If you haven’t been paying attention, EMC announced a strategic partnership with FatWire today. I couldn’t be much more pleased. I’ve been pretty clear that I don’t feel that EMC’s Documentum Web Publisher has the chops to compete in the market and that as long as its release cycle was tied to the Content Server, it never would.
That is no longer a problem. What does this mean for EMC and FatWire?
- EMC now has a WCM offering! Yes, they are calling is Web Experience Management, which is a better term in many respects than Web Content Management, but the point is that EMC now has a viable story to tell people. We’ll talk about the “Experience” aspect of it later.
- This is strategic to EMC and they want to succeed. Seems obvious, but they put some money where their mouth is. EMC is buying a minority equity stake in FatWire. That means that if FatWire does well, EMC does better. It also gives an investment boost to FatWire.
- We have WCM Application Separation! FatWire can evolve their offering as fast as they desire in order to keep up with the other vendors in the space. The joy is that FatWire can develop for the market and not what Gartner thinks an ECM solution should offer. More, and tighter, integration between the two will make this a potentially strong offering.
- FatWire is selling Documentum Digital Asset Management. This is important because a stronger stream of license revenue for this product-line may mean more investment in the product. Like many of the Documentum products, it is strong under the hood, but it isn’t the prettiest thing to look at in the showroom.
Lee Dallas has some good thoughts on this announcement, as does Barb Mosher over at CMS Wire. Lee tackles the philosophical side of this partnership and Barb explains why this could be a win-win for both the companies and their clients.
There is a webinar on February 17th on the partnership. It should provide some more insight on the marketing side of the solution.
Personally, we’ll know more in a year after we track one critical item, Execution.
Word of Pie 
I’ve had a little more time to digest the information than most folks, but I’m really jazzed about this. I’ve been talking with my marketing folks and my co-workers and we’ve all been looking at the WCM segment and what other providers have been doing. I’ve often wondered, “When is EMC going to make a move?”
I like this announcement for a couple of reasons. The first is the availability. FatWire is an established product that already integrates with Documentum. If needed, I could go out tomorrow and purchase FatWire and be confident that it works. I don’t feel like I’m getting Beta product. Other people have used it and reviewed it.
Secondly, is vision. Immediately, I know exactly the direction that WCM (or rather WEM) is headed. More information will be forthcoming, but I know there’s a plan in place for the next few years. As a technology architect, that’s a big relief knowing where the technology is headed. You may or may not agree with the vision, but at least I can see it.
Last (and because you should always try to have at least three points) is that there is a feature set available that is going to take advantage of many Web 2.0 tech (blogs, wikis, rss feeds) that isn’t available today in Web Publisher. Oh and analytics. Can’t forget that. I don’t have to wait around for these possibilities. I can start working on concepts and ideas now. It’s like Christmas came early.
The devil is in the details and in the execution, of course. At the moment, everyone is saying and doing the right things. Might as well stay optimistic. Sure beats being depressed about the weather.
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Chris, thanks for the comment. I say you quoted in the press release, so I figured you had some insight. I’m looking forward to seeing how this pans out and how they are going to support delivery of the solution through the partner network.
Going to be an interesting set of sessions in Boston, that is for sure.
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