Services
Digital Platform Selection — Choose a CMS that fits how your team works, not the one with the best demo.
The wrong platform isn't obvious until your editors are trying to publish a page at 4 p.m. on a Friday.
The problem.
You're evaluating content management systems, and every vendor says they're the right choice. The demos look great. The feature lists are long.
But you've been here before, and you know that a CMS that looks perfect in a sales presentation can feel very different once your team is actually using it.
The problem isn't the platforms. Most enterprise CMS options are capable tools. The problem is choosing a platform before you've defined what you actually need — from editorial workflows to integration requirements to long-term governance.
The solution.
CMS selection often happens too early in the project, driven by IT preferences, vendor relationships, or a feature checklist that doesn't account for how the content team actually works. The result is a platform that's technically capable but operationally frustrating.
The right CMS isn't the one with the most features. It's the one that matches your content model, supports your editorial workflow, integrates with your existing systems, and can scale as your needs change — at a licensing cost that makes sense for your organization.
Green Button (Large)
The digital platform selection process.
We bring platform experience without platform bias. Our development team has deep expertise in Optimizely, Umbraco, and Contentstack — but over our two-decade-plus history we've also implemented WordPress, Drupal, Sitecore, and custom vendor systems, both traditional and headless.
Our recommendation process starts with your needs, not our preferences. We evaluate platforms against your specific requirements: how your team creates and manages content, what integrations you need, what your internal technical capacity looks like, and what your content model demands.
The output is a documented recommendation with clear reasoning — one your team and your leadership can make an informed decision from.
What can digital platform selection include?
A platform evaluation report that maps your organizational requirements to specific tool and system capabilities — including editorial workflow analysis, integration assessment, total cost of ownership, and a prioritized recommendation. If you'd like, we can facilitate vendor demos focused on your actual content scenarios rather than generic presentations.
Research and procurement
- Digital workflow requirements workshop
- Requirements documentation
- Vendor short list
- Vendor RFP creation
- Demo and pricing facilitation
Evaluation
- Vendor evaluation against organizational requirements
- Vendor health and ecosystem review
- Final platform recommendation
- Implementation roadmap
What is digital platform selection?
Digital platform selection is the process of determining which content management system or digital platform is the right fit for where an organization is and where it's going.
Learn more with our digital platform explainer.
Our work with Umbraco.
We've built Umbraco sites for financial services, higher education, healthcare, associations, and more.
Tips for Associations.
We've written at length, both here and beyond, on Association websites.
Frequently asked questions.
Can Blend recommend a CMS you don't build on?
Yes. If your needs are best served by a platform outside our primary partnerships, we'll tell you. We've recommended everything from Drupal to Squarespace when they were the right fit. Our goal is to help you make a good decision, not to sell you on a specific product.
Should we pick the CMS before or after strategy?
Ideally, after — choosing a platform once you've defined your content model and editorial requirements means you're evaluating based on real needs, not assumptions. If timeline doesn't allow for that, we can run selection in parallel with strategy, with a decision landing around the time design begins. Either way, we make sure the choice is grounded in something more than a feature list.
How long does platform selection take?
Typically four to six weeks as a focused engagement, with additional time needed to organize and schedule vendor demos. It can also be embedded within a strategy phase. The timeline depends on how many stakeholders need to be involved and how many platforms are in consideration.
Does platform selection include pricing negotiation?
We help you understand the total cost of ownership — licensing, implementation, hosting, and ongoing support — and we can facilitate the vendor conversation. We don't negotiate contracts on your behalf, but we make sure you're asking the right questions and comparing apples to apples across vendors.