Marqui - A Case Study in Denial

by: Jim
on: 30.Jun.08

One item that I have been reflecting on last week was the TechVibes.com post about the demise of Marqui. For those of you that don’t know Marqui is (or was) a proprietary web content management system or CMS. The system was developed on the Microsoft ASP platform and then upgraded to .Net in 2006. Here is what Techvibes.com posted:

“It’s official - Vancouver-based content management provider Marqui, Inc. is in receivership and a long list of creditors may be left high and dry”

From 2004 - 2005 I designed and built three large web sites using the Marqui system or Maestro CMS as it was known at the time. It was not a joyous time, messy output code, poor usability, lack of flexibility, complicated interface, browser and display issues and appalling tech support.

As time wore on my frustration only grew, the tech support dried up. The website support area which never really worked was now the main support area. And it became clear that I wasn’t the only one having problems.

In early 2006, after months of client complaints I was done!

Meanwhile Marqui was constantly rolling out new features. Blogging then advanced SEO functions, then user generated contents, content syndication, the list goes on. The fact is that these product enhancements were being developed to satisfy market place trends and buzzwords in order for them to remain competitive. All the while many of the core (mission critical) problems still plagued the system and its users.

Had Marqui focused on the skeletons in the closet earlier they may have stood a remote chance of withstanding the onslaught that was about to hit them in the form of Open Source CMS.

Don’t get me wrong, I hate to see businesses fail, creditors out of pocket and people loosing their jobs but the writing had been on the Vancouver’s sea-wall for a long time.

Hard as Marqui tried to dress up its shortcomings at the end of the day it was a product plagued with web 101 problems. What is amazing is that they managed to successfully squander $11 million of venture cap from investors along the way! Hmm, imagine what VentureWeb could do with $11 mill? Add your ideas below!

Finally, I went to the Marqui web site this morning and it was business as usual. There has been no press release, no news item in reference to their plight. Clearly they have been in denial for some time.

Thanks goodness for Drupal!