To be honest, I fully expect only one of the established leaders (EMC, IBM, Oracle, and Open Text) to make it. Microsoft might make it two with their Office365 offering but there is the separate concern that SharePoint will collapse under its own weight after two more releases.

Seemingly aware of all this, last year at EMC World, Rick Devenuti announced during the Momentum keynote a new strategy for Documentum. Based around the concept of the New User, the idea was to support the transition to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) reality hitting many organizations through new clients, new deployment methodologies, and even new architectures.

This year had more of the same. It what was more of a report card than any major news, aside from the Synplicity announcement. So I’m going to give out grades for the execution of the strategy. Here are the ratings:

• Above Expectations: The information presented exceeded the expectations set a year ago and the realities of the evolving marketplace.
• Satisfactory: Pretty much on course as per last year. Given the realities of software development, especially for systems as complex as Content Management. This is still a good rating because expectations were set pretty high.
• Unsatisfactory: A fallback or failure to met expectations. Cut functionality or significantly changed timelines are reasons that this would be awarded.

Keep in mind that even with good scores, determining whether or not any of this is going to be delivered in time to meet the needs of the market is a function of all vendors in the space as a whole. EMC can’t control what the other vendors do over the next year. They can try to shape the discussion of the market but there is no guarantee that they will be successful.

Moving to the Cloud

Above Expectations: Yes, above expectations. Jeroen van Rotterdam set some high expectations last year. All EMC did this year was either confirm or exceed  everything promised last year.

• Next Generation Information Server (NGIS): On track for the most part. It won’t be out this year but with the details that have been shared, it is looking better than expected. For the first release, the D2 client functionality is planned to be supported. I’ve always told them to not support everything in the first release to speed delivery and they seem to agree.
• Hybrid Cloud: Yes, true hybrid. NGIS and D7 will be able to dynamically exchange content and solutions between the two systems. That’s right, you can interact with content in one place and send it to the other if you need it for broader consumption. On the flip side, if you decided you need content to be limited to the on-premise server, you can do that as well.
• EMC OnDemand: This was as expected There was very little exciting announced here outside the confirmation of Service-Based billing. While not a cloud architecture, people can get many of the benefits of Software as a Service (SaaS) with this offering.
• Syncplicity: This was the big surprise and the reason that EMC is getting a high grade here. I’ll have a separate post later on the acquisition and what it means. One thing it does say is that EMC is going to fight and try and make a splash in the Cloud-based Content Management space THIS year.

Unified Client

Satisfactory: This was a mixed bag. The concept of developing a new Unified Client was abandoned when D2 was acquired from C6. As a whole, that isn’t a bad thing. The work they are doing on D2 as they move forward with the next release seem to be very good. It looks more functional and “modern” than most legacy interfaces that you come across.

Of course, there are issues. Digital Asset Management appears to be basically on hold until late 2013. That is a shame as EMC had a decent offering and I know many people that are more than a little tired of waiting.

In the meantime, the rest of the community are going to have to settle on a standard interface  that appears to be configurable for most non-case business cases. When tied with NGIS, it should be a fairly complete Cloud-based Content Management solution.

xCP

Satisfactory: If you were at the conference and really looked into the upcoming xCP client you might be wondering why this is just Satisfactory. Simple, the expectations and needs of the marketplace are pretty high.

The current xCP version was a dramatic improvement over the previous way Documentum clients built both Case and Business Process Management (BPM) solutions. Unfortunately for EMC, the whole market has been driving forward in this area and xCP 1.0 has some limitations that can require some work to remedy.

One the positive side, the new tooling for building xCP 2.0 applications seems to be solid. Good enough for several partners could build applications that appeared to work well during demos in only 3 weeks time. Were there issues? Yes. Given the several months until release, that is to be expected.

Which takes us to the negatives. The release has slipped over the course of a year. This is understandable given the year plus estimate given last year. Factors to consider:

• xCP 2 has significant design changes that are designed to allow it to work with both the upcoming D7 and NGIS. The goal is plug and play. This necessitated making xCP non-dependent on the Content Server. This was likely not easy.
• Structured Data Types are a thing of the past in 2.0. This is a good thing as the introduction of the business object is a welcome consolidation of concepts that has been needed for some time. On the flip side, migrations to 2.0 just got challenging. Any potential migration tool is likely a 2013 deliverable. I heard xCP 2.1 and xCP 2.2, though more of the former.
• Software development estimates more than six months out are generally guesses. I’ve done a lot of development projects in my day. If there is enough to do that you need six months to code it, there will be slippage. Turnover, unseen complications, and the massive amount of testing required are just realities of product development.
• Testing is ongoing. According to many sources, the product is in a primarily performance and quality testing phase. I suspect this is a slight exaggeration, but I do believe that all major features are likely coded.
• I’ve also heard that Rick has a lower tolerance for bugs than predecessors. This is a good thing as a buggy release could kill EMC in the market. There is a lot less room for error now than there was even just two years ago. Of course, that also lengthens timelines.

Everything Else

Above Expectations: This is actually more a function of the low expectations than anything else. The overall strategy had changed so much over the last five+ years that keeping a steady strategic direction exceeds expectations. It also helps that this is likely the only strategy than can keep them relevant in the coming decade.

EMC had lost all benefit of the doubt. Simply by executing successfully over the last year has kept them in the conversation. I can’t say they’ve earned the benefit of the doubt back, but there is no reason for current users to abandon Documentum because there is no future.

The community is in wait-and-see mode until the fall.

The advent of Documentum 7 (D7) is a huge plus. EMC has begun managing its own solution using  OnDemand and they are starting to truly feel the pain that the community has felt for years. These benefits are being introduced along with some significant performance improvements that should finally allow massive scaling of Documentum on-premise without feeling like a miracle worker.

The mobile client is making some good strides. Details aside, given the past performance of mobile components, this is a minor miracle unto itself. If they can continue this pace they will be in good shape in the future.

Final Thoughts

That about wraps it up. Overall, very little earth-shattering. It was hard to get excited about upcoming products and features that were announce a year ago. They fact that everything was consistent was actually a VERY good thing. If there had been a collection of new things, then the crowd would have had to worry. As it was, we all smiled and nodded our heads.

EMC gets checkmarks across the board. Given how long it has been since that was the case, it is hard to complain. Momentum Vienna should be very interesting and exciting if everything stays on track. If you want to be there when the future of Documentum is shown off, then I strongly urge you to make plans now.

Given my role with AIIM, I’ll only be there if I am speaking on the Content Management space and the changing role of the Information Professional. If you are a Reporter, Analyst, Partner, or Client, you need to be there to see history.

Of course, whether the history made will be good or bad for the industry, which needs innovative players, is in the hands of EMC.

Notes

• Making the choice between Innovation and Governance shouldn’t be required. These choices are made and cause unfortunate consequences. See banking industry in the US the past few years.
• Delivery of New User interfaces
  • D2 3.1 and now 4.0
  • Documentum Mobile 1.1 (iPhone) and now 1.2 (IRM support)
  • Syncplicity (acquisition from yesterday)
• Brian Roche takes stage to show D2 4.0
  • Demo being done on a Mac
  • Showing preview of content in the application itself.
  • Showed Google maps showing “where” the document was last updated.
  • Get to pick different workplace based upon what you are working on and your role
  • Showed adding of Twitter widget.
  • Must be a Google gadget
  • D2 4.0 can co-exist with 3.1
• Mobile First, first class experience
• Talking about EMC OnDemand managed service model
  • Documentum 6.7 OnDemand
  • Captiva 6.5 OnDemand
  • Document Sciences 4.1 On Demand
  • D2 3.1 and Global Services delivered OnDemand now
• Demo of xCP 2.0, GreenPlum, and Document Sciences working together using xCP 2.0 as the front end. Showing how the app is made within the xCP and DocSci builder applications.
• Documentum 7 (D7) GA Q4, Limited Q3. Foundation of xCP 2.0
  • 8x TCO Improvement
  • Private-Cloud optimized
• Captiva 7.0, Unified Operator UI, Unified Designer, Improved Classification (2H 2012)
• Demo of Syncplicity
  • Provisioned an account for Jeetu in demo
  • Admin can act on user behalf (missing from most comparable apps)
  • Has activity streams to supplement folder navigation
  • Jeetu lost network connection, so this is live demo
  • Has remote wipe feature for any of the devices (Generally want for entire device, but app specific is good) Can remote wipe by device, all devices for a user, and by folder.

Not sure what is next. May be a good time to track me down. Will likely end up in the Bloggers Lounge. There are espressos there. Maybe a triple.

Disclaimer

All information in this post was gathered from the presenters and presentation. It does not reflect my opinion unless clearly indicated (Italics in parenthesis). Any errors are most likely from my misunderstanding a statement or imperfectly recording the information. Updates to correct information are reflected in red, but may not be otherwise indicated.

All statements about the future of EMC products and strategy are subject to change at any time due to a large variety of factors.

Notes

• xCP 2.0 is being designed to be future ready and align with NGIS so apps created in xCP 2.0 will be able to move to NGIS
• xCP 2.0 Architecture Principles
  • Open: Open and standard technologies
  • Performance: Fast user interface, High volume
  • Unified Tooling: Single environment to build apps
  • Cloud Ready: Embrace VMware for private cloud, vitualized infrostructure and application deployment
  • Future Ready: Ready for NGIS, Abstract-away dependencies on Documentum platform
• Just said xCP 2.0 in Q3. (Heard elsewhere limited release in Q3, GA in Q4. All seems very firm.)
• Live debugging will be xCP 2.1 in order to build into unified tool
• Key Innovations
  • Stateless processes – generated services for app behavior and GUI
    • RESTful services auto-generated
    • UI data service that can be called from UI, Events, and Integrations
    • Wired to any UI Widget including charts
  • Unified expressions (and entire data model) and context data models
  • One-click app deployment from xCP Builder. Uses xMS. Called a recipe. Abstracted driver and data connection at deployment so app doesn’t change between development, test, and production.
  • Inject HTML and JavaScript directly into UI
  • xCP 1.x had 3 different expression models, dependent on component. Single model in 2.0
    • Core part of semantic application model
    • Unified data model shown in context
  • xMS supports both full and incremental deployments
  • xMS will deploy war, dar, and config elements
  • Now moving to early adopters/partners (beta testing essentially, only adding typing things). All had 3 weeks
  • Erin Riley of Beach Street (consulting partner)
    • Abstraction of data model into objects with more relationships
    • Dashboards can be on same page as task list, can collapse items
    • Real-time updating in application, no restarts (if I heard correctly)
    • Fine control of UI using HTML in widgets
    • No more adapters for stateless processes, can define inputs and outputs and map them to widgets on your page, allows for complex automated decision steps
    • Result lists are very dynamic
    • Is a pre-release, not bug free (release is months out)
  • Will Moore (sp?) of TriTek (consulting and packaged solutions)
    • Ported one of their packaged, certified solutions to xCP 2.0
    • Not incremental, more like a new product. Very different than 1.0
    • New Process Templates are unavoidable.
    • Structured Data Types are gone. Is good but makes migration an issue. Business Objects are more powerful and better
    • ExtJS and Spring help with agile solution delivery
    • No DFC equivalent, business objects instead
    • Key take-aways
      • Hard to go back to xCP 1.0 after using 2.0. Makes you realize the pain
      • DFC apps unchanged except for Structured Data Type attributes
      • All artifacts centralized into builder
      • Build/Deploy/Run much easier. All from the tool

Now off to Rick Devenuti’s keynotes, getting caffeine on way. There are supposed to be some announcements. The overall strategy is also expected to be consistent with last year which would be nice.

Disclaimer

All information in this post was gathered from the presenters and presentation. It does not reflect my opinion unless clearly indicated (Italics in parenthesis). Any errors are most likely from my misunderstanding a statement or imperfectly recording the information. Updates to correct information are reflected in red, but may not be otherwise indicated.

All statements about the future of EMC products and strategy are subject to change at any time due to a large variety of factors.

I decided to take the dream as a sign that I needed to write about the event. Why? Because this reflects a return to something that was a regular occurrence back before EMC took over the conferences. It deserves recognition.

Oh, and I plan on swinging by to say hello and want to see you there.

The Resurgence of the Documentum Developer

One of my early complaints about the merging of the Documentum Developer Conference and Momentum into EMC World was the overlap. I had to choose between the business/product sessions and the Developer sessions. There was also an issue of sending everyone to the same conference. People couldn’t very well send the entire team to the same conference as someone had to keep the lights on back home.

The biggest issue was the overall reduction in content. As I observed after the 2009 EMC World, the total number of sessions were down almost 50%. Even now, if you went to EMC World last year, there was a shortage of technical sessions (though it was better than 2010).

EMC seems to have finally heard and they are having a one day Developer conference followed by a three day TechSet allowing a deep-dive into the more in-demand technology areas. Those areas:

• xCP Advanced: xCP is all about configuration, but there are a lot of tips and tricks to be learned to really take full advantage of the platform. If you are thinking of getting certified, or just live with this tech, you should settle in and attend.
• D2 Configuration: D2is new and offers great potential. WDK interfaces look old and people are noticing. I wish I could attend this one so I could learn what is going on behind all of the hype.
• Captiva Dispatcher: Captiva sells well and I was seeing a shortage of experts out there last fall. Research shows that the paper-free world is important but there is work to be done.
• Document Sciences: Nobody out there knows this well enough and clients are asking for it. EMC still has some work on the marketing and pricing model, but this capability is important for the back-end of business processes.

Would be nice to have an architecture track, but given that it might all change with NGIS and the easier scaling that comes with the 64-bit versions, I understand why that may have been left out. It is also possible they couldn’t pry the right people from Pleasanton to run it.

The Biggest Benefit of Conferences

Networking. That is the biggest benefit of conferences. As a developer, you trade war stories and learn from others what has, and has not, worked for them. As a business user, you can learn how peers are attacking business problems that will help you come up with innovative solutions for your own problems.

That is why I always went to EMC World and always tried to encourage the business side to attend. Each year, more attend and each year they get greater value. Last year, I said that EMC World was finally truly safe for business users to attend and gain real value. I meant it.

I will not be attending EMC World unless EMC decides they need someone from AIIM to talk about the convergence of Social, Mobile, Cloud, and Big Data in the industry. (*hint-hint*) It is a shame really because the Momentum section of the conference was really coming into its own last year.

I will be dropping in on the Developer Conference next month. Unlike EMC World, it is in my back yard and I can swing by the unofficial end-of-the-day events. I know speakers and attendees and it will be nice to see everyone there.

When I took the job of CIO at AIIM, it wasn’t because I was running from Documentum. I was a part of the Documentum Community for 12 years. I will always feel connected and will maintain my ties as I can.

That is the joy of a real community, it is always part of you. Come to the Developer Conference. Attend EMC World (early bird rate through February). Don’t just be a developer, user, or manager of Documentum.

Become part of the Documentum Community.

More than that, but I am leaving the world of Documentum. This year, for the first time since I started attending in 2000, I will miss the Documentum conference, aka EMC World.

These are some big changes for me. I thought I’d take some time and share.

Consult, Rinse, and Repeat

Five years ago, I was hired to build/lead the Enterprise Content Management practice at Washington Consulting, Inc. (WCI). Over the years, through ups and downs, I became a Director and the capabilities of WCI grew. Today WCI is in a much stronger position, by any measure, to solve the Information Management problems of its clients.

Meanwhile, the repetition started to become obvious. While the technology kept evolving and changing, the core challenges were constant. Organizational resistance, short-term financial goals, and the desire to just “throw”  the system over the wall and see what users do with it.

So it became obvious that it was time for new challenges. Of course, there is a side effect…

Leaving Documentum

I am leaving the world of Documentum behind. While that wasn’t a goal, I wasn’t trying to stay in the world of Documentum either.

The next year is going to be critical for EMC and their Documentum line. The Cloud-based Content Management train is leaving the station and this is the year that EMC can grab a spot in first class. It is going to be fun to watch.

Watch I will. Too many friends, colleagues, and clients have a vested interest in the outcome for me not to care. I’ve poured a lot of energy into that world over the years and I’ll always have an intense curiosity regarding Documentum’s fate. I’m rooting for EMC to succeed.

I’ll always care, it just isn’t going to be my problem anymore. At least for now.

The Next Chapter

So what is next? That is the subject for a post in the next week. I’m going to a position that I’ve been wanting for years with an organization that seems to be a natural fit. Since I’ve made the decision, the most consistent feedback I’ve received is, “That’s perfect!”

It likely isn’t perfect but it seemed like the right choice.

Well, I’ve been on “vacation” for the past week and feel rested enough to take some time to write. Coincidently enough, I have two posts to write quickly, the first being this post evaluating the predictions for 2011.

As I did for the 2010 predictions, I am going to score them as either correct, incorrect, or partial (50%).  The partial is for predictions that were correct in the causes, but the effects were off.

1. There will be a major acquisition that doesn’t involve Open Text. Correct! HP acquired Autonomy in one of the strangest and largest acquisitions in the past few years.
2. EMC will determine their Content Management future this year. Correct. They have a plan for the future that they have been executing upon consistently. It is the Next Generation Information Server along with EMC OnDemand. When you throw in the mew mobile client and the addition of the D2 interface from C6, EMC is saying that they aren’t going to be marginalized without a fight. The question of whether it is enough and in time is something we should learn in 2012.
3. “Enterprise 2.0” vendors will be reclassified. Partial. The theory is that people would using Enterprise 2.0 and start referring to tools by what they did. This is happening, but it is gradual. Too many marketing people aren’t ready to let go of the term yet. I feel I got this partially right but it is hard to prove.
4. Content Management in the Cloud will make a big splash.  Correct. Box is attacking the world while Nuxeo and Alfresco have jumped into the fray. EMC is working to provide a true cloud solution and DropBox has begun creating a non-consumer version of its product. I’ve been spending a lot of time working on a project to implement Documentum in an IaaS cloud provider for the Federal Government. The cloud has reached the CMS world and will only expand and mature.
5. Peter Monks will try to blackmail me. Correct, though he isn’t very good at it. You would think a recording of singing karaoke while wearing a mullet would be enough, but he can’t pull it off.
6. An iPad challenger will emerge, driving the tablet market. Partial. Instead of one challenger, there are lots of them. Samsung seems to be doing okay but the Kindle Fire seems to have the best shot at challenging the iPad.
7. eBook weaknesses will come to the forefront.  Correct, though I picked the wrong weaknesses. People just want more from their eReader. Just ask Amazon why they introduced the Kindle Fire, a simplified Android tablet. It isn’t an eReader in the traditional sense, yet it is doing well. My niece has one and she lives in an Apple family.

So that is a 6 out of 7. Not bad overall, especially when you consider that I graded fairly harsh. Apple is not the only tablet player in town anymore and the term Enterprise 2.0 seems to be in remission even according to Google.

That bump over 1.0 line, point “F”? That’s the Enterprise 2.0 conference. Social Buness seems to be picking-up the slack, which is a much better descriptor of many of the products. Spigit, a stalwart of many Enterprise 2.0 conferences seems to ignore both terms.

Now, onward to 2012!

• Where are they going?
• Do they know Records Management?
• Are they capable?

I had enough of an answer on each question to enter into a partnership with Nuxeo, but this was all about long-term planning and strategy. I thought I’d share what I learned while letting them learn that there are pros and cons to the publicity that they get by working with me, just ask EMC (who has accepted the balance).

Nuxeo World 2011, The Conference

Let’s start with the conference. It was unique, and not in a bad way. It was only Nuxeo’s second conference and it wasn’t a large one, though it was 50% bigger than last year. It was held in a theater, the Théâtre des Variétés, in the center of Paris which had the main stage and a small theater tucked into the upper reaches of the theater. While not friendly for those with bad knees, it was quite interesting to present to an actual theater (nice view!).

The downsides were the lack of places to chat privately, everything catered externally, and there were only two rooms for presentations. One theater was more than ample in size and the other was pushing its limits. It is very likely that Nuxeo will out-grow this location next year.

Still, it was good. The presenters were all very technically inclined and capable. This led to a large amount of real content and not a collection of marketing slides. The conversations after each presentation could go into as much detail as you could conceive.

In general, nice format. Small and technical, but good. It was easy to find whomever you needed to speak with on any topic during the conference.

One last detail that I shouldn’t forget, it was preceded by a two-day development sprint. Being an open-source project, anyone can contribute. External developers were invite to join the Nuxeo team to address specific capabilities. They had two days to make as much progress as possible. The award for the best progress was awarded on Thursday night (though I can’t remember what it was that won).

The People

I only need one word to sum them up, Smart. Everything else is details. Of course, when you are small, it is much easier to keep the quality. There were diverse backgrounds, visions, and specialties, but they were all smart.

Of course, this presents its own problems. While it has led to a great architecture and agile development process, outside perspectives from the broader Content Management arena are not widespread. Nuxeo is a product that feels a little tied to the academics of Content Management with Content Management developer requirements mixed in for good measure.

While this isn’t a bad thing, it does make it harder to be proactive in meeting what the market needs. That said, there are some newer faces in Nuxeo that have that broader viewpoint and they are spreading that knowledge. I also contributed a bit with my keynote and threw conversations I had throughout the few days I was in town.

Information Governance is one of those areas. The importance of governance to the broad market is something that is obvious to old-school Content Management people, but it is something that is sinking into Nuxeo’s collective consciousness. I think it sank in, but we’ll know for sure in the very near future.

The (Potential) Future of Nuxeo

The future is bright, assuming they to take on the Records Management and other governance pieces. They are offering Nuxeo in the cloud as a platform, not as an Amazon install. They have an extensive API library and are extremely active in standards. Their architecture is fresh and they seem to be actively working to keep it fresh.

There is a lot of opportunity in the Open Source market for another Content Management vendor that has Records Management. There is a lot of opportunity in the market for a company that can offer the same solution either on-premise or in the cloud. There is a lot of opportunity for a Content Management vendor that can successfully deliver a platform.

For the vendors that can be among the first to offer all these things, there is a chance to be one of the leaders in the space for the next decade.

Nuxeo is heading to this spot. It is the same spot as Box and many of the traditional Content Management vendors. They are approaching the spot from three different directions. Of course, once they get there, the market won’t care how they got there.

They’ll just want to buy it.

It is the summer and things are pretty slow going in the industry, but that doesn’t mean that I can’t build-up to a good rant. I was doing a little research in some release notes for Documentum the other day and something that annoyed me last Spring hit me full in the face.

The proliferation of patches. WOW! Let’s look at this for a minute.

In Theory…

I can’t tell you how many times I have installed a system, not just Documentum, and eventually come across a bug. Usually I have to open a ticket with the vendor, convince them that I’m doing things correctly, and then, if I’m lucky, I might get a bug fix.

Then there are those bugs that you don’t find until after damage has been done. At that point, you not only have to fix the problem, you have to repair the damage. That can be costly (though you do learn a lot about the inner workings of the system in question).

To solve this, a little over a year ago, EMC began releasing regular (1-2 months) patches for its active software. Excellent! If I’m installing a system I can add the latest patch. I can also review patch notes to see if there are any fixes that may be worth installing before the next Service Pack or Release.

As For Execution…

The biggest problem is the sheer number of patches. If a product is out for a year, you can expect 10-12 patches. That is 10-12 Release Notes and 10-12 packages. Let’s look at the previous version, Content Server 6.6, which triggered my effort.

I went to find the Release Notes because I was checking an environment certification and I didn’t have the notes already downloaded. There were 11 set of patches mixed in with the base product. Given that the Content Server includes the xPlore search engine and lots of different pieces of Documentation, there are 30+ files listed normally. There were also 50+ patch files!

After some time, I discovered that I could filter the patches out of the listing, speeding-up my Release Notes retrieval. The issue is that if I needed to download the latest patches, I would have been challenged.

The files are listed in patch order. There is a sort column that you like to think will list them in that order, but it doesn’t.  As a result, determining which of the patch files are the latest version is challenging at best.

Keep in mind, this scenario is replicated across all products.

The Fix…?

To be honest, they have to keep all the patches up there for download. You never know when someone will need to match an exact environment and re-download a set of patches. That doesn’t mean that it can’t be easier.

Two things need to be done.

1. EMC needs a way to clearly indicate the latest patch release for all software. As not all software gets a new patch with each release, this isn’t necessarily as easy as looking for patch “11” across all version 6.6 products. Maybe put all patches in Powerlink, leaving only the latest in the Download Center.
2. Patches need to be better tagged/organized. They don’t sort in patch order and I can’t sort by date. As it stands, when I browse the Content Server products, I have to scan the entire list for every patch file of a given patch release.

Kudos to EMC for releasing these patches. I can’t find a reason to really argue against the process. They have already served me well, though due to the headache above, determining how to successfully patch the previous release of xCP in January was a nightmare.

Just PLEASE make the download decision process to be less cryptic.

Thank you.

This acquisition raises several questions, such as, does anyone care, that is, outside of the FatWire install base and those competing against FatWire? I think it matters. Not because of the actual purchase, but because of what Oracle does with FatWire. That will show us volumes about their long-term Content Management strategy.

Before proceeding into my world of hypotheticals, you should read Real Story Group’s collection of thoughts on the deal.

ECM or Expansion?

The first thought is trying to determine the purpose behind the acquisition. Well, there are two basic options. The first is the more boring option and the second seems too rational to be likely.

• We don’t have a good enough Web * Management option anymore, so we need to acquire a solution to claim a complete ECM story. This basically mean assimilation is the future of FatWire, which means an end to innovation.
• We need a Web Experience Management solution in order to more broadly serve all our customers information needs.  This means integration and a chance that it will be allowed to evolve independently.

Billy Cripe, formerly of Oracle, offered this observation in support of the first option. [He has since published his thoughts on the acquisition and commented below]

I see Hasan Rizvi quoted in the press release. He’s SVP of FMW (where ecm, webcenter & soa live) My guess: folded in

Meaning….FatWire is doomed. Regardless of the plan, how can you innovate in the web space when you release every 3 years? Want proof?

Remember Stellent?

A long time ago, about a decade ago, Stellent was one of the leading Web Content Management vendors. They slowly expanded their functionality for an Enterprise Content Management play. They did well enough to convince Oracle to buy them.

Over the years, Oracle has maintained its lead over the other ECM players in the WCM space, at least in people’s minds. Meanwhile, specialized W*M products arose and took the market lead.

The same thing will happen to FatWire. Why? Simple rules of the industry. 2-3 year product cycles cannot compete in the web marketplace. That was the foundation of my critique of EMC’s Web Publisher.

Speaking of EMC…

Looking Back on SDL

I wrote a short little article for CMSWire about why EMC partnered with SDL Tridion in addition to FatWire a few months ago. It basically said that it was about offering choice to the EMC community. I still think that is true.

That said, let’s speculate and deal with rumors for a  bit…

It is probably also true that EMC didn’t want to put all their eggs in one basket. When the Fatwire partnership was announced, their wasn’t much public speculation about an acquisition down the road, but there was some discussion. That acquisition didn’t happen, obviously. When it didn’t, EMC likely knew that FatWire likely wanted to be acquired. EMC then found a new partner that was bigger (less likely to need a buyer) and happy to just be themselves.

This knowing that the relationship was going to end with one side marrying another vendor probably stressed the partnership. That stress may have been part of the source of the multitude of rumors that I heard over the past 6 months.

Of course, Oracle could have bought FatWire to both improve their offering and damage EMC. Wild speculation, but entirely possible.

It is also entirely possible that EMC may want to acquire SDL one day, but part of me views that as unlikely. Of course, all it would take is a rumor that IBM was going to acquire a W*M vendor and things could change quickly.

In the meantime, if Oracle subsumes FatWire, how long until they need to buy a new vendor to purchase all the innovation that they won’t be able to build themselves? EMC has given-up trying to innovate in the web space (rightly so). It remains to be seen which strategy will win out.

So why is that strange? Doesn’t everyone need a mobile client? Isn’t that a cornerstone of Choice Computing? Doesn’t Sarah, the new user, want access to information anywhere on every device. Well, you are correct on all fronts.

The strange part is that when you take a step back, you realize that the market is already addressing this need.

The Basics

I covered this in several posts, but the goal for EMC is to have multiple mobile releases, targeting one every three months give-or-take. The first release is for the iPad, the second will be for the iPhone.

What I haven’t talked much about is that the interface looks a lot like the Media WorkSpace client and the communication between the app and the Content Server is being done through the 2nd early access release of the REST API. I expect/hope they’ll release it on the planned 3rd release this summer.

It wasn’t a shiny application, but it looked real. I got the feeling that it was a real product and that it WILL be out this Q3 and not one 2 years from now.

That wasn’t the only mobile application on display in the keynote.

To Box or not to Box

Do you know what other mobile app I saw EMC people use at the conference? I saw the Box application for the iPad live on-stage during Jeetu’s keynote. It works fairly well and is out now. There is also a version for the iPhone and Android. Box has a strategic partnership with EMC to help provide “Content Mobility” so you would think that their interface would be fairly decent..

So this raises the question, why not use Box instead of EMC’s app?

I actually asked Jeetu that question during the post keynote milling of people up front. He said that it was because the EMC app would have tighter integration with the process elements of Documentum and be free to licensed customers.

You know something, those were good reasons, especially considering the “ambush” nature of my question. I saw clear use cases for both applications without complete overlap. Things were okay in my head until Lee Dallas reminded me of the reality that has been in effect for over a year.

There are lots of other apps out there as well.

Pick an App, Any App

I quickly remembered that many companies had been releasing mobile apps over the past two years. If we just consider applications that are based upon the CMIS standard, you realize that there were lots of options.

In fact, during EMC World, multiple people approached me to show me their mobile application. While none of the apps is what I would consider game-changing, they all solved different business applications. They all have a place in the market.

They also happen to be released and being supported today.

It raises the question, is there a place for generic Documentum applications? Jeetu talked about tying their apps to process. Of course, other people will write those types of applications as well.

What Should EMC Do?

What I see in the mobile app right now is a checkbox feature. Don’t get me wrong, too many companies rely on those checkboxes when picking software, so it is a must-have for EMC. The question is, aside from getting that checkbox, what should EMC target?

First, develop enabling technologies. That means leading-edge CMIS support and pushing the proposed browser binding for the 1.1 version of CMIS. It also means pushing forward on the REST API to allow for partners and other companies to build business specific applications leveraging the deeper, compared to CMIS,  functionality of Documentum.

If the value proposition is the tie into the business process functionality, write an application that is a framework. TaskSpace mobile? Why not write an app that sends TaskSpace components to a mobile app automatically? How about making sure that the Information Rights Management products works on mobile clients?

Those might be some things that EMC could do better than partner companies.

As for generic applications, promote partner applications that are already developed. Use some of the same logic that led to the current Collaboration strategy. If you can’t do it all, make sure that you are investing in the right areas.

Just a thought.

Linkfest

Throwing some links to mobile apps out there. There is no endorsement of any of these apps. These are just known apps that are released. If something isn’t on here, I likely just forgot, hadn’t heard of it, or couldn’t find the link. The point is to show that there are options now.

• Documentum: fme docspread, Flatirons iCMS
• CMIS: Generis’s CARA, Open-Source Android CMIS Browser, YerbaBuena

I know that there are more out there, so feel free to add links in comments. Keep the sales pitch to a minimum when linking or I will remove the comment.

In many ways the announcements at this year’s EMC World just reaffirmed the direction set last year. Last year I was sad. This year, I’m starting to lose my sense of humor.

CenterStage, The Awkward Middle Child

At this point, I’m thinking that CenterStage should just go kill itself. It should just trigger an endless loop that can only be avoided by not logging into the interface.

Three years ago, CenterStage (then Magellan) was hailed as the next big thing. Then it languished in grade school, falling back a year or two, and now everyone is pointing to the Unified Client coming in D7. CenterStage used to be the basis for the mobile client, 2 years ago, and now it can’t even rustle up a calendar to match eRoom or SharePoint.

Quick sidebar about the calendar, HOW HARD IS IT? I mean, come on people! Clients tell me that they would move to CenterStage, even the not ideal 1.1 version, if they only had a way to have a central calendar. Try this:

1. Take the existing data table construct introduced two versions ago
2. Define a custom data table type (look at SharePoint or eRoom for field advice)
3. Add an abstraction layer (object-oriented languages might have a simple way to do this)
4. Steal graphical look from almost any major collaboration system (eRoom, SharePoint, Jive…)
5. Test and publish

I’d write the thing myself if there wasn’t all of these plans to move to a new UI and backend with D7. Where does CenterStage fit into all of that? That was a question I never got answered. Why? Everyone gave me a different answer so now I have none. The best answer I got is that EMC is trying to make sure that nobody can customize CenterStage in such a way that it inhibits their move to the common UI which will have a more structured customization structure (think WDK).

By the way, Webtop has a future in D7. Heard that definitively stated multiple times.

This is all a little harsh considering how good a year CenterStage has had. Two point releases. The lastest, CenterStage 1.2, is supposed to be scalable and be able to access the entire repository. As I haven’t talked to anyone that can independently verify, I’ll leave it at that.

Do you know what summed-up CenterStage’s future? I heard Webtop mentioned as part of presentations 3-5 times more often than CenterStage. If that doesn’t mean anything, nothing does.

The Trinity of Collaboration

During Rick Devenuti’s keynote, the future of collaboration was clearly outlined. EMC will offer to solve the problem in one of the following three ways:

• SharePoint: Need to collaborate in the department and beyond? SharePoint is your tool. In fact, you are likely already using it. It is a way of life in the corporate world and EMC is focusing on making SharePoint work better. After all, if SharePoint doesn’t work well, someone may choose a solution for which EMC isn’t needed to provide the backbone.
• Box: In the surprise of the show, EMC announced a strategic alliance with Box. This is aimed at those that need to collaborate beyond the enterprise and do it on the move. Four months ago, this partnership was unfathomable. While independent of Whitney (Tidmarsh) Bouck’s move, that change likely strengthened/accelerated the alliance. While integrating using the previously announce EntropySoft-based ECM Cloud Connect offering, tighter integration is planned. Lee Dallas talks about this as acceptance of Employee Managed Content within the EMC mindset.
• Cisco Quad: The Quad product is a more traditional social, real-time collaboration platform. This addresses the more Virtual War-Room type of collaboration that can be very useful. Jeetu has posted a “conversation” with Cisco talking about how the two offerings strengthen each other.

No matter what you think of the strength of the products, this shows EMC outsourcing collaboration. In fact, the less you think of the offerings above, the stronger the capitulation EMC is making.

Why outsource collaboration? Simple, as Jeetu stated in his keynote, EMC cannot out-innovate silicon valley as a whole. This is an honest, and accurate, understanding of reality.

Of course that is why you buy companies that fill a gap. You take both their existing innovations and the innovators. From there, you try and nurture the products into something bigger.

Not that it always works that way.

My Quandry

Parts of me are sad, upset, angry, and a whole assortment of increasingly bitter emotions. I love eRoom and collaboration. Watching this happen just drives me nuts.

I wish they would just open-source the eRoom code so it could evolve again and not just limp along in a perpetually supported state. It’s like a zombie of your kid or spouse. You just know that given time a cure will be found and you can’t bring yourself to kill them off.

This emotion makes it really hard for me to step back and evaluate these decisions. No matter how you slice it, Documentum isn’t targeting collaboration. They might say they are with CenterStage, but any collaboration achieved is a side-effect of sharing content. It is the same level of collaboration offered in the 90s by most of the document management players.

Oh, the execs still say they do collaboration, until you confront them. You point out that all the new and planned features for CenterStage are Content Management features, not collaboration features. They hang their hat on the data table in v1.1. Eventually, they agree that CenterStage, and other clients, help people collaboration, but that the colaboration is a side-effect of the core purpose of the interfaces which is to allow better management of content.

Now maybe they were just trying to get me to go away, but they had to know I would share. To be honest, it is okay. EMC can’t be all things. They want to focus on what they feel they do best, Content Management, Governance, and Business Process Management.

That is fine. It is probably the right move given the heavy investment needed elsewhere (e.g. xCP 2.0, Next Gen Information Server). That won’t stop me from mourning a little bit.

Or a lot.

In keeping with my theme of naming these posts after Clint Eastwood westerns, I have moved on from the trilogy to one that I feel more exemplifies this year’s conference, Unforgiven. Why? Simply because for most of the EMC World life, the Momentum conference has been a shell of its old self. Marriage had taken away who it really was. Well, Momentum looks like it might be back.

Before I go any further, remember I am talking about the conference only, not the content of the conference. Those follow next.

Last Year’s Checklist

Last year, as in previous years, I put together a list of things that needed to be fixed in my Momentum evaluation. To help illustrate the progress, let me share with you that list here and grade it.

• More user/partner sessions: I think this was flat. The call for topics didn’t seem as public as last year, but the number of sessions was about the same.
• More business users: Fail. This felt about the same, even though the conference is more user friendly every year.  Please come back.
• Separate lunch area. Didn’t get this and I don’t expect we will. There is a significant logistic issue to make this happen. Would be nice though.
• Less marketing: Heard many of the same things this year as I did last year. Tell people what is coming in the products so they can plan. Also tell them how to best implement the solution. If you think about it, nothing sells software better than having someone say how they implemented a solution and made their life better.
• Start with the keynote: This was better. Rick’s keynote was on Day one this year. Of course it was at 3:30pm and after two breakout sessions had taken place. Why not put it during the first set of breakouts? I’m sure every breakout attendee would rather have attended Rick’s keynote at 10am.
• Create a big-room track:  Success. Jeroen’s Architecture presentations and Ed Beuche’s Performance sessions were both in larger rooms. Keep this going.
• Rinse and repeat: John McCormick’s roadmap session was done twice and clearly marked.
• Developer hands-on:  There was one room that was running hands-on labs all conference. It was very successful and will likely be returning next year. I didn’t get a chance to stop by, so if you were there, please leave a comment and share your thoughts.

Actually, if you have any comments, drop them below.

Still Some Work

So some improvement, but more importantly, no lost ground. There were some important issues though.

• Horrific Internet: The wifi was usually non-existent. The first couple of days it was okay, but it completely collapsed by Wednesday. This is a tech conference. We need connections. I at least had my phone, all those AT&T iPhone clones were completely out of luck.
• Power: To some degree this is an issue with the facility. That said, we could have used more power strips in the Momentum lounge and one at each projector at a minimum. You burn lots of power when you are looking for a signal.
• Lack of Expo Time: This was a major issue. The only time that we had for the expo were at the opening reception and lunch. The opening reception is pure chaos and not good for solid, in-depth discussions. Lunch was needed for lunch which was leveraged for meetings with people. I had to skip a session that I was extremely interested in attending and I still didn’t get enough time on the floor. We need some more expo time that doesn’t conflict with sessions. Maybe more pre-dinner time or an opening during lunch on Monday.
• Reduce Jeroen Conflicts: Every person told me that they wish Jeroen had his own timeslot with no conflicts. Not just community experts, but clients as well. I can’t think of any session that wouldn’t make some people feel conflicted. At the very least, no client-led sessions should be scheduled against the Product Roadmap, Ed Bueche, or Jeroen van Rotterdam.

Still, pretty good. In fact, when you get down to it, most of these are broader conference issues and not necessarily Momentum only concerns.

Returning to Form

Here is the summary, the conference is probably as segregated from EMC World as it is going to get. There will be little things every year that will not be perfect, but as a whole, the Documentum people were protected from the “storage” side.

As someone pointed out to me, most of EMC starts at the database and works down. IIG starts at the database and works up. Documentum works on-top of the rest of the EMC stack. We need more users to attend the conference like they used to do back before the merging.

This is where you come into the picture. We need to tell people that it is safe to return. It is easy to meet and share ideas with fellow users again. There are quality sessions being presented by users now. These aren’t just EMC requested sessions, these are sessions submitted to EMC, so there is some honesty in the sessions.

When you get down to it, Momemtum isn’t going to get a lot better until more people start attending. It is the sharing of ideas and the different viewpoints that comprise the true value of these conferences. Everything I covered above are just enabling factors. The real thing we need is you.

Momentum is back as a conference. Not perfect, but very good. It is now a good place to meet and share problems. It is returning to a national-global user group again.

We just need more users.

The first instinct is to panic at yet another person leaving EMC. My second instinct was to put myself into Whitney’s shoes for a minute. When I took that minute, this is what happened…

Why So Long?

Whitney has been with Documentum/EMC for fifteen years. Think on that for a moment. Now consider that the Documentum product has been considered one of the market leaders for ten plus years. If you ask yourself why they aren’t consider THE market leader, I can point to several reasons outside of the marketing department.

What is left to achieve? Documentum has had consistent mindshare for years. Getting significantly more of that mindshare is dependent on the actual product improving dramatically. I don’t see Whitney moving up into EMC corporate as the culture is very different. I’m also pretty sure Whitney wouldn’t consider moving to Boston.

Once I thought about her overall position, I was left wondering why she stayed as long as she had at EMC. From a career perspective, where were the new challenges? How could she grow? Managing the transition from Documentum to EMC was probably loaded with lessons. Since then, I imagine things have been a little slow on the “new lessons” front.

I don’t want to hazard a guess as to why she stayed. What I do want to say is that if YOU are invested in Documentum at all, either on a personal or professional level, you may want to thank her for sticking around as long as she did.

Why Now?

The question left to ask is this, “If you stayed so long, why leave now?” During her announcement, she implied that she is leaving for a young company. I don’t remember her exact words so I am not going to try and read anything into my faulty memory.

I did talk to her later and she told me that she is going to an opportunity. She had spent a lot of time determining what she wanted to do next and then held to that vision. This was the important detail. As I talked to Whitney, I could tell that she was going to miss her team, but at the same time, she was looking forward to the new challenges.

At the end of the conversation, I had the distinct impression that she was running TO a new job and not running FROM her old one. That is a huge difference.

To borrow from an analogy (apologies to Whitney), sometimes when a rat leaves a ship, it isn’t because the ship is burning. There may be cheese on the dock. In that case, don’t think less of the boat.

Do not get me wrong. Whitney’s departure is a loss. We just shouldn’t make the mistake of reading too much into the departure.

The Barometer

Besides, Whitney hasn’t been my barometer for the future of EMC, Jeroen van Rotterdam serves that role. I was excited when he became the Chief Architect over six months ago. I talked to him in January and became enthused about the direction the platform was taking.

The reason Jeroen is my barometer is quite simple. He is smart. He knows the critical technology cold. He has a technical vision for the platform that will enable EMC to succeed when the Content Management ecosystem moves to the cloud. If Jeroen is empowered, the Documentum platform could become a force to be reckoned with again.

Jeroen doesn’t hold back. He pushes technology barriers. He will randomly create a demo on the way to a conference. He doesn’t do that because he procrastinates. He does it because he might think of the idea while checking luggage and decide to give it a whirl.

From my few discussions with Jeroen, I have the distinct impression that if his technical vision is restricted and is not supported by management, he will leave for a new environment. He would not leave rashly, but only after realizing that the vision was not going to be achieved where he was. He would do right by everyone, but he would take his mind somewhere that lets him use it to its full capacity.

If Jeroen leaves before the platform is reengineered, then we should panic.

Gap at CTO

With Jeetu moving to Chief Strategy Officer, there is now a gap at CTO. While Jeetu has said that he is going to hold onto both roles for a while, I suspect that given the right candidate, EMC will fill the role.

It should be an easy job to fill. There is only one thing that has to be done as part of that job. Do whatever it takes to enable Jeroen to do his job effectively. Give him the tools and resources he needs. Keep unnecessary distractions away from him.

If the CTO just lets Jeroen do what he does best and removes any hindrances, there will be a lot of success…if the market gives Jeroen enough time.

So how did this come to pass? Let’s look back over the past year.

Health IT

Those of you paying attention may recall that last year I attended the HIMSS Conference, the leading Health IT conference, and wrote a few posts on what I learned while there. This year I am not attending, but five of my colleagues are there as I type.

It was a whole new world and made me realize a couple of things. The first was that healthcare needs a lot of help in Content Management and IT as a whole. There are a lot of smart people in the industry, but most of them know healthcare and aren’t as savvy about IT. They tend to treat content in the same manner as SharePoint 2003, just one more thing.

The second was that it would take me a lot of work for me to become a domain expert. I know this because as I walked the floor with one of my colleagues, former clients would walk up to him and start a conversation. I would quickly get lost in the terminology. I would later learn that I understood the technical challenges, I was just lacking on the lingo.

I decided at that point that while I would continue to support my Health IT colleagues, I would let them lead the efforts because they know healthcare cold. I would focus on making things work the way they wanted them to work and being a resource.

Enter Revenue Cycle Management

Flash forward to this past fall. As I discussed in my last post, EMC reached out to my company as a partner. While very skeptical, and busy, I decided to meet with my “new” partner representative (I didn’t know I had one) and see what he wanted. I have known him for years in various roles, so I thought it would be a good chance to at least catch-up.

What I learned was that EMC was looking for some partners to develop solutions. Due to some minor issue, he threw the entire list of solutions onto the screen and not just the ones he was focusing on in his role. As we looked and talked about the desired solutions for the Federal space, I decided none of them seemed appealing. We didn’t have deep domain expertise in the business areas and no discriminators.

As he talked, my eyes wandered down the spreadsheet to some healthcare solutions that they were looking to build. Two of them caught my eye and I asked about them. Being a Federal partner rep, he wasn’t that familiar with them, but quickly arranged a call for us to learn more.

That was an important call. I brought my favorite Health IT guy, Brad, and we talked to one of EMC’s Health IT experts. By the end of the call, we decided that Revenue Cycle Management was the perfect fit for Washington Consulting and EMC had decided that we knew enough about the solution to be able to successfully design, create, and deliver the solution.

Just like that, Documentum went from something that we do into a strategic thrust for us.

Whirlwind of Activity

Since then, we have worked on defining the solution and begun the build process. We presented the solution at the EMC Worldwide Sales Kickoff last month and have been engaging with people since then. I’ve been busy learning more about Revenue Cycle Management, helping to build the solution, and making sure that the right technical talents are brought to bear on the solution creation.

I’ve learned a lot, and not just that there is a strong ROI and market need. To illustrate, let’s imagine a routine patient visit.

You are becoming a parent. When it is time to give birth, you go to the hospital and everything goes well. After a couple of days, you go home with your expanded family. During this, a lot of things are taking place.

• At check-in, your identity and insurance information was confirmed and a file was opened specifically for your stay. Consent forms were signed and stored.
• Different procedures were done during the stay. The OB/GYN delivered the baby, anesthesiology provided the epidural, and pediatrics checked the health of the baby.
• Each action was captured and coded correctly so that it could be billed and/or filed with the insurance company.

While part of your overall Electronic Health Record (EHR), the billing process is a separate beast. There correspondence and bills that have to be sent and tracked. If anything is wrong, it will be denied (insurance companies love to deny claims). Fighting those denials takes time and money. Waiting for a denial to be resolved also delays receipt of money. During this, patients need to be kept in the loop and may need to provide additional information.

Revenue Cycle Management is about taking care of all those details. It focuses on capturing the right information, preventing fraud, reducing denials, and essentially improving the cash flow for a healthcare provider. That saved money can be used to improve patient care and reduce healthcare costs.

There is a lot more detail and a lot that such a solution can offer healthcare providers. When built on a solid content platform with strong security, BPM, and the ability to integrate into the EHR systems, the ROI to the organization becomes pretty easy to prove. Plus, once a Content Management system is in place, it can then be leveraged for other content challenges as well.

So Why EMC?

The question really boils down to why EMC? Why am I partnering with them for this solution and not someone else is obvious from the above story. Clients don’t care about that angle though. They want to know why it is the right choice for them.

There is a need for some hardcore BPM, granular security, and integrated scanning when delivering Revenue Cycle Management solutions. It is a solution that fits into the content-centric Case Management mold. For those solutions, you want to provide a more out-of-the-box and limit the customization and 3rd party components required.

The goal is to limit the risk around the technology. You want something that can easily meet the needs, primarily through configuration, and allow services to focus on the business needs. You also need a system that can readily interoperate with any number of external systems leveraging standards whenever possible.

On the whole, given the current vendor capability landscape, market landscape, and our technical ability to successfully deliver, EMC is a good choice. There will be some opportunities where Documentum won’t be the best choice, but right now, it will rarely be the wrong reason from a technical perspective, which is all you can ask of any technology-based solution.

This is also not to say that EMC is the right choice for all healthcare systems. We just feel it is the best choice for Revenue Cycle Management and we are pretty excited about the prospects.

The thing is, the vendors are not in immediate trouble.  There are a lot of organizations that require more functionality, trust, and faith than Open Source or cloud vendors can provide.  For the next several years, as long as the older vendors can provide value and show progress towards a viable future, they are going to be a significant piece of the Content Management landscape.

With that in mind, let’s look at EMC and its allure as a real partner.

The Obvious

When I think on this, the first thing that hits me is that my company has several projects using the Documentum platform ongoing and planned.  We have also been a partner for years. In general, value from the partnership is provided by simple momentum.

Momentum isn’t enough from a strategic standpoint. Sure, it makes a good reason to sustain a partnership, but it isn’t a reason to invest in a partnership.  In addition, if you are with a company that isn’t a partner of EMC, then why would you become one?

Well, you could become a Documentum body-shop.  There is money in that.  It is also risky, difficult to manage, and requires a fair amount of effort to establish.

The real trick to a good partnership is for both sides to bring something to the table that has value today and in the future. You just need to find a solution, or set of solutions, to build on the Documentum platform.  How hard could that be?  Just grab a few developers and dive into xCP and you are done, right?

Picking a Solution

Well, it is a little more complicated than that if you want to succeed.  You need to do quite a few things.

• Domain Expertise: Do you have experts in the area. Not ones that just know it, but can talk to the business people and take the conversation out of the hands of the techies. You need people to instill confidence in prospects in order to get that first project.
• Market Need: Let’s face it, if there are 2-3 leaders in the market, you better have something snazzy. If the market is still searching for the right solution, then you are in the right place.
• Why Documentum as the Platform?: Let’s face it. In any market, someone is selling almost every given bundle to solve most problems. You need to make sure that the technology picked is the right technology, not just because you know how to use it. Using Documentum because you know it is good. Using Documentum because you know it and it is the right fit, better.
• A Plan: Let’s face it, if you don’t have a plan to penetrate the market, you are toast.  You can have the right people, but if you can’t get that traction going, you may just spend a lot of money.

Of course, you may just get lucky, though that isn’t a good strategy on which to bank.

Changes are Afoot

Let’s face it. As good as Documentum may be as a platform, all of that is irrelevant if it doesn’t have a future. Why invest in building a solution on something that you know is going to die?

Probably because right now, I don’t know that it is going to die. Since last year’s EMC World, there have been a lot of changes for the good at EMC.

• New Leadership: The President, CTO, and Architect positions have changed. Mark Lewis is gone and Jeroen van Rotterdam is in as the Architect.
• Solid Technical Direction: Based upon what was shared at the European Momentum conference and from a chat with Jeroen last month, the platform is heading in the right direction. The right technical direction as gone from eventually to on the way. As long as Jeroen is there, the direction will be in the right direction.
• Content is Back: I was at the EMC Worldwide Sales kickoff last month. The biggest take-away I got from the attendees that I talked to during the event, Content Management is back. Case Management is still important, but Content Management is the business area that EMC is selling. Big.
• Refocus on Partners: I had heard rumors in the fall, but then I got a call from a partner guy wanting to talk about how we could work together. I’ve owned partner relationships with EMC for about 6 of the 11 years that I have worked with the product, and I’ve NEVER gotten a phone call like that before.

That’s not to say that EMC is going to survive the changes that are coming over the next five years or that there aren’t significant challenges facing them. I am only saying that if I had scripted it out, I don’t think I could have written a more plausible script that was so favorable.

So What Now?

Well, I’ve rambled long enough to turn this into two posts, so you’ll have to wait for the next post.  To sum up, I’m investing in the EMC partnership again.