How to convince potential customers to use Drupal
We are always on the lookout for new clients. And there are many clients looking for services like ours. Some clients know they want Drupal. Others still have to be convinced. Especially here in Germany, we have to compete against TYPO3, because it's an established content management system for the enterprise. We believe Drupal is similar or superior to what TYPO3 and others can accomplish, but it's not easy to convince others about it.
In order to win a client, you might list some advantages of Drupal and show some of the sites you've built with the system. However, you can't show the backends of most sites you've built for clients and a plain install of Drupal is not very convincing.
A demo system is a great way to show the potential of Drupal, but creating your own is time-consuming to build and maintain.
Gladly, Acquia provides a free demo distribution called Demo Framework. The demo is a personalized, multilingual platform with modern responsive capabilities including previews for different devices. With its beautiful interface and sample commerce and multimedia integration, it's perfect to show just what our favorite content management framework Drupal is capable of.
Acquia also created 6 short videos to present the Demo Framework distribution. It's worth taking a look!
You should also check out jam's (virtual) Drupal Camp session with Brant Wynn who talks about the Demo Framework in a Google Hangout.
Download the distribution at drupal.org or join the discussions at groups.drupal.org.
We are also very excited that Acquia announced hiring Tim Plunkett last Friday, who will be a great addition to the Demo Framework team.
Check out some screenshots of the system:
Very modern and minimal presentation with responsive images.
Information and travel guides about tours can be viewed here. For more details and discussions you can join a tour group. Once you're convinced, you can purchase the tour, which will be added to your cart.
Overview of products in the backend. Existing products can be edited here and new ones can be added.
The view an editor has when editing content. Content can be saved as drafts, moderated and translated to other languages.
The Demo Framework supports a responsive layout and includes an ability to define different breakpoints and have the resulting look in several devices displayed right in the browser.