In our May email newsletter we explained Business Catalyst's EOL (End of Life) Announcement, the implications for our clients and what we are doing about it.

We have since reviewed a range of CMS platforms and have discarded many as potential alternatives for our client websites due to a number of requirements we consider non-negotiable including:

• Security: We've never had a website that we built hacked. It's a claim we are proud of and something we're unwilling to compromise on. We've investigated a number of platforms where security updates (to vulnerabilities in plugins and the platform software itself) are an accepted part of ongoing maintenance. This isn't a route we want to send our clients down.
• Extensible Functionality: BC excelled in this area. There was very little we couldn't achieve using BC alone. Most of the platforms we've considered possess a range of pre-defined content types (e.g. testimonials, team members, etc) but lack the ability to create custom content types. This may not seem like a big deal but what it means that when the need arises to display some new type of modular information on your site, the functionality for doing so simply isn't there. We are reluctant to recommend solutions that lack this kind of future-proofing.
• Ease-of-use: With software there is generally an inversely proportional relationship between ease-of-use and flexibility/functionality. A drag-and-drop website builder may be a breeze to use, but you are locked into a predefined set of features with very little room to move. In contrast, while with a complex CMS system you're unlikely to get stuck being unable to create whatever you require, the trade-off is often a steeper learning curve. As developers we generally err in favour of flexibility, but we understand for the non-technical business owner, ease-of-use is very important. We're keeping this tension in mind during our investigations.

In the process of researching alternative CMS platforms we have also become aware of a general move away from the traditional CMS model. This may not have any immediate implications - especially for our clients with small, brochureware websites - but we've realised that now is no better time to get schooled up on where the industry is heading before migrating our clients to a new platform(s).

We have narrowed down our list of platform alternatives and expect to be settling on some definite options in the near future. We will be contacting our clients with more information in due course.