You have made a big step towards the marketing success of your company by selecting Adobe AEM Assets. In addition, you have invested a great deal of money in license fees. Most likely, your Adobe sales manager advised you on the AEM onboarding effort. Assets will require an implementation effort either by Adobe Consulting Services or some of Adobe’s partners. Another option is in-house implementation.

Big Bang Implementation

Well, if you are a large enterprise and a few million are not a big deal for you you would absorb the cost and move on with a partnering team or two of AEM Certified engineers working on your AEM Assets onboarding. Check my thoughts on the developers skills needed for AEM implementation.

Lean Onboarding

Regardless of your organizational size, you may decide to approach the onboarding differently. Spend less money either using a small implementation vendor and take a slightly longer path. Of course, for smaller organizations, this may be the only choice.

What is the difference?

If I can get faster from point A (my old way of storing assets) to point B (my new shiny AEM Sites), why would I want to get a help from small AEM consultancy?

Here is why:

• You will most probably will be working directly with AEM experts, who have been in the trenches for long enough time to know “the guts” of the system to the minor details.
• In large organizations, it may take you longer to speak to the AEM mastermind. Not saying you will not, but it may take much longer to get them involved as they are probably juggling a dozen other customers at the same time. Boutique AEM agencies or consultancies most probably will just handle few customers at a time and thus spend more time with you.
• High overhead cost. Most likely, with “bing bang” implementations, you will be paying higher fees to cover for the account managers, delivery managers, liaisons, i.e. personnel not directly working on your implementation.
• Leaner usually also means faster. Small team or team of one or two experts is much better approach. Focused individuals can often achieve higher development velocity sometimes than a bigger team. It is not because a big team (usually 5-8 members) does not have the expertise. It is because the multitasking and it’s “distraction” syndrome and its side effects.

The above list is not complete and there will be pros and cons. Ultimately the decision will lie within the IT and Marketing departments to do their due diligence on each approach.

KBWEB Consult specializes in customizing and integrating the Adobe Experience Manager (AEM) Platform. Contact us for a free consultation.