I think that was the point of both myself and Dave, Todd.
Mark's vitriolic rant seemed to miss the point that the technology
comes after you discover what the business requires, what their
resources are, what the requirements of the site will be over the next
12-24 months, etc. not just say OK to contribute because the client
says so before discovering much more important things....
And as for budget, well, Contribute at $99 is more expensive than many
CMSs (twice the cost of the powerful EE and $99 more than Drupal).
As you say, a god consultant will discover why they want Contribute
and, upon discovering those needs, either continue with Contribute or
offer a solution that meets their needs better, should that be the
case, but it is the needs of the project that need to be discovered
first, I'd have thought.....
Joe
On 03/11/2008, at 12:21 AM, Todd Budnikas wrote:
with respect to both sides here, I have had numerous clients come to
me
requesting Contribute as a solution. I would say the reason, in
every case
i believe, is the cost. It's a 1 time fee of $99. I imagine, that if
you
can offer something comparable or cheaper to them, they would
appreciate
the recommendation and scrap Contribute if the other product(s)
worked
better, were easier to maintain and implement, etc.
I would guess here that the client isn't dictating technology, but
budget
for CMS. I mean, what are the chances they've used a bunch of
solutions,
and settled that Contribute is the best and meets their workflow?
My recommendation is to try something like http://www.cushycms.com/
which
is also free and is a hosted solution. I've used this with pretty good
success. It's not without it's limitation, but it's extremely easy
to use
and met the needs of one of my clients. You obviously could go with
a more
common solution like Expression Engine, or Wordpress, etc.
I would find out why your client wants to use Contribute, and if you'd
rather not use it, then your job is to find something comparable or
better
(hopefully for the same cost or less) and state your case.
Mark Harris wrote:
Joe Ortenzi wrote:
Contribute is not about content management as much as it is about
allowing an in-house web team to share tasks without a "proper" CMS
deployed. Thus your coder can code and the content writer can write
but it can be all wrapped within a team. This is, frankly, Web 1.0,
and your time and their money is better served by getting a
simple CMS
deployed that meets with their scope and strategy and will be
easier
to manage for everyone, client included.
With respect, this is so much bollocks.
The manner of deployment is always the client's choice. If you can
offer
her something better, by all means offer, but it's arrogant to
tell the
client "you have to do it this way".
Many clients won't have an "in-house" web team - they'll have one
person
to whom "maintaining the website" is only 1/4 of their job. Some
outfits
are still coming to grips with how they should be using the web
and need
baby steps.
While it's a designer's job to help educate them, you can't drag
them
kicking and screaming into something they're not ready for.
Regards
Mark Harris
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