DISCLOSURE: This post is part of my sponsorship arrangement with Marqui. I am being paid US$800 per month by Marqui from 1 December 2004 - 28 February 2005, to post once a week about Marqui.
OK, there's been a lot of discussion about the merits or otherwise of the Marqui project - much of it ironically in an email "backchannel" involving the sponsored bloggers, Marqui management and various Blog Dignitaries. I stayed on the sidelines in that email exchange, because I'd rather push ahead with my plan to follow through with this experiment and make my own judgement after the results are in. So, here goes with my first official post...
The first thing I wanted to understand was who is the target market for Marqui. Their latest press release states:
"Marqui's Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) will be positioned into the blogosphere not as a tool for bloggers or blogging, but as a new approach to providing easy-to-use tools to marketers who want to take control of their own messages and brands in all communication vehicles."
Right, so they're targeting Marketing folks. Now to look more closely at the product.
The demo Flash movie shows how Marqui handles publishing a press release. It's a cute little cartoon with a faux 1950's American tv voiceover, which shows how ordinary business users go about publishing a press release.
According to the movie, business users do not have to do anything more complicated than send some emails and click some buttons - and whizzo! the press release is published to their company website, sent to news organizations, emailed out to all their clients, posted on the Intranet, etc. All this is done "automatically" by Marqui.
If I sound a bit skeptical, it's because I've seen and heard this pitch many many times before in my day job as Web Producer. We use one of the big-name enterprise CMS systems at my work and this type of 'automation' was promised in that product too. And it didn't deliver - even after a heap of configuration work and development hours were put into it. So what I'm now wondering about Marqui is - who does all the backend work required to make the process "automatic" for the business users? Someone has to and my bet is it's Marqui's developers, because that's the usual business case for a service-oriented company.
Now Marqui has a subscription business model, which I think is what most ASPs have (Application Service Providers, a common form of software outsourcing). But the key cost for potential customers to consider, I believe, will be the set-up and configuration costs. Because frankly you don't usually get the level of automation the demo shows without some heavy lifting in the background by developers. Here's what Marqui say:
"A typical setup takes less than a month, costs less than you think (typically $5,000), and the setup is a one time cost."
Sounds promising, but again it's the kind of thing most CMS vendors say. In my experience as a Web Producer, nothing is ever "typical".
Some more clues to the real costs are on this page, which lists a 5-step process for implementing Marqui. The phrase "with ease" is thrown about with gay abandon, but again this is something I've encountered many a time with traditional CMS vendors - they always promise it'll be easy, but reality is never that simple. Take this paragraph as an example:
"Marqui's templates can be customized quickly and easily to match your existing or newly defined business processes. Our Showcase Network Partners have been trained to customize Marqui to manage communications according to your workflow and brand management needs. Even the changes you've never anticipated can be integrated with ease."
Well that's all find and dandy in marketing-speak, but I have to say I'm skeptical of that claim purely based on my experience with other CMS products and how much real work was involved in setting those up.
I will stop here and draw a big breath. Some readers (if they've even bothered to read this far into a sponsored post) will be wondering if I'm already taking the "can it" approach to this sponsorship arrangement. I'm not, because all I'm doing is pointing out that Marqui are promising the exact same things that every other CMS vendor has promised before - and have largely failed to deliver. Which is: automated workflow, ease-of-use for business users, easy and low-cost implementation, press releases magically published in a number of places at once with the click of a few buttons. There's nothing new under the sun in all of that - every CMS vendor promises those things.
So what I'll be looking for in my future posts about Marqui is some evidence that Marqui can actually deliver on their marketing-speak promises. As a self-proclaimed Web Analyst, it's my duty to dig down into the technical details and see how Marqui compares to all the other CMS products I'm familiar with - and have largely been disappointed by. Is Marqui any different? Time will tell...
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So now your readership has at least heard of Marqui...
I'm optimistic about what you're doing, Richard, because it feels genuine on your part. Is Marqui genuine? They better be, because this could really blow up in their face.
However, I applaud them for attempting this, even though I'm not in their target audience. I, for one, really appreciate when a company seems to want to actually have a discussion with people and not tell them how it is.
Those companies that put their ass on the line and simply listen, acknowledge, and correct mistakes rather than ignoring them will eventually win out. The era of big business is over. What can you do for my context?
Posted by: Joshua Porter | December 4, 2004 1:49 AM
Is there any chance that you'll get some hands-on time with the product?
Despite the fact that I'm completely outside of the market (I'm just a KM / process geek), I still thought that the subject matter was pretty compelling. And it's interesting also to hear about your experience with enterprise CMS.
It sounds like you are bringing a unique perspective to the issue, and Marqui has their work cut out for them...
Keep up the good work.
Posted by: Justin Martenstein | December 4, 2004 4:26 AM
Thanks Joshua and Justin for your comments. I do plan to test out the product, because that's the only way a tech-based person like me can really grok it.
cheers, Richard
Posted by: Richard MacManus | December 4, 2004 9:24 AM
I work in IT, and have worked in Marketing in the past. But probably wouldn't have heard about Marqui if not for your agreement with them. If that's any indication, then their money is well-spent.
I think you are a good choice by them because your readers are interested in what you have to say. The moment boggers just start repeating their own marketing brochures and stop giving a fairly balanced view is the moment that most people will tune out. Keep up the great work!
Oh yeah... I wanted to also mention that your transparency about the agreement brings a lot of credibility with it. Thks.
Posted by: BobR | December 4, 2004 10:10 AM
Thanks Bob, I appreciate that. My intention is to take an analytical approach to this and I won't just be regurgitating "success stories" or other marketing bumph.
Posted by: Richard MacManus | December 4, 2004 2:31 PM