Last year I posted an article on how CenterStage was the Latest ex-Collaboration Tool from EMC. Turns out I understated the case. EMC isn’t going to be building a collaboration tool, at least not one purposely built to encourage collaboration.
In many ways the announcements at this year’s EMC World just reaffirmed the direction set last year. Last year I was sad. This year, I’m starting to lose my sense of humor.
Time for the overdue Momentum evaluation post. I write this one every year because it was my concern about the loss of Momentum that first inspired me to start this blog. Normally I write this post between the end of the conference and my plane. This year I had only a couple of hours due to a busy schedule and I spent that at the Pinball Hall-of-Fame (and I wasn’t the only one).
In keeping with my theme of naming these posts after Clint Eastwood westerns, I have moved on from the trilogy to one that I feel more exemplifies this year’s conference, Unforgiven. Why? Simply because for most of the EMC World life, the Momentum conference has been a shell of its old self. Marriage had taken away who it really was. Well, Momentum looks like it might be back.
Before I go any further, remember I am talking about the conference only, not the content of the conference. Those follow next.
So, if you missed it, Whitney Tidmarsh announced at the info360 AIIM Conference that she was leaving EMC. In fact, her last day was March 31. She quickly handed keynote duties over to Jeetu Patel who is taking her role and assuming the mantle of Chief Strategy Officer.
The first instinct is to panic at yet another person leaving EMC. My second instinct was to put myself into Whitney’s shoes for a minute. When I took that minute, this is what happened…
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.
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.
So 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.
Well, I’m doing it again, making predictions for the next year. The sad thing is that I am even more cynical about making predictions this year than last. That is why I wrote an article for CMS Wire on Trends for 2011. I’m confident on trends but it is hard to determine if a trend will result in anything measureable.
Well, here we go. A list of predictions, and things to watch, in 2011.
So Gartner released the new Magic Quadrant last week.
Um…..
I’m a little torn here. It is an important piece of research and of value and all that, but…
Of course, it is full of useful/interesting facts, so let’s dive into it…[download a copy from Hyland Software.]
Momentum Europe, the 2010 edition in Lisbon, is this week. I can’t be there, mostly because I would have a hard time justifying the cost given how much work I do in Europe (which at last count was $0). I am a little jealous of Lee Smith getting to attend and present at the conference, so I will have to live a little through others.
Why am I sad to miss this? Well, there is the changes in three key leadership positions at IIG since EMC World:
This post has been a long time in coming. I’m not talking about the news that has triggered the actual writing of the post, just the themes of the post overall. They should be pretty clear shortly….
That said, let’s hit the headline, Mark Lewis is no longer the President of EMC’s IIG business unit, which is effectively Documentum. Rick Devenuti, formerly the COO, is effectively taking over the position.
Wow. I’m happy, but you need to read on to understand that oversimplification of my mood.
Word of Pie 