phpwcms Support Forum

Hi guys.

I'm interested in the views and experiences of other phpwcms site developers, on their experiences in handing over a site to the "customer" in order for them to maintain it going forward.

Eg: You are contracted to develop the site for them, you code it all up, get the look and feel right, add the content they want.

Then they want to add new articles, images etc in the future and most likely they don't want to keep paying someone to do it.

So how do you deal with this? Give them training? No offence to Oliver but phpwcms isn't the most user-friendly CMS in the world, trying to explain to someone how to upload images, add articles and content parts etc, is going to be a lot of work and prone to error for users who aren't experienced in web design.

What you'll get then is a mismatched looking site where the user will probably bugger things up by not doing it correctly, and your name might still be on the website as having developed it!

So what to you do? How do you deal with it?

I've offered training for the customer but i'm hoping it will be too hard for them, and then i'll offer them a small quarterly/monthly fee to maintain it for them and they can send me the stuff they want updated. Not ideal for them, because it could take time etc..

I can't think of any other alternatives..

Your thoughts?

I've offered training for the customer but i'm hoping it will be too hard for them, and then i'll offer them a small quarterly/monthly fee to maintain it for them and they can send me the stuff they want updated. Not ideal for them, because it could take time etc..

You should offer the update solution from the beginning...
and only offer the cms solution for customers if they are really that way inclined...
remember that webdesigners/developers do their job...
all other people that do not fall under this category should also concentrate in their field.... otherwise they do not concetrate on their business!!!
thus webdesigners/developers are able to keep their work!!!

I have seen too many times that a client wants full control, then comes back asking if this can be done, small changes but often these keep you busy for a long time...not really what we want...

cms's are great if the client wants to ADD news and edit existing articles... which is an option for clients.... but full control can kill the website and a business unless handled correctly...

TriP

I tell the client the following at the beginning of the project (something like this is actually in the SOW... thats a Statement of Work):

"I will deliver the site with documentation that introduces your new website and outlines how to accomplish a selected number of common tasks you will likely encounter. These include adding a news article to the site, making changes to promotions on the home page, adding images to the site, or modifiying existing content. I recommend you contract with me to provide ongoing support since it insures you will get exactly what you want with little pain or headache, but you will be able to easily modify and conduct basic maintenance using the CMS I have provided."

Basically you identify what are going to be the things they want to do and what the rough spots are. I think adding images to PHPwcms and then adding them to articles is one of the toughest concepts to grasp in this CMS given the separation between article creation and image addition (there should be a link to add images from the article pages), etc.

This documentation, provided in the form of a web/interactive tool (linked from within the CMS) or a step by step PPT or DOC runs to about 15-20 pages including example shots. I've never had a complaint, the trick is just to make sure they understand, AT PROJECT INCEPTION, exactly what you will deliver.

People only really get pissed if you lead them down a path and then screw them over. If you manage expectations you can generally avoid any problems.

Best,
rt

iceman wrote: So what to you do? How do you deal with it?

I think it's a problem too.
I have had clients, encouraged by friends et al, to demand a CMS solution, only to find that they couldn't be bothered with the three or four hours of introduction it requires to learn.
But if they are interested, I usually give them a user login (no admin rights) and let them play around. You can tell them not to make the pages public before they are satisfied.
But the most important is that, if they want to maintain their content, they must invest the time needed to do so.

I have seen great documentation for end users by mambo cms...

see this link whcih has great FLASH Tuts for users

http://forum.mamboserver.com/showthread.php?t=42100

its endless
This is what wcms needs.... but of course its time consuming...

TriP