3 warning signs that tell you it’s time to replatform your CMS

Change is hard. But if you want a site that delivers customer experience on a consistent basis, then replatforming is inevitable.

The following three signs should tell you that it is time to move on:

[Sign #1] Financials signs

The cost of running a website does add up. Maintenance costs can be never-ending, particularly if you have an open-source CMS that requires constant security patches and feature updates, all of which either cost you time or money.

Plus, there are license renewal fees that need to be taken care of, along with the costs of migrating your software from version to version if you’re using versioned software like Magento or Drupal.

It’s hard to put an exact number on the cost, as each project is unique. However, if you hire a developer whose main job is to maintain your systems, you already know your expenditure on this front.

[Sign #2] Technological signs

According to surveys carried out by Akamai and Gomez.com, nearly half of web users expect a site to load in 2 seconds or less — and will abandon a website altogether if it doesn’t load in three seconds. In other words, if your current CMS is running slower by the day, you’re in trouble.

Plus, if you don’t have a headless CMS or a decoupled CMS that can deliver content to IoT devices like Amazon Echo, dynamic digital signage, et cetera, your brand is already in decline, since you have zero presence on the touchpoints that are growing most rapidly.

Another point to consider is that the older a system is, the more vulnerable it becomes to cyber-attack — which is bad news if you’re trying to maintain GDPR compliance, not to mention any sense of customer trust.

Finally, if your CMS finds it hard to integrate with tools like Slack and Salesforce, it’s also likely that it’s holding your team back from being as productive as they can be.

[Sign #3] Marketing signs

Your marketing department may also be raising some red flags, either directly or indirectly

Your website is essentially a marketing tool, and your marketers need to be able to:

• Update site content quickly and easily
• Publish blog posts, videos and podcasts
• Integrate with social media scheduling tools
• Build landing pages and microsites quickly
• Personalize content through audience segmentation

If your marketers struggle to do any of those, it’s another definitive sign that you need to replatform your website.