I talked a few weeks ago about the proposed CMIS standard.  I then went on to explain that vendor support is one of the two critical keys, the other the technical details, for the standard to succeed.  I went on to stress that the leaders for successful adoption of CMIS need to be the ECM Platform vendors.

I then promised some more posts on the topic and promptly vanished.  I’ve been busy at work and trying to enjoy the college football season.  I have vowed to get some posts out in the next week addressing the vendor support for CMIS.  As I know most familiar with EMC’s efforts, I’m starting with them.

What EMC has Done So Far

I want to start with a simple disclaimer.  I am focusing on EMC because I know EMC’s actions the best, not because they are doing the best.  At this point, which vendor is doing the “best” does not matter.  What I am trying to gauge is if a vendor is doing enough to-date.  We are grading on a pass-fail scale here.  More detailed grades will be handed out in six months.  I am highlighting EMC because I have more information on their efforts and because they reached-out to me.

To start off, EMC began everything correctly.  Let’s run down a basic checklist:

• Involved in the CMIS Standard?  Check. They were one of the leaders in the development of the standard.
• Released more than the obligatory press release?  Check. This only really applies to those that answered yes before as others may not have known in order to plan.  EMC had the press release and fresh blog posts from Craig, Cornelia, Chuck, Mark, and Andrew.  They even have a page with links to all the blog entries.  It has all the EMC bloggers and links to blogs from other vendors.
• Try to educate customers and partners? Check. They have held a customer webcast, The New Standard that Brings Exceptional Flexibility to Enterprise Content Management,  and placed the recording online.  They had a partner webcast today.
• Provide resources to learn more? Check. A Content Management Interoperability Services Community has been created on their EMC Labs/Developer Network platform.  It has useful information and you can download the specification from there directly.

All in all, a great start.

What EMC Needs to do Next

This is where the rubber meets the road.  Any company can get this far.  Even getting the proposed CMIS standard finalized isn’t enough.  What is needed now is visible support.  What needs to happen now?  Quite simple:

• Integrate CMIS into the Vision: At Momentum Europe, CMIS needs to be part of the keynote.  CMIS should be mentioned whenever EMC talks about where Enterprise Content Management is going.
• Continue to Develop the Standard: I have an analysis forthcoming.  I can say that it is a good start, but that it needs to grow.  Work should continue on evolving the standard.
• Release an Implementation: A tested, productized, CMIS interface needs to be released well before EMC World.  There should not be a license charge for specific it.  EMC, and other vendors, will make money on the licenses for the Content Server.  It would probably be too aggressive to have any of their applications use CMIS to interface to the Content Server by then, but the Content Server should be ready to be the back-end for any compliant front-end.

CMIS should not fade from view.  It should continue to be in the fore-front and new developments in the support, standard, and strategy need to continue to arise.  In a couple of years when the standard is pervasive, then it can fade into a fact of life.  Until then, EMC’s commitment needs to continue to be visible and obvious.

Up next, a run-down of other vendors.