My major issue with Mark’s approach is that when I, and most people, go to see Mark talk, we are mostly focused on traditional content. It doesn’t mean we don’t deal with structured data, I know I do, but that I want to know how Documentum is going to be helping with all that unstructured stuff.

-Pie

I haven’t talked to Mark Lewis about this (or ever, for that matter), but it is conceivable that Mark uses the word ‘information’ instead of ‘content’ because he also wants to include (semi-) structured data. With Documentum becoming ever more XML friendly, that’s not too far fetched, I guess.

I do like the marketing spin that Dave employs. It is his job however, so it doesn’t bother me much. I tend to read everything with a critical eye in that regard.

-Pie

-Pie

I’m going to delve into the content vs information debate a bit. I’m going to walk the line for a bit, but as you’ll soon read, I’m going to pick a side.

One way to frame the debate is equate content with compliance and information with transactions. Compliance, for the most part, is static and represents a moment in time where data existed in this specific state and format. For many industries, failure to maintain a state of compliance results in wated resources, costly fines, lawsuits and possibly even shutter the company. Management takes different attitudes towards compliance. Some see it as a cost, others as insurance.

Information, on the other hand, is this nebulous thing. What is it? What do you do with it? Not all information is needed for compliance. Information by itself (and there tends to be a lot of it) doesn’t really do anything other than sit there. What is needed is something to transform or shape it into something that makes sense. Similar to content, information can be sorted and organized into neat little rows and columns. The power in information lies in the way that it can interact with each other. When you combine bits and pieces of information with each other, you suddenly have a new object with different abilities. It might be able to tell you of future trends or strategic gaps. The downside is that if not assembled properly, the new object could be misleading or misinterpreted.

One key facet to information is that it also represents opportunity. In business, opportunity means money. It doesn’t mean that opportunity is a sure thing, but it does tend to be a bit more positive from the glass-half-full view.

Now I happen to work in the financial industry. Compliance is very important. There’s lots of rules and regulations that we need to follow and keep up with. It’s a great feeling when regulators come in for their scheduled visit and you’re able to hand them whatever they need quickly and efficiently. Content Management swoops in and saves the day.

As a business, we want to grow, as all businesses want to do. Content Management doesn’t necessarily contribute to growth, but it certainly stops the company from going backward or stumbling. We’ve got the means to store information in our Content Management system, but how do you take it to the next step? How do you use it to grow the company?

That’s where information and transaction content comes in. Perhaps EMC isn’t quite making the message clear on the focus on information rather than content. For the most part, the Compliance, Archiving and Retention portions of Documention are in place and are on solid ground. Sure, there’s some gaps and improvements to be made. That’s always going to be true. What is needed, and what EMC looks to be going towards is taking the extra bits of information and doing something with it.

Information is easily translated to the upper manager into income. It’s easy to sell a product that will sift through all your information and come up with new fantastic ways to sell your widget or come up with new products. “Buy our TCM and it will pay for itself hundreds of times over!” With compliance it’s always the line “Can you afford not to have it?”

EMC is going with “information” because it fits with the new message: Web 2.0 is here! Now here’s the part where I come down on a side (if you haven’t already guessed already). I’m on the information side of the fence because I think it represents the next step beyond just Content Management. I’m not saying it’s not needed or less important. I’m saying the *focus* on information rather than content is actually a good thing.

Let’s face it, often Content Management is a thankless job that the accountants think of as a necessary evil. Getting some new tools to play with the information, tinker with it and be able to come up with fresh data is pretty exciting. It’s like going “Green” with your Content you already have. It’s the little things that eventually add up with TCM. When a customer buys a widget, you can use TCM to look up past purchases and suggest the customer also buy a sprocket. Automate form processing and your 5 day process now just takes 5 hours. There were several examples of this at the keynote.

The thing that I love about all this, is that effectively using TCM to your advantage generates some great metrics. It’s extremely easy to quantify the results into something you can show to your boss and get that pat on the back and hopefully a fat bonus.

That’s at least how I’m seeing things. Whenever I talk to others about our Documentum strategy, I focus on the opportunity to not just store away our content, but what could we with it to help the company — and not just the bottom line. I’m also looking to help co-workers make their lives easier. (Helping them ends up helping myself in the long run.) Mark may need to articulate the message better into “The Vision”. The new Flex UI is already going to make the audience sit up and go “Cool”, but I’d love something next year to be shown that goes through our existing information shows us a new revenue stream. That would make me stand up and and say, “Damn!”