What is SAD?
SAD is an acryonym for "Sitefinity As a Database"
I use it to mark projects that weren't done properly or projects, that weren't done by Sitefinity professionals at all. In some cases having a thing budget or no time to dig through the Sitefinity partner network may be OK.
But in most cases it quickly turns into disaste-eee-eeer ;).
To hopefully help, I prepared a simple checklist, that can hopefully help you generate more questions:
1. If you don't need a Sitefinity partner or expert, do you need Sitefinity?
As I said before, Sitefinity suits some type of projects and it's a bit too large for others.If you have just a small brochure site, then maybe Wordpress? Don't get me wrong, if you plan to have hundreds of brochure sites, regional sites, or, in other words - an online empire of gazillions of sites, Sitefinity may actually save you a bit with it's multi site module.
There are tons of cases in which Sitefinity is an excellent choice. Maybe some cases in which Sitefinity is the only choice. And quite a bit of cases in which Siteifnity is not a choice at all.
Wait! Hold on! Doesn't saying this hurt your bussiness? Well, yes and no. Yes, because some people may realize they need something else but Sitefinity. No, because it's often waste of time, money and nerves to work on such projects. In such situations - there are no happy sides. The client is not, we are not, Sitefinity team is not as well probably (often people tend to use Sitefinity as an excuse).
2. Having found the expert, is it an expert or an "expert"?
There are plenty of companies, that do Sitefinity development to some degree. There are actually very, very good Sitefinity companies and even individuals, that we admire. So, take a look at the portfolio of that company or individual. Does it include Sitefinity? Is it the same version of Sitefinity you plan to use? Does the expert company or individual have some projects similar than yours? At least in the same industry?
3. What about training?
Although Sitefinity is easy to use system, doing some custom development on top of it may impose a few things you would like your content editors to be aware of. Does the company you will be working with offer some training? Do they promise a comprehensive documentation of what they did?
4. The after care?
Well, some companies consider the end of the project to be the point where they deployed something to some server, did the DNS configuration and stuff and saw your site loads. But this is not the end of the project. This is the start of the project - the point at which you should hopefully start getting some return on investment.
5. (Bonus) a specific case
A company was hired to do a Sitefinity website. They had the task to create a new content type (think of a list of cars, KBs, whatever list may come in your mind). The problem was that they weren't too much into Sitefinity so the approach was the "general .Net approach" - a few tables in the database, accompanied by a few screens to manage the data and also - a few screens to show it to the users on the front end. They didn't know much about the Sitefinity module builder, and the fact it does most of the heavy lifting for them. But they somehow made it. They missed the deadline a bit but they made it. A few months, and the client asked for a new field for that module.Then the client asked for the ability to translate each item. Same story ... Then the client asked for permissions that only content editors in UK can manage the items for the UK site, and content editors from Australia can only manage the items for the Australia site (both are in english).
All those changes were a nightmare for the development company to do. On top of that the client had paid a few thousand USD for a Sitefinity license.
I use it to mark projects that weren't done properly or projects, that weren't done by Sitefinity professionals at all. In some cases having a thing budget or no time to dig through the Sitefinity partner network may be OK.
But in most cases it quickly turns into disaste-eee-eeer ;).
To hopefully help, I prepared a simple checklist, that can hopefully help you generate more questions:
1. If you don't need a Sitefinity partner or expert, do you need Sitefinity?
As I said before, Sitefinity suits some type of projects and it's a bit too large for others.If you have just a small brochure site, then maybe Wordpress? Don't get me wrong, if you plan to have hundreds of brochure sites, regional sites, or, in other words - an online empire of gazillions of sites, Sitefinity may actually save you a bit with it's multi site module.
There are tons of cases in which Sitefinity is an excellent choice. Maybe some cases in which Sitefinity is the only choice. And quite a bit of cases in which Siteifnity is not a choice at all.
Wait! Hold on! Doesn't saying this hurt your bussiness? Well, yes and no. Yes, because some people may realize they need something else but Sitefinity. No, because it's often waste of time, money and nerves to work on such projects. In such situations - there are no happy sides. The client is not, we are not, Sitefinity team is not as well probably (often people tend to use Sitefinity as an excuse).
2. Having found the expert, is it an expert or an "expert"?
There are plenty of companies, that do Sitefinity development to some degree. There are actually very, very good Sitefinity companies and even individuals, that we admire. So, take a look at the portfolio of that company or individual. Does it include Sitefinity? Is it the same version of Sitefinity you plan to use? Does the expert company or individual have some projects similar than yours? At least in the same industry?
3. What about training?
Although Sitefinity is easy to use system, doing some custom development on top of it may impose a few things you would like your content editors to be aware of. Does the company you will be working with offer some training? Do they promise a comprehensive documentation of what they did?
4. The after care?
Well, some companies consider the end of the project to be the point where they deployed something to some server, did the DNS configuration and stuff and saw your site loads. But this is not the end of the project. This is the start of the project - the point at which you should hopefully start getting some return on investment.
5. (Bonus) a specific case
A company was hired to do a Sitefinity website. They had the task to create a new content type (think of a list of cars, KBs, whatever list may come in your mind). The problem was that they weren't too much into Sitefinity so the approach was the "general .Net approach" - a few tables in the database, accompanied by a few screens to manage the data and also - a few screens to show it to the users on the front end. They didn't know much about the Sitefinity module builder, and the fact it does most of the heavy lifting for them. But they somehow made it. They missed the deadline a bit but they made it. A few months, and the client asked for a new field for that module.Then the client asked for the ability to translate each item. Same story ... Then the client asked for permissions that only content editors in UK can manage the items for the UK site, and content editors from Australia can only manage the items for the Australia site (both are in english).
All those changes were a nightmare for the development company to do. On top of that the client had paid a few thousand USD for a Sitefinity license.