Looking to the Future of Content Management

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Last week, I had the privilege of presenting at the info360 Conference. My topic was The Future of Content Management, with the cheesy tagline of Cloudy with a Chance of Innovation. [I’m going to ramble a bit, the the slides are below].

This presentation was originally conceived when I was tired of not seeing a solid keynote/vision for the Content Management industry. The Web folk have a vision, even if they can’t agree upon a name for that vision. Wanting one, I wrote An ECM Keynote for 2010 last summer. I took that post and presented, Revisiting “Enterprise” Content Management in a 2.0 World at Gilbane this past fall. My presentation at AIIM was an updated version of that presentation.

What changed? A realization that began when I updated the presentation and crystallized at the conference. The thought was inspired by, of all people, Andrew Chapman and his posts on ECM as a Commodity. The question he asks is this…

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Using a Platform for an ECM Strategy

As I covered in my last post, Implementing an ECM Strategy without a Platform, you don’t need an Enterprise CMS Platform to implement a successful Enterprise Content Management Strategy. That doesn’t mean that you can’t use one or that using one would be the wrong approach. Just like there is no one-size-fits-all CMS, there is no single way to define and implement an ECM Strategy.

I am going to look at this in two stages. The first is going to focus on the purpose of and foundation for an Enterprise CMS Platform. The second is going to look at what capabilities a CMS needs in order to be a Platform.

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Implementing an ECM Strategy without a Platform

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It has been stated here at the Word, and elsewhere, that Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is a strategy. You can’t buy Enterprise Content Management. You can buy products that support an ECM Strategy, but without a blueprint, it is just a bunch of stuff.

Semantics aside, do you need a central Content Management System (CMS) to serve as the basis for implementing the strategy? This is a subtle way of asking if I need to buy a big honkin’ CMS which just happens to be marketed as ECM. I prefer to call those products Enterprise CMS Platforms. The term ECM Platform is so 2010.

The thing is, you don’t need an Enterprise CMS Platform to implement an ECM Strategy. Heck, you can do it with what you have now.

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Throwing ECM Terminology Around Like Candy

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image Been a while since I posted anything. Having a new kid will do that to a person. I read an article last week that all but set me off. Luckily I didn’t have time to write it because I am going to be biting the hands that feed me, or at least ones that have been nice to me.

The article in question was published on CMSWire. When I saw the title, The Future of ECM: Looking Less and Less like SharePoint?, I was very interested. Then I started reading and nearly died.

SharePoint as “Traditional” ECM

First off, I’m going to state that SharePoint can readily be used as a Content Management System. When I compare SharePoint’s capabilities with features that I documented when I wasn’t thinking about SharePoint, it fairs well.

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Solving Revenue Cycle Management with Documentum

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Right now, I am sitting at a confluence of events. Not earth-shattering events like those impacting the Muslim and Arab worlds right now, but a confluence nonetheless.  In my last post, I talked about why it might be worth investing in a partnership with EMC right now, given the right circumstances. That has happened and today my company announced a new solution for Health IT, the afore-mentioned Revenue Cycle Management, built on EMC’s Documentum xCP platform.

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

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Investing in an EMC-Documentum Partnership

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There has been a lot of talk over the past year, especially on my blog, about the issues with the traditional vendors.  While I’ve focused on EMC, most of these issues face every Content Management platform vendor.  The challenges of from the Open Source vendors and the emergence of the cloud as a concept broader than simple hosting have beset the establishment.

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.

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Publishers Need to Take Charge of the eBook Market

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I wrote last month a couple of posts on the problem with eBooks.  Both covered a couple of points, the first focused on the prices and features of eBooks while the second focused on dealing with existing book collections, what I call the Reread Dilemma, and a potential way to convert collections from paper into digital.

Both posts received a healthy amount of comments.  I wanted to address some of those thoughts here, as well as refer to several items out in the ether talking about this very topic.  Not to mention, I got to spend some quality time trying out eBooks.

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Launching the New Box, Progress Made One Step at a Time

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imageSo a funny thing happened on my way to the West Coast this week, I was invited to a product launch at Box.net.  I’ve always been a fan of the concept of Content Management in the Cloud and the direction Box has taken in the Content Management space.

The established vendors are having to determine how to change both their business models and architecture before they more to the the cloud. Box is already there, they just need more features.

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Darwin’s take on JCR and CMIS

There has been a lot of talk of late regarding the demise of the Java Content Repository (JCR) specification and what to do when a standard does die off.  Much of this is blamed on the emergence of CMIS as a standard, but that is just a contributory factor.  Many Content Management specifications and standards have withered over the last decade without a standard positioned to replace them.

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The Problem with eBooks, Part 2

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As promised, here is my follow-on post to yesterday’s thoughts on eBooks.  In fact, this post covers the issue that vexes me the most.  This is something that I feel needs to be resolved.  If it was resolved today, there would be a large number of happy users.  If it was resolved today, I’d go out and buy eReaders for my family tonight.

The Reread Dilemma

I find that there are two different types of book readers out there.  There are the average/casual reader that will read a book once and rarely pick it up again.  They may read a lot or a little, but they rarely revisit a book.  There are always books that are the exception, but as a rule, this reading group follows this trend.  My wife, an regular reader, falls into this group.

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