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Where content meets technology

Aug 12, 2009

The J. Boye Short List

Today J. Boye posted a shortlist of vendors that "you should always consider" when selecting a web CMS. While many will take issue about what products were included or excluded from the list, what surprises me the most is that they published such a list at all. Here is why:

  • J. Boye is very closely partnered with CMS Watch, which covers 42 products in its Web Content Management Report. Putting out this list would seem to undercut CMS Watch's flagship product.

  • The CMS Watch messaging has always been that there is no "magic quadrant" in CMS and I would tend to agree. J. Boye is the first reputable buy-side analyst to come out with one. The title "Web CMS Shortlist 2009" suggests that they will come out with one every year.

  • J. Boye does a lot of CMS selection consulting. This list implies that their selection services will start from these 10 products. I think that undermines the value of their consulting services.

I am sure that the J. Boye website will get a lot of traffic from this post and there will be a lot of angry comments from the vendors and open source projects excluded from the list. Hey, all publicity is good publicity, right? It is very interesting to see what J. Boye considers to be "go to" products and what is a global footprint. But this list will not influence what products I consider during the CMS selections that I facilitate.