Item: WordPress
Rating: 9
Author: Verified User

Use Cases and Deployment Scope

It is used by [some of our] departments. Sometimes there are needs for a small department to showcase their activities and collaborate with each other. The easiest and the most accessible is using a website. The challenges are: (1) how to enable non-IT users able to update the content all the time by themselves to keep the website relevant, without any assistance from IT and (2) how to deploy a sophisticated website as quickly as possible without consuming too many IT resources for setup and also for future maintenance. WordPress solves those challenges.

Pros and Cons

Quick and easy setup. You only need few minutes to get it up and running with minimal technical knowledge required.
Customizable. WordPress has lots of themes and lots of plugins. You can almost build any type of website you can imagine.
Requires only minimal technical skill level for maintenance. Update of the core program, themes, and plugins can be performed by trained users without much difficulty.
Any user can post new content to a WordPress website with minimal technical skill.

Few official themes. Of course, there are lots of themes out there you can use, but they depend on the availability of external vendors to maintain them.
Few official plugins. It will be best if WordPress has a collection of lots of plugins to be used with their official theme as well.
If possible, it would be best if there [was only one] official theme, but that theme could be customized by installing many plugins to create totally different looks. Currently, if we want to really change the look, we need to try and test lots of themes. Each theme has its own rules we need to follow to make the look appealing as intended.

Return on Investment

Minimal investment. Operating cost is only hosting fee.
You will have a sophisticated website as long as you can use what already available in the market.

Key Insights

Do you think WordPress delivers good value for the price?

Yes

Are you happy with WordPress's feature set?

Yes

Did WordPress live up to sales and marketing promises?

I wasn't involved with the selection/purchase process

Did implementation of WordPress go as expected?

Yes

Would you buy WordPress again?

Yes

Other Software Used

Oracle Database, CentOS Linux

Likelihood to Recommend

The look and features of the website should be supported by available themes and plugins and supported by trusted vendors. There is a huge selection of themes and plugins you can use which will create distinct look, therefore for most cases, WordPress should be well-suited.
However, there are some cases WordPress will be less appropriate: (1) When you want the look which not available in any theme out there. You can build your own theme yourself of course, but it requires higher technical skill. (2) When you want to use a website as an application, e.g. it has data entry, report, interactive analysis, etc.

WordPress: Easiest CMS available today

Overall Satisfaction with WordPress