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ECM Industry Goals: Move the ECM Industry Forward

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I started this on Monday discussing the importance of goals in general, using the setting of goals for yourself as a starting point.  The same logic applies to a company, and its industry, as well.

Think about it, why is a company in business?  Yes, to make money, but that goal will only get you so far, just ask the gnomes.  You have to have something to offer and the ability to convince your customers that you can deliver and still be around in the future.

So in order to inspire your employees and your customers, you create a Big Hairy Audacious Goal (BHAG).  For example, maybe you want to create the market leading ECM solution.  Ten years ago, that was a challenge.  No one company had all the capabilities in house and the leadership of the market was in flux.  Now, to hit the same goal, you just take aim at the big boys and go forward.

But what does that really get you?  Are you leading or just following the trail already blazed?

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To Be a CMS, WCMS, or WMS, That is the Question

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So I’ve said that that WordPress isn’t a Content Management System (CMS).  My point was more than semantics as it isn’t a Web CMS (WCMS) either.  That said, I have never said that WordPress is anything but a great tool.

So the question remains, if WordPress isn’t a WCMS, what is it? Maybe we need a new term….how about “Website Management System”?

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ECM Industry Goals: Start with Yourself

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In the last few weeks while I’ve been on a writing (thought not working) sabbatical, I’ve been surprised by a confluence of events and activities that have all tied together.  The common theme can best be summed-up in one question:

Where do you want to be in 5+ years?

This is an important question for people, organizations, and for the ECM industry.  I’m going to start with people first because all of my readers happen to fall in that category.

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What is a CMS? Really…

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image There is continuing debate about whether or not WordPress is a CMS, which I have participated in already.  There are two things fueling the debate:

  1. Lots of WordPress users seem to take the attack personally.  This has allowed vocal supporters to drown-out those few with rational arguments.
  2. The more traditional, non-web, Content Management crowd say that WordPress isn’t feature rich enough to qualify.  Of course, nobody has actually provided a comprehensive definition of CMS or a list of features.

So the fight continues.  While I am in no way trying to resolve the argument in this post, I am trying to solve the crux of a matter….What is a CMS?

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CenterStage or SharePoint? An Early Look

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I recently dissected a “comparison” between Documentum and SharePoint. Karma was paying attention and I found myself performing a comparison of CenterStage and SharePoint for one of my long-time eRoom customers last week.

Setting the Stage

A little background.  This client has had eRoom Enterprise since 2004.  There has been some isolated success in some pockets of the organization, but not everywhere.  The initial champions left during the deployment and there was no real concerted push to use the system afterwards.  It had grown slowly over time, but hadn’t become a must-use system for many.

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Revisting the CMIS Use Cases

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A while back, I discussed the Three Fundamental Use Cases for CMIS. Since then, there have been some additional thoughts on this topic.  Since CMIS has been officially submitted as a standard to OASIS 🙂 I thought I would look at a couple of those thoughts.

The first was the EMC presentation on CMIS and DFS from the Momentum Europe in the fall.  It presented four cases, most notably a Migration use case.  This has popped-up in Twitter as well, so it obviously has some mindshare.

The other was a post by The Burton Group, specifically Larry Cannell, on How Will CMIS Be Adopted.  Larry focused on the business applications and had some good thoughts, especially regarding CMIS Clients.

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ECM and CMS Living In Harmony

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So I ranted a week ago about the term CMS.  I was more upset how people used “CMS” than the term itself.  Assuming that the term has legs, how does it fit in the grand scheme of things, like the world of ECM?

So today, instead of tearing things apart, I thought I would try and help add to the world.  This will also let people tear my thoughts apart.

ECM as a Strategy

Enterprise Content Management is not a system.  You can’t install it and expect it to just work.  You can do that with systems, but ECM is a little more than that.  It is the strategy to managing content in the organization.  Have content, need control.

I last visited the definition of ECM around the New Year.  Pulling the update from the comments and adding the word Strategy gives the following.

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is a strategy for the coordinated management of all content throughout an organization, allowing for people and systems to find and use content from within any business context using platform agnostic standards.

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Dissecting a Documentum-SharePoint “Comparison”

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Saw a tweet today that was pretty exciting.  It was referencing a “comparison” between SharePoint and Documentum.  I was initially excited.  I’d love to see CenterStage  and SharePoint compared.  I compared SharePoint to eRoom a couple of years back and wasn’t planning on a comparison with CenterStage until the database/list functionality was ported over.

My excitement was short-lived.

I instead encountered a piece that resembles propaganda more than a fair and balanced comparison.  That may sound harsh, but I will defend the charge.

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A Visionary Enterprise 2.0 Framework

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When visiting a local company last month, I was given a glimpse of their requirements for their new Knowledge Services Framework vision and requirements.  It was inspiring and incredible.  They had mapped all the functions that they perform, identified existing systems that matched, and then had measured each of them to the following vision.

Here is their requirements as presented.  The highlights are theirs.

leverage consumer applications proven to augment existing work processes (parity plus)

specifically targeted to business requirements and opportunities

access with only a browser and an internet connection

no reliance on proprietary systems or technology

development based on open industry standards

built upon a semantic web framework

embraces and enables BYOC model

no operating system dependency

provides web service capabilities

tuned options for mobile devices

no browser dependency

no net cost increase

no desktop footprint

100% cloud ready

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HIMSS 2010: Social Networking-Are You Listening

The focus of this session is on use cases in using Social Networking in the Health IT world.  I thought I would attend to see how these tools are being used here.

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