Evaluating ROI - Cost-Benefit Analysis of Hybrid CMS

When considering a shift to a Hybrid CMS, businesses need to conduct a thorough cost-benefit analysis to gauge the return on investment (ROI). In this blog, we will guide businesses through evaluating the short-term and long-term gains of adopting a Hybrid CMS, aiming to provide insights into the substantial benefits that a Hybrid CMS brings to the table.

There are a few considerations to make — from the functionality, to the user interface, to the level of support offered. One often overlooked consideration, however, is the return on investment (ROI).

While some brands see a CMS as a necessary evil — a piece of software that’s merely a means to an end — forward-thinking companies look for a tangible return on the time and money they invest into their chosen CMS before, during, and after purchase. Here at dotCMS, we applaud that approach.

Read more: 5 Signs It’s Time to Change Your CMS

Getting Insight into the ROI

To build a business case for a CMS project, you’ll first need to assess the extent to which your current solution is helping the organization achieve key business objectives. Once this is understood, it can be compared to the benefits of the future system. By making this comparison, the additional costs necessary to implement a new CMS, such as user training and professional services, can be properly justified.

Read more: A Modern Guide to Selecting a CMS

Global Brand Management

Like any other business application, replatforming provides an opportunity to look holistically at a number of aspects around both capital expenditure and operational expenditure and ensure they are aligned with corporate-wide policies and practices.

Operational Excellence

At the end of the day, a CMS is a tool that is operated by real people, and that is also where a new CMS can make a huge difference. The right Hybrid CMS should have effective:

1. Visual Editing

2. Content Reuse

3. Workflows

4. Headless Content Management

5. APIs

Technology Agility and Innovation

First, a modern platform is API-driven and microservices-focused. Secondly, a suite solution will never bring breadth and depth to specific business functions compared to dedicated applications. Lastly, leveraging the content foundation of a Hybrid CMS in a headless deployment while enhancing more control over the experience improves the time-to-market and enterprise agility.

Personalized Customer Experiences

Driving customer experiences and hyper-personalization are key differentiators for an enterprise to win. This applies not just to new customer acquisition but also to the entire customer lifecycle. The focus on customer experience and personalization will drive brand loyalty, cross-sell/up-sell, and, therefore, the bottom line. Content targeting and personalization are key tools for brands to drive their conversions.

Time-to-Value

The adoption of new tech is both exciting as well as frightening. The selection of a CMS alone typically starts 6-12 months before the implementation starts, and then it has to be implemented and adopted by the organization. Shortcutting the adoption is simply not an option, but a modern enterprise-grade Hybrid CMS solution can accelerate the company-wide adoption.

Learn more: Use the dotCMS’ Cloud ROI Calculator

Put Weight on the Benefits, Not Just Features

The CMS market is sprawling with vendors claiming that their platform boasts the most features. The problem with that is that features don’t fetch you a return on your investment, whereas tangible business benefits do.

dotCMS benefits its clients through cutting-edge cloud hosting, NoCode interfaces, industry-leading training resources, and a growing partner ecosystem. Sure, our platform’s features are plentiful, but we never add functionality for the sake of functionality. Instead, our content-centric feature set brings about enterprise-grade content management, personalization, and reporting backed up by APIs that enable companies to integrate with any third-party system on the market.

This all results in a flexible digital ecosystem for your business that’s built with the best technologies available for each dimension of your organization. Now that’s ROI-positive.

But We Should Still Discuss Features…

1. Content Model

Creating custom content types, fields, relationships, and taxonomies is easy with dotCMS's drag-and-drop interface.

2. Rest API

Enjoy full control over your content, assets, layouts, and workflows with our API and compact JSON.

3. Layout as a Service

NoCode layout creation allows business users to manage and edit layouts, contents, and assets in context.

4. Scalability & Speed

dotCMS has the Java infrastructure and multi-tenant capabilities that allow you to scale your website across your organization quickly and easily.

5. Roles & Permissions

Customizing roles and permissions allows you to keep your content safe and team members productive.

6. Workflows

With dotCMS you can improve and simplify your content creation system by building multi-step workflows with features like Four Eye approval, AI translations, and third-party integrations.

7. Single Sign On

dotCMS makes Single Sign On simple by integrating smoothly with SAML, Oauth, and AD-based SSO vendors. With our Authentication Support, dotCMS is here to help your team with the initial configuration, ongoing maintenance, and support of your SSO integration.

8. Multilingual

Publishing in multiple languages with granular localization support helps you launch on time, every time.

Short-Term Gains: Immediate Impact on Efficiency

Reduced Development Bottlenecks

Developers experience immediate relief from routine content updates. Marketers can make changes without constantly relying on development teams, reducing bottlenecks and improving efficiency. With dotCMS Cloud, we care for the infrastructure so DevOps can focus on innovation.

Faster Time-to-Market

With visual editing capabilities, marketers can expedite the content creation process. This results in a faster time-to-market for new campaigns, promotions, or updates, enhancing the overall agility of the business.

Streamlined Workflows

Hybrid CMS streamlines workflows by providing a unified platform for collaboration between developers and marketers. This leads to more efficient communication and content delivery processes.

Long-Term Gains: Strategic Growth and Adaptability

Adaptability to Changing Needs

Hybrid CMS is built for adaptability. As your business evolves, the CMS can accommodate new content types, channels, and technologies, ensuring your digital strategy remains future-proof.

Enhanced User Experience

A Hybrid CMS enhances the user experience across channels. By delivering consistent and personalized content, businesses can build stronger connections with their audience, fostering brand loyalty.

Cost Savings Through Efficiency

Over the long term, the efficiency gained in content management translates into cost savings. Reduced development time and streamlined workflows contribute to a more cost-effective operation.

Read more: How to Recession Proof Your Tech Stack With a Hybrid CMS

Leveraging dotCMS’ Guide: What is the ROI of a CMS

Referencing dotCMS’ What’s the ROI of a CMS? provides a comprehensive look at the specific ROI benefits dotCMS brings to businesses. This guide offers insights into cost savings, increased revenue, and strategic growth facilitated by dotCMS's Hybrid CMS capabilities. Gain valuable criteria and considerations to refine your evaluation process, ensuring you choose a Hybrid CMS that aligns with your business goals.