EMC World

The Lost Decade of ECM

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imageOf the three posts rattling around in my head, this would be the third in order if I had to set a preferred order. Problem is, one idea takes more effort to develop while the other actually needs to refer to items in this post.

I spoke last week at Momentum in Las Vegas as part of EMC World. Instead of talking about Documentum or how I had worked with a client to solve a problem, I talked about the changing landscape of the Information Industry. The SlideShare version of the presentation is at the end of this post but I wanted to talk about the Lost Decade first.

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Documentum, Not Going Away Without a Fight

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imageAs I fly back from EMC World, I am left pondering the future of EMC in the Content Management space. This is a space that is undergoing an overhaul. There is a surge of innovation which we haven’t seen since the nineties. The cloud is becoming a more important part of the equation for organizations and those vendors that don’t evolve to fit the new demands aren’t going to be relevant in four years.

To be honest, I fully expect only one of the established leaders (EMC, IBM, Oracle, and Open Text) to make it. Microsoft might make it two with their Office365 offering but there is the separate concern that SharePoint will collapse under its own weight after two more releases.

Seemingly aware of all this, last year at EMC World, Rick Devenuti announced during the Momentum keynote a new strategy for Documentum. Based around the concept of the New User, the idea was to support the transition to Bring Your Own Device (BYOD) reality hitting many organizations through new clients, new deployment methodologies, and even new architectures.

This year had more of the same. It what was more of a report card than any major news, aside from the Synplicity announcement. So I’m going to give out grades for the execution of the strategy. Here are the ratings:

  • Above Expectations: The information presented exceeded the expectations set a year ago and the realities of the evolving marketplace.
  • Satisfactory: Pretty much on course as per last year. Given the realities of software development, especially for systems as complex as Content Management. This is still a good rating because expectations were set pretty high.
  • Unsatisfactory: A fallback or failure to met expectations. Cut functionality or significantly changed timelines are reasons that this would be awarded.

Keep in mind that even with good scores, determining whether or not any of this is going to be delivered in time to meet the needs of the market is a function of all vendors in the space as a whole. EMC can’t control what the other vendors do over the next year. They can try to shape the discussion of the market but there is no guarantee that they will be successful.

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EMC World 2012: Determining if EMC OnDemand is Right for You

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Doing something bizarre, skipping an Ed Bueche session. Going to listen to Mark Arbour talk about the OnDemand offering. While not true cloud, theoretically it can deliver some of the same benefits to consumers. Will be interesting.

Notes

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EMC World 2012: Jeetu Keynote, Roadmap for Transforming Your World

Here we are at the second big keynote of the Momentum part of the EMC World conference. Jeetu Patel, CSO and CMO, and Rohit Ghai, VP Products. Not sure what to expect beyond an update on how they are executing on the strategy.

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EMC World 2012: Rick Devenuti’s Documentum Keynote

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Now for the big session, the Documentum keynote. I keep hearing promises of big things. I’ll be happy with consistency and advancement of last year’s strategy. I never expect immediate turn-around from any established company. If they are still on track, I’ll be happy.

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EMC World 2012: xCP 2.0–Insider’s View

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Time to hear how the Early Access program is going for xCP 2.0. Kenwood Tsai is going to talk about the program and have several participants, including Erin Riley from Beach Street, speak on their experiences. It is still 6 months from release but I’ve heard positive things so far so I am curious to hear what is being said.

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EMC World 2012: Documentum Architecture

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Here we, as in the whole gang, are at Jeroen van Rotterdam’s session on Documentum Architecture. I have to see this, even if I never implement Documentum again. I am just too curious to not attend, plus Jeroen is a very entertaining speaker.

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Dreaming of the Documentum Community and Conferences

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I had a dream that I was at the upcoming  Documentum Developer Conference and TechSet next month here in the DC area. (Seriously, I did. Was a little strange, even for me.) I was wandering around, saying hi to people I knew, sharing a quick drink. Soon enough, the next set of sessions started and everyone went to go learn while I went off to….no idea actually as I then woke up.

I decided to take the dream as a sign that I needed to write about the event. Why? Because this reflects a return to something that was a regular occurrence back before EMC took over the conferences. It deserves recognition.

Oh, and I plan on swinging by to say hello and want to see you there.

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Review: The Innovator’s Dilemma

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image The Innovator’s Dilemma

Clayton M. Christensen

Before I went to EMC World and marveled at how the management was missing the boat on the cloud and was diving wholesale into Case Management, I was told that I had to read this book.  After EMC World, I broke down, purchased it, and then fought to find time for it.  The book is over a decade old, so what was the rush? Let me tell you, I am glad I found the time.

I was told before I read the book that it was going to make me a little sad and despair for the future of Documentum.  It did in a way, but it also helped explain everything that was happening.  It actually increased my opinion of some people at EMC.  I am going to talk about the specifics to EMC, and other legacy Content Management vendors, in a subsequent post.  For now, let’s dive into the book itself.

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I Want YOU to Speak at EMC World!

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I have a confession to make…I’m a fraud.  I may know a lot about Documentum and ECM, but when you get to pick your discussion topics, it is easy to look smart and knowledgeable.

imageMany of you know a lot about implementing successful ECM projects with Documentum, SharePoint, Alfresco, Nuxeo, or any number of systems.  You have all learned things that I’ve never even considered when planning for a project.

And the number of things I don’t know about Documentum is mind-boggling.  There are new components every few months and there is no way that I, or anyone for that matter, can keep up with it all.

So I am asking for your help.  Please think about the projects you have worked on in the past year or so.  Did you learn a few things?  Did you run into a few hurdles to over come?  The odds are that the project wasn’t perfect.  Even if it went well, there are things that you would do differently.

Share what you learned with me.

Share it with everyone!

Speak at EMC World!

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