Convincing the corporate types that Drupal is a serious CMS
Even though I use Wordpress as a CMS-of-sorts for nearly all my clients these days (the ease-of-use of the administration area for the client is the main reason), my love of Drupal is far from secret. It was one of the first CMS's (CMSii? :P) that I properly took the time to pull apart and learn, and I still try and find excuses to use it where I can. Why? Because even though us geeks, webdevs, and internet-peeps know all about it.. the average corporate manager or business owner has absolutely no clue what it is, how it works, or why they should trust some free/open-source solution they've never heard of, over Squiz's MySource, or Microsoft SharePoint, or <insert ridiculously expensive well-publicised CMS name here>..
One thing i've always had trouble with to start with, is proving to clients that a free CMS is more than capable of handling their needs. The general public (especially in the corporate world) see "open source" and "free" as meaning "low-end", "not as good" or just plain amateur. I don't blame them really.. lots of open source and free solutions, while commendable in their efforts, are definitely far from ready for the demands of a medium or large company. Workflows, change tracking, varying permission levels, integration with other existing technology, are usually a struggle to implement or are completely non-existant in open source CMS.
Drupal has all these in spades, thanks to it's abundant collections of modules and "aftermarket" add-ons. Then again, how do you prove it?
As they say, it's easier to SHOW people, than explain. I've always found it a LOT easier to just go "Oh yeah.. Drupal can definitely do what you want.. MTV and Sanyo use it".. you'd be surprised how those few words convince them better than a 2 hour presentation outlining everything Drupal can do for them. They don't care "how".. they just want to know that it'll work and that they won't be dissapointed.
So, here's my collection of examples of Drupal in action, on websites that will convince your boss, client, or friend that it's not some crappy script written by some geeks, but is actually a fully capable commercial-grade CMS, easily capable of outdoing plenty of 5-digit-costing "enterprise" CMS solutions. There's something here for everyone.. you just have to pick your examples to suit the client's knowledge/field..
Entertainment
http://www.mtv.co.uk/
http://universalmusic.com/
http://www.warnerbrosrecords.com/
http://www.avrillavigne.com/
http://www.bobdylan.com/
http://www.britney.com/
http://www.jenniferlopez.com/
http://www.ledzeppelin.com/
http://www.missionmetallica.com/
http://www.ozzy.com/
Corporate
http://corp.aol.com/
http://www.lindenlab.com/
http://research.nokia.com/
http://www.pwcmecareers.com/
http://www.sanyo.com.au/
http://www.sourceforge.com/
http://uk.sun.com/
http://research.yahoo.com/
Sports
http://www.motogp.com/
http://www.kentuckyderby.com/
Media
http://www.observer.com/
http://www.theonion.com/
Education
http://www.calarts.edu/
http://harvardscience.harvard.edu/
http://www.csail.mit.edu/
More-than-profit
http://www.amnesty.org/
http://www.greenpeace.org.uk/
http://www.hrw.org/
http://www.oxfam.org/
http://www.comicrelief.com/
Government
http://nysenate.gov/
