While WordPress has a substantial presence in higher education, it's not the only game in town. Most colleges and universities have multiple content management platforms in play across campus: used by different schools, departments, research centers, labs, facilities, libraries, athletics, alumni and admissions. Even some smaller colleges, in my experience, end up with 3-4 different ways of managing and presenting web content—and don't even get me started on learning management systems, student information systems, marketing automation and so on. For this talk I'll focus on the other CMS platforms. What do they offer that is attractive to the higher education market? How do they differentiate themselves from WordPress? How can WordPress better compete? Put more bluntly, how on earth did someone convince the business school to use Sitecore? Why does the college of engineering insist on Drupal? Why are so many campuses on Cascade Server? Snark aside, you'll leave better equipped to have the inevitable conversations about the dreaded other platforms—and just might find they're doing some things we can learn from as we look to bring the joy of WordPress to more campuses.

1. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
THE GRASS IS ALWAYS GREENER:
WHAT OTHER CMS’S OFFER HIGHER ED
W P C A M P U S 2 0 1 8
John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus

2. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
HIGHER EDUCATION, THEN CMS

3. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
CMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Photo by Jairo Alzate on Unsplash

4. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
CMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Photo by Sneaky Elbow on Unsplash

5. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
CMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Photo by Judi Neumeyer on Unsplash

6. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
CMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
Photo by Rebekah Howell on Unsplash

7. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
ALL TOGETHER NOW

8. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
ECKMAN’S LAW
Given enough time, the number of web sites
produced by any institution of higher learning will
exceed the number of: current students, faculty,
staff, departments, research labs, student groups,
cross-discipline initiatives, schools, colleges,
alumni organizations, campuses, buildings,
libraries, institutes, publications, . . .

9. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
The question isn’t:
“What platform does your institution use
for content management”
The question is:
“What platforms are used, for what
purposes, by whom, and how effectively?”
https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/7/73/OneTrueRing.JPG

10. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
CMS IN HIGHER EDUCATION
https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Administration_building,_Washington_University,_St._Louis,_Mo_(63237).jpg

11. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
HOW PEOPLE CHOOSE PLATFORMS
http://www.cmsmyth.com/2015/04/the-real-reasons-people-hate-their-cms/

12. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
THE CMS MARKET IN HIGHER ED

13. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
THE CMS MARKET IN HIGHER ED
https://www.realstorygroup.com/Blog/2834-The-CMS-Game-of-Thrones

14. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
THE CMS MARKET IN HIGHER ED
https://w3techs.com/technologies/segmentation/tld-edu-/content_management

15. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
WPCAMPUS SURVEY DATA

16. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
CMS MARKET IN HIGHER EDUCATION
https://greggbanse.com/blog/2017-higher-ed-cms-survey/
n=96?
M A R C H 2 0 1 7

17. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
THE CMS MARKET IN HIGHER ED
https://www.eqafy.com/web-analytics-blog/214-which-web-content-management-systems-do-us-universities-use.html
S E P T. 2 0 1 6

18. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampusn=2575
N O V. 2 0 1 6
https://www.eqafy.com/web-analytics-blog/209-web-content-management-systems-and-us-higher-education-institutions.html

19. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
OTHER PLATFORMS
https://www.flickr.com/photos/banyan_tree/1499022057
Commercial General Higher Ed Focused
Open Source General Other

20. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
WHY SITECORE OR AEM?
Photo by rawpixel on Unsplash

21. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
WHY SITECORE?

22. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
WHY SITECORE?
Aspirational

23. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
WHY SITECORE?
Sitecore achieved the highest position
in execution . . . Sitecore’s position
has advanced every year. . . . We’ve
held the highest position on the Ability
to Execute axis for three years in a
row. . . . Sitecore has been positioned
either highest on execution or furthest
on vision a total of six times

24. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
WHY ADOBE EXPERIENCE MANAGER?

25. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
WHY ADOBE EXPERIENCE MANAGER?

26. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
WHY ADOBE EXPERIENCE MANAGER?

27. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
WHY ADOBE EXPERIENCE MANAGER?

28. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
HOW TO RESPOND: PROPRIETARY
Photo by Benedikt Geyer on Unsplash
• High License costs
• High development costs
• “Out of the box” is a lie
• You can’t handle personalization
• A more expensive tool will not improve your content production
• Estimates for implementation & licensing
• Demo the authoring experience for authors

29. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
WHY DRUPAL?
https://www.flickr.com/photos/gaborhojtsy/279354232

30. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
WHY DRUPAL?
• Power users can assemble sites from modules
• Tailored “distributions” - starter kits
• Global community, w/ significant presence in Higher Ed
• An experienced Drupal team can move quickly
Photo by Jo Szczepanska on Unsplash

31. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
HOW TO RESPOND: DRUPAL
Photo by Thomas Fields on Unsplash
• First step in the learning curve is very steep
• Major version updates break back-compat
• Developer experience > Author/Editor Experience
• Complexity from dependency management
• Requires effective team (in house or agency)

32. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
OTHER OPEN SOURCE
Photo by Leyre Labarga on Unsplash

33. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
HOW TO RESPOND:
OTHER OPEN SOURCE
Photo by Kace Rodriguez on Unsplash
• Will the community be significant enough?
• How difficult will it be for us to maintain / support?
• How much of an experiment is this?
• How easily can we get content out?

34. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
WHY CASCADE, OU, OR T4?
Photo by delfi de la Rua on Unsplash

35. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus

36. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
WHY OUCAMPUS?

37. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
WHY TERMINAL FOUR?

38. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
HIGHER ED FOCUSED COMMERCIAL
• Reduced need for in-house development
• Stronger promise of support, training, & documentation
• Simpler feature set aimed at specific needs
• Significant presence within specific niches
Photo by Tianyi Ma on Unsplash

39. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
HOW TO RESPOND: HIGHER ED
Photo by Matt Artz on Unsplash
• Are we joining a dying community?
• How can they keep up with the broader development
community?
• Are we renting instead of buying something we really
need to own?

40. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
HOW TO RESPOND OVERALL
• Be open to learning. Seek first to understand.
• Get beyond “marketing” to real hands-on experience
• Integrate - be open to a multiplatform ecosystem
• Share data, share experiences, create community
• At the of the day, the platform is not the thing

41. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
There are probably a dozen or more
CMS platforms on which you could
succeed in building out a set of digital
experiences.
There are an infinite number of
platforms on which you could fail.
Photo by Matt Briney on Unsplash

42. John Eckman • @jeckman • john.eckman@10up.com

43. John Eckman • @jeckman • #wpcampus
CREDITS
• Title Slide: https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/d/d8/
Griffith_College_Dublin_campus_green.jpg
• Slide 3 (one puppy): https://unsplash.com/photos/sssxyuZape8
• Slide 4 (3 pugs): https://unsplash.com/photos/h00rqvO5A-M
• Slide 5 (5 puppies): https://unsplash.com/photos/ECjHeJtRznQ
• Slide 6 (hounds): https://unsplash.com/photos/9FDKj-FrfA4
• Slide 9 (ring): https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/
7/73/OneTrueRing.JPG
• Side 10 (Admin building): https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/
File:Administration_building,_Washington_University,_St._Louis,_
Mo_(63237).jpg
• Slide 11: http://www.cmsmyth.com/2015/04/the-real-reasons-
people-hate-their-cms/
• Slide 12: http://www.realstorygroup.com/vendormap
• Slide 13: https://www.realstorygroup.com/Blog/2834-The-CMS-
Game-of-Thrones
• Slide 14: https://w3techs.com/technologies/segmentation/tld-edu-/
content_management
• Slide 15 (WPCampus Survey): https://docs.google.com/
spreadsheets/d/
109Rk_AbGVBGurUaKc5icnVO5i24NMtc_mEuUCHTkyOM/edit
• Slide 16: https://greggbanse.com/blog/2017-higher-ed-cms-
survey/
• Slide 17: https://www.eqafy.com/web-analytics-blog/214-which-
web-content-management-systems-do-us-universities-use.html
• Slide 18: https://www.eqafy.com/web-analytics-blog/209-web-
content-management-systems-and-us-higher-education-
institutions.html
• Slide 19: https://www.flickr.com/photos/banyan_tree/1499022057
• Slide 20: https://unsplash.com/photos/WLDtOWLuSgA
• Slides 21-23: http://www.sitecore.com/
• Slide 24-27: https://www.adobe.com/marketing-cloud/experience-
manager.html
• Slide 28: https://unsplash.com/photos/Qq_F_5kS7uo
• Slide 29: https://www.flickr.com/photos/gaborhojtsy/279354232
• Slide 30: https://unsplash.com/photos/9OKGEVJiTKk
• Slide 31: https://unsplash.com/photos/TaROFjpUBCI
• Slide 32: https://unsplash.com/photos/lfyP9zTgUp0
• Slide 33: https://unsplash.com/photos/Jn34PAjUQPs
• Slide 34: https://unsplash.com/photos/A_InfAQM_lU
• Slides 35-37 sites of companies represented
• Slide 38: https://unsplash.com/photos/xx6p28Oz9HI
• Slide 39: https://unsplash.com/photos/NP4mDCN0PIU
• Slide 40: Unknown. Let me know if you know.
• Slide 41: https://unsplash.com/photos/0tfz7ZoXaWc