Content Management Systems (CMS) are applications that help create, publish and manage digital content. The world is becoming dependent on internet and businesses have begun targeting customers using websites and social media sites. Having a website has become inevitable for a successful business. It is in such scenarios that CMSs are relevant.

CMS help in creating, uploading and managing web content. Any decent CMS will enable the owners to track the metrics of their web content and analyse its performance..

Like many other digital tools, CMSs also come in two variants- Off-the-shelf and Bespoke. Bespoke CMSs are customized to suit the user requirements, whereas off-the-shelf CMSs come with a ready-made set of tools which can be used by the content manager.

One major advantage in any customized application, and more so with CMSs is that the user can opt for whatever is necessary and applicable for their businesses and do away with tools that they do not need. For example, Instagram is a platform which serves as an important business place. There are vendors who do business solely from Instagram. For such vendors, a CMS which has tools to update and manage web pages might not be necessary at all. They can customize their CMS in such a way that it manages their Instagram pages.

Some other advantages of Bespoke CMSs are :

• It can be designed to achieve a specific purpose, which are not available in standard off-the-shelf software. Functionalities like Geo location targeting of views, scheduling posts based on results of such analyses so that it reaches the viewers in a particular place etc are seldom available in standard CMSs.
• Advanced data-analytics possibilities. It can be designed in such a way as to compile and extract data, which helps in analytics. Businesses are largely data driven and customizing one’s CMS to support such data-driven strategies helps to grow.
• Manage your workforce real-time to provide exceptional service
• Avoids bloating of applications. Like any other customized software, bespoke CMS retains whatever is essential for the business. It helps reduce bloating and other system capacity related issues.
• Easier training of staff to use the CMS. Skilled staff is an integral part of any business. Training the staff to use a software with minimal interference’s is easier than to train a staff to use stock application. It is effective time-wise and also efficiency-wise.
• Different businesses have different philosophies. It come with the freedom to customize the messaging tools such that it can publish a standard reply whenever someone pings it.
• It can also be designed to be interactive, thereby promoting direct engagements with the user. This helps the user feel precious which would in turn reap benefits for the business.
• Lower upfront cost. Like any other customized package, its cost less initially and sometimes come with a free trial period.
• Lesser to No spams. Since customization is unique there will be lesser people targeting you.
• You can always adjust the application to support heavy traffic during the season. For example, if you are running an e-commerce website and there is a sale scheduled for the festival season, you can install updates to your CMS to support such heavy traffic to your site without the systems crashing. This is a major advantage that bespoke CMSs have over off-the-shelf CMSs.

It also allow collaborative effort in creating and managing content. It enables multiple users to access from different locations and work on a single idea, promoting teamwork and exchange of ideas and opinions. A business can thrive only when an open space is created for exchange of ideas and opinions.

Some major shortcomings that affect bespoke CMSs are :

• They are expensive. Customization cost a bomb. Unless the business is solely dependent on Social media and web engagements, it makes less sense for businesses to invest heavily in customizing CMSs.
• Time is a factor. With standard, off-the-shelf CMSs, one can start using the application right away and set it up on the go. With this, one has to wait for the complete package to be installed to begin use.
• Availability of different plugins and widgets in off-the-shelf applications provide different options for the content manager. Since scores of people are working on developing newer plug-ins and debugging the existing ones, there is a guarantee of improved experience in using the CMSs. They are mostly unique and it increases dependency on the developer to incorporate even the minutest of changes.

To sum it up, if the business is niche and expect season variations in terms of traffic and views, it is better to invest in a bespoke CMSs. The positives outweigh the shortcomings considerably and the cost is just a wise investment that you make.