Now that I’ve reviewed Forrester’s Wave report on ECM, let’s tune into some specific criticism. Specifically Jeff Potts spoke up and took them to task on how they weight what they measure. Being a fan of Alfresco, his post is a little on the defensive side, but that doesn’t eliminate his points.
Documentum
The Forrester Wave Report, ECM Suites Q4 2007
A few months ago, the Gartner report on ECM came out and I shared a few comments. Well, Forrester put their version out and I thought I comment on it as well. This is the first of two likely posts, focusing on the overall report this time around.
The Report
In general, no real news in the rankings as compared to Gartner. No surprise there. Why rock the boat?
There are a few key things to note.
Participating in the EMC Developer Network
Over the last few months, the EMC Developer Network has been starting the process of trying to build a community. They’ve recently added forums and are working at getting members of the Documentum community to not only write articles, but to comment upon them. Alan Zenreich, the main man behind the curtain at the Developer Network, is working to increase member involvement beyond just a few individuals.
Tips: Sizing a D6 System
As you may have noticed, there is no publicly available Sizing Spreadsheet for the newly released D6 yet. It is my understanding that they are still collecting data and refining it so that they have a high enough level of confidence to back it. However, I was able to get a draft copy recently and I wanted to share some observations.
Defending Enterprise Content Management
So the other evening, I was out at a Web Content Mavens gathering, and someone asked me what I meant when I talked about ECM. This person had years of experience in Web Content Management and a few years working with a leading ECM provider before returning to their roots in WCM. His basic premise was that ECM was a marketing ploy cooked up by the vendors, analysts, and consultants out there and that there is no rational reason to force them all into one system.
This was, at the same time, one of the best, and most painful, conversations I have had in quite a while. On the one hand, it is good to have to occasional defend your convictions in order to make sure that they are still on solid ground. On the other hand, sometimes you want to hit your head into a wall when someone doesn’t get it. However, I can see why that opinion exists. The vendors and analysts are to blame.
Tips: Moving to SQL Server 2005 for D6
As many of you may know, or recall, D6 does not support SQL Server 2000 anymore. This is fine and good. Most larger installations moved to Oracle years ago. However, there are a large number of Microsoft shops out there, a SQL Server is a quick to standup database for development, POC, and demo environments. So I thought I would share some tidbits on two different upgrades of SQL Server 2005. Neither were in a clustered environment, but that will happen soon and I’ll share then.
Co-Existence of SharePoint and ECM
A few weeks ago, I attended the AIIM seminar SharePoint meets ECM. When I registered, I received Doculabs’ White Paper, The Co-existence of Microsoft SharePoint and Advanced ECM Platforms: What You Need to Know. I hinted in my post about the event that I would write another post specifically addressed to this White Paper and I have finally gotten around to it.
Before I dive into the nitty-gritty details, I wanted to share an interesting observation. I started this blog to talk about things that were of interest to the EMC/Documentum crowd. That has expanded to encompass broader ECM issues such as standards. I think these topics are of interest to Documentum Architects, so it isn’t a reach. However, I’ve noticed a trend. Whenever I post on SharePoint, my hits jump way up. If I was just after hits, I’d just switch to SharePoint all the time. However, I expect this to be one of my last posts on the topic for a while as I have bigger fish to fry and I think I’ll have covered most of what I feel I need to cover for the short term.
It does make one think. I wonder how far my hit rate would jump if I included the name of a celebrity who is named after a French city? I’m not shameless enough to find out. Now on to the meat of the post…
The Federal Documentum User’s Group, November 2007
So I spent a good chunk of today at the local Documentum User’s Group meeting. Formerly a regional/local group, it has been recast as the Federal EMC Content Management and Archiving User Group. This isn’t a major problem as it doesn’t seem to actually be federally focused. I encourage all local DC users to attend. It is a well organized event that is very useful. Of particular use is the local networking with other practitioners. This meeting focused on D6.
Before I get into that, I did get official notification that Howard Shao has rejoined EMC. I’ve known this for quite a while, but had to wait for official knowledge before I could share. This is a very good thing. There were concerns that the departure of too many founders/visionaries would hurt the Documentum product. Hopefully Howard’s return will restore faith and move things where they need to go. Howard is sharp and I am damn glad he is back.
Provoking Jed on ECM 2.0
I am worried. Worried that Jed will want to stop sharing pints with me. In a previous post, I said that the ECM community, users and organizations, need to define what makes up ECM 2.0. The definition should not be dependent on the definition of Web 2.0. Jed thinks I was calling him cynical. Not quite. I think Jed is too optimistic.
AIIM Does SharePoint
I spent a good part of my day today attending the SharePoint meets ECM seminar in Washington, DC. Organized by AIIM, this seminar was marketed as an introduction of MOSS into the world of ECM. So I went to see and hear stories of SharePoint either as a front-end to an ECM platform, or as a platform unto itself. The day didn’t start well.
Word of Pie 