5 Reasons Why You Should Build Custom CMS for Your Business

Buy a ready-made solution or invest time and money to take something custom? CMS is an essential part of your brand's online presence. Find out why the choice of a custom CMS tailored to your needs might be a good one.

We have already written about how to build your own CMS and why you might need one. Now we would like to show you the benefits of custom CMS. What values does it bring? Is it worth investing in? Let's dwell on that.

#1 Tailored to the needs of your business

We created a custom CMS for Danone (see the Danone case study) based on workshops with the client. At the discovery sessions, they told us about their needs - what would be of utmost importance and what we should pay particular attention to. Many of these things would be much harder to do in available CMS-es.

What is more, we were also able to focus on the graphic design as the client imagines it. We could do everything from scratch and consider everything the client wants to have there. The cookie-cutter product did not put limits on our client's vision.

#2 Business logic embedded in the CMS interface

We can put a lot of business logic into the guts of your CMS. The very logic that makes your business tick.

That is why a custom approach does not pay off in standard, small businesses. A template solution will work just fine in them, and there is nothing wrong with that. However, for medium companies and enterprises, investing in custom CMS has a 0.4 – 1.2 years payback period and results in a 230 – 400% average annual ROI (data from ScienceSoft report).

Therefore, custom solutions are for organizations, start-ups, and enterprises:

• that need an original approach due to their business model,
• that have clearly defined goals that cannot be achieved with an off-the-shelf solution.

Our experience as a headless custom CMS development company is that carving a bespoke CMS enables us to address needs that can't be fully answered otherwise.

Let's use an example. If a small local insurance company needs a website, they can use WordPress, among other things. However, suppose it is a network of insurance companies (for that, see the Unilink case study) that needs to plan content on branches' websites, provide them with handling reports, and manage all of them and their franchisees. In that case, a dedicated solution is definitely needed. The business logic of this organization exceeds the possibilities of ready-made solutions.

#3 CMS security and integration potential

Most employees of the organization have to log in to different corporation tools, like mailboxes or apps. The integrations between the tools and the CMS must be robust to secure those operations.

Thanks to custom CMS all potential vulnerabilities can be secured and foreseen. Logging in via Google, Facebook, AWS, and Azure - depending on your needs. The integrations are fully adapted to the specifics of your CMS, so they fit like a glove, without the potential risks that the automatic ones may pose.

Another benefit that shines through here is lightness. Customization, which is built into the structure of the solution, will be lighter than new plugins added every now and then. External plugins need maintenance, and it's not all up to you. However, if you have functionalities in your own backyard, you are responsible for their security.

#4 Localization of the solution for a global brand in one of its markets

As mentioned above, we can easily meet the corporation's specific requirements, integrating certain tools or ensuring security procedures. So it's the unification of local solution with the global brand paradigm. But, at the same time, thanks to the custom solution, the corporation can ensure better achievement of goals in a given local market. Because customization enables better localization of your product. And, in some cases, it's totally worth it.

For Danone Nutricia, we used a widget solution to provide an opportunity for ever-available personalization of the website's content. We build blocks from which Danone can makeup and style websites in various ways. 7,000 widgets for each brand. Sometimes 6-7 versions of a given widget. With that, you can customize a lot and fully adapt the looks to the brand's requirements in Poland.

Another thing is that 90% of the traffic in Poland is mobile, so that was our focus from the very start. Mobile-first solutions, all responsive, all widgets based on the best look on phones.

So, in this case, custom CMS allows for even greater customization and adjustment of the website's appearance to the changing requirements, strategies, and goals. Moreover, the organization can do these customizations on its own, thanks to the website's editable elements.

To see how this applies to the businesses on the mission, go to our Ascensia Diabetes Care case study.

#5 An opportunity to stand out

Nobody has yet produced a killer feature as part of a ready-made CMS. In an era of competition, the abundance of start-ups in the market, and the prevalence of digital solutions, it's tough to nurture a unique brand identity. It is possible with a customized CMS that you can adapt to your idea. And the others will be cheating off your solution, not the other way round.

Control, flexibility, and unrepeatable style. If your business needs customization and you are ready to invest and work on the dedicated solution with your provider, it will definitely pay off. Just think about it, and if you have questions, do not hesitate to contact us.