7 signs it’s time to change your CMS

Are your developers and content editors becoming frustrated by the limitations of your current CMS? Is your company running into issues and bottlenecks that are preventing you from delivering the best possible user experience?

A content management system is not merely just another marketing tool—it might in fact be the bread and butter of your organization. Everyone dependent on powerful administration of digital assets for a variety of purposes needs a CMS.

And not just any CMS: it needs to be the opposite of the following major symptoms.

1. Inflexible system

Perhaps the worst thing a developer can say is: “Our CMS doesn’t let us implement this.” A CMS that can’t handle the continuous deployment of new code isn’t just frustrating, it’s not fit for purpose.

Your CMS should be able to handle anything you throw at it, with the ability to scale seamlessly with your business’ growth or evolving strategy. Instead of looking for workarounds and compromises that lack efficiency, look for a CMS that is customizable and embraces open technology.

2. No longer adding value

If your CMS can’t add value by generating revenue, your digital team can’t deliver content and services to support your organization. That means there’s a real chance you’re missing out on a key opportunity to stay ahead of your competition or be relevant.

Continuous investment in an outdated system is definitely not the answer, and will only stand in the way of your revenue or customer satisfaction goals.

3. Publishing content takes too long

You and your colleagues might make a dream team when it comes to editing content, but what’s the point if your CMS can’t keep up?

No part of the content creation process should be a hassle, whether it’s selecting and uploading images to go along with the text, previewing the content in different channels, or kicking off a workflow.

A modern content management system will offer features designed to speed up the publishing process, like a highly flexible UI for editors and nice keyboard shortcuts.

UI flexibility enables a company to make content management more efficient and intuitive, fine tune every single page, and create responsive landing pages.

Modern systems also help to streamline the image handling process, allowing the creation of a variant of an image on the fly, and removing the burden of manually cropping and scaling images when reusing them across content and landing pages.

See also: 8 reasons why your digital projects are slow - and how to solve them »

4. Limited mobile support

If you need two separate tools just to publish content to both desktop and mobile, you need a new CMS. On average, users spend 69% of their media time and 80% of social media time on a mobile device.

So mobile is more than just important, it’s essential.

That’s why you need a system that acknowledges the importance of mobile instead of ignoring it or treating it as an afterthought. Using two separate systems for publishing content to mobile and desktop is unsustainable, and wastes a lot of valuable time on both the content and developer side, basically doubling their work.

5.  The vendor isn’t keeping up

Agility is the name of the game if you’re going to stay head of the competition and deliver the best possible experience for your customers. And if your CMS provider isn’t agile, then you can’t be either.

You need a system that’s constantly being developed and improved to meet a digital space that’s transforming fast. Any CMS vendor worth their salt will listen to customer input on any new functionality.

There’s also massive changes on the technology side with the rise of progressive web apps (PWAs), headless CMS, rich front-ends, and a focus on delivering services and not just marketing websites.

6. Lacking marketing tools integrations

No CMS in existence can do everything in a hefty one-size-fits-all solution (although some monolithic behemoths try). However, if your current CMS both lacks modern marketing functionality and the possibility to integrate with amazing marketing tools, you know you're in trouble.

In other words, you should find a CMS that can integrate all those useful add-ons—analytics, automation, lead nurturing, SEO, and so on. The result will be a future-proof CMS that’s tailored for your team and your customers.

See also: The skills you need to build successful digital experiences »

7. Missing headless capabilities

The digital world of today and tomorrow is certainly different than yesterday. Before you might have had a website and maybe an app—and that was it. Today the focus is shifting to the re-use of structured content across multiple channels, like web, mobile, wearables, signage, IoT, and more.

So, when your developers are building rich web front-ends, your CMS should support a headless architecture.

"Headless" means a split between content and presentation, and where your traditional CMS blends these two, a headless CMS splits them up. Given that a pure headless CMS delivers a limited set of features for handling websites, you should really look for a hybrid headless CMS.

This sort of magic combines all the advantages of traditional systems with the advantages of headless—you can create and preview content like in a traditional CMS, while simultaneously letting the content be fetched to other channels via an API, as well as keeping the developer happy by allowing him to work with his preferred front-end framework.

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Taking strong steps down the path of digital transformation will be essential for your organization's success, but it will require you to invest in a system that enables, rather than restricts, the delivery of amazing digital experiences for your users.

A flexible, scalable, and user friendly CMS will be the foundation on which you create, manage and publish quality content and build fully integrated digital experiences and services for your customers.

First published 4 June 2018. Updated 5 January 2023.