Before I begin, let me say that I understand DNN’s position on why PE was created. In the past we have had large customers question the viability of using an open-source CMS that is supported by “the community”. PE will definitely be a help in promoting a more packaged, high-level solution.
However, for the smaller projects, we are already seeing confusion among potential clients.
Recently I received a call from a potential client that had attended one of our DNN seminars last year. He was now ready to make a move and is very interested in migrating his static site over to DNN (it’s a non-profit association site). However, he had some serious concerns. First being, he now believed that DNN was going to cost him $2,000 per year, just to utilize the system. This was a cost he hadn’t anticipated as he had “assumed” it was open-source and free.
For the next ten minutes I walked him through the reasoning behind PE (used the insurance analogy, etc.) and that, for his small organization, the Community version would do well for him.
In the end he renewed his interest in DNN. However, I truly believe that if I had not had prior contact with him (via the seminar), he most likely would have seen the $2k/yr cost and simply moved on as he expressed that he’d also looked at Joomla and Drupal.
This is a concern as we’re only a few weeks out from PE’s release. How many calls have I not received because the potential client did not take the time to clarify PE vs. Community but instead simply moved on to a different CMS?
Granted, the dotnetnuke.com website does explain PE and Community versions, but as smaller clients typically do not have in-house tech-savvy staff (and that’s saying it lightly), there is clearly some confusion on their end. They see “professional” on the DNN home page and as their site is B2B, etc., they simply assume that they need “professional”.
I’m a big supporter of DNN. To-date my company has implemented over 250+ DNN sites and we’re getting more involved with it with each passing day. That being said, I would suggest to DNN Corp that they take this post as a “canary in the coal mine” that there may be a need to revise some copy on the DNN site to ensure that smaller, potential new DNN users don’t pass up this CMS for another if the Community version best fits their needs.
John Forsberg
CEO
i2Integration