Barb,

There are companies out there who offer support contracts for DotNetNuke, my employer, Engage Software, offers those type of support services for corporations on a monthly or per incident basis. If you'd like more information on our services please let me know.

Chris

Chris,

Thanks for your offer. I've spoken to a few people such as yourselves. I asked about the estimated time to manage the IT aspects of a DNN or other OS driven site. The final site will have multiple authors and editors (max 5) approximately 50 pages and may spin off smaller independant sites for some of our consultants. These would mimic our site for content but probably direct users to their local provider. I'd say perhaps 10 of these sitelets. The site would probably need to include multiple modules to facilitate increased functionality etc. Nto sure off all features etc. But know that DNN out of the box will not deliver all that we will need.

I've received some estimates that recommended between 5 and 10 hours per week to ensure security, core and such are kept in healthy order plus any issues that are technical in nature and would be outside the comfort zone for must 'marketing' users.

These estimates were fairly consistant across 5 firms and individuals that I have investigated. Would you agree that this would be accurate?

Any input on any other issues I've raised?

Thanks

~Barb

Mitchell and Chris,

Thank you both for your Advice. It is truly helpful. My concerns are magnified however since only two of you have responded and both of you provide services for DNN. I posted this to see if anybody who fully understands DNN and other OS CMS solutions could provide me with quality points to steer me away from commercial software. My collegue posted questions to other OS forums asking similar questions and go similar results. A few limited responses with users who have only developed with OS solutions.  I've yet to meet anybody who has come from a solid, established commercial CMS installation to an OpenSource one. I've met over a dozen in the last week who have gone from either DNN or Joomla to Ektron or Red Dot plus one other no name solution.

My posts on commercial support forms for those applciations were responed to by 17 different people. Internal support staff, users and others who are evaluating as well as switching from OS based solutions.

Still looking for any valuable reasons to go with OS over a tried and true commercial app. What about links to major corporations that have a broad user base. This would include educational facilities, government agencies, travel/tourism operations, medical/dental organizations etc. These groups all have broad user bases and tend to have marketing teams providing and delivering the content changes.

I'd like these links to be in N. America if possible so that I can make contact directly.

Thanks again for all your help. I'm really really trying to justify a lower CMS cost if possibile so that we can divert budget elsewhere and while the upfront OS CMS costs are lower the training, maintenance and support costs (direct or indirect) seem to increase the $$ and risks over time.

Am I wrong on this point?

Thanks

~Barb