimes more.

Umbraco is a commercial operation funded by support contracts, gold partnerships and umbraco.tv subscriptions. It now has 11 full time employees who are spread around the world covering every time zone.

HQ's purpose is solely to provide stability, longevity and direction to the product. They don't provide professional services and don't have licences to sell to meet Board or shareholder targets

Underneath the HQ is a team of devoted MVP's and core contributors who work tirelessly to bug fix and improve the platform, then there is the community as a whole, which must now number some tens of thousands of people around the world.

Cost

And how much does all this cost I hear you ask? Well the simple answer is simple. Nothing...zero...zilch...

You still have to actually implement the system and integrate it into an organisation, but there is no more work than any other commercial offering out there in the marketplace, and it will be significantly more cost effective.

In my experience, products that on the surface may seem nice and shiny, slick and well written with lots of modules that promise to magically solve all your organisation problems, still need an awful lot of configuration and set-up to get them to work just as you require. Sometimes more!!!

There is never a catch all solution to any requirement. Every company has there own processes and needs and it is my opinion that a system should help solve and reduce the workload of the staff who use them. It should not add another level of complexity into an already busy day with yet another system you have to learn and get used to with its own nuances and quirks.

Give it a go

Anyway, I'm off to sit down and drink some sweet tea to get over the shock. In the meantime why not keep you wallet in your pocket for now and take a look at the open source world, preferably Umbraco of course and give it a go or even better come and see me and I'll show you.

And if you do feel the urge to spend upwards of £50k on something, you could always give it to a much worthier cause :)

p.s. these are obviously just my ramblings, please let me know if I am in any way innaccurate :)