Documentum has a Vision Again, How About Execution?

Last year I was pretty strong in my criticism of EMC’s lack of vision or strategy in the Content Management space. In a way I should thank them because it inspired me to write a post on the Future of Content Management that was later received fairly well at Gilbane Boston and info360.

Of course, none of that helps my existing Documentum clients, nor does it help the community at large. Well this year, EMC presented both a vision and a strategy at EMC World. I was pretty excited, not so much because I thought it was the best vision, but because it even vision.

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Unforgiven, Reflecting on Momentum 2011, Vegas

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.

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EMC World 2011: Effective Information Management for Legacy Application Retirement

It is Jeroen talking. Do I really need to give any other reason for attending? As I am missing the beginning of the partner conference, I need one. I am interested to hear their approach with xDB for this problem. They conceived of it just before the last EMC World, but it wasn’t fully flushed out. Want to see how real this is.

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EMC World 2011: Rules of the Road

Another year, another EMC World. There are a few things I am tracking that promises to make this year interesting. I can’t really share yet, but trust me, you’ll want to stay tuned.

We are still a week away, but it is going to be an incredibly busy week for me, so I want to get this out now. For those that are unfamiliar, I pretty much type notes at every sessions and hit publish at the end of the session, essentially sharing my session notes with you. These rules are very similar to last years Rules (I even cut-and-paste for a draft), but I’ve updated a bit as I do every year.

All “live” posts that follow these rules will start EMC World 2011:. This is to clearly identify them for everyone. If I write a post before/during/after the conference that doesn’t adhere to what I am laying-out here, it won’t have that prefix.

Disclaimers

I’m going to be running a basic disclaimer in all my posts. If for some reason I forget to paste it in, this disclaimer applies to all EMC World 2011: prefixed posts and you can be sure I’ll be adding the disclaimer as soon as I notice that it is missing.  This is because I will be writing the posts during/after sessions and I will hear things that I may misconstrue or that talk about future events.

All information in this post was gathered from the presenters and presentation. It does not reflect my opinion unless clearly indicated (Italics in parenthesis). Any errors are most likely from my misunderstanding a statement or imperfectly recording the information. Updates to correct information are reflected in red, but will not be otherwise indicated.

All statements about the future of EMC products and strategy are subject to change at any time due to a large variety of factors.

As indicated, if I learn later that something I posted was incorrect, I will endeavor to correct it, but it may not be immediate.

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You Ready for EMC World/Momentum 2011?

image Well, I’m not.  Of course I still have a few months before we all reconvene in the meeting of the minds in Vegas.  It is time to start getting ready.

First, EMC is looking for feedback on how to make Momentum even better.  You can take the survey in just a few minutes.  Personally, I want to see more presentations from Clients and the Documentum/IIG Community-at-large.

While I am on the topic, if you are part of the same Momentum crowd, it is time to submit your presentation topics.  The deadline is the end of December, so let’s get started!

Last year, some of the better sessions were topics that were submitted by people from outside the EMC ranks.  They told real stories where Documentum software was part of the solution and not the point of the solution.  It wasn’t about sales, it was about learning about how best to use Documentum so solve problems outside of the demo VMWare image.

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If I Were At Momentum Europe…

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:

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EMC World 2009, The Case of the Incredibly Shrinking Momentum

This year was the second year where I “felt” that there were less Documentum sessions than the older traditional Momentum conferences.  This is strange as there are more components to Content Management and Archiving, Documentum, than there were even two years ago.  Luckily, I have the conference handbooks for the last three EMC World conferences and I can check numbers while I watch a new repository build.

The EMC World 2007 conference, while under EMC World’s wing, still felt like the session count wasn’t that far off.  I remember a few grumblings, but nothing documented, so I’ll just use that as a baseline with the understanding that the previous year was at least as good.  I believe 2007 was the year that the long-standing pre-conference tutorials vanished, so calling it even is a throwing EMC a bone.

Let’s See Some Numbers

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The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, Looking Back on EMC World 2009

It has been a busy week.  I think each year my schedule get crazier and crazier while I am here at the conference.  As a result, I notice things that make it both easier, and more difficult, for me to accomplish everything that I set out to accomplish at the conference.  While it is all still fresh, and I wait for my ride, I want to share some thoughts on the conference.

Before I dive in, I want to say that I recognize that EMC has listened and tried to make the conference better for the Content Management professional. I appreciate the efforts and I hope that they continue to listen to the feedback.  No conference is perfect, but they should strive for perfection.

I shared, and gathered, these thoughts with people from EMC employees, partners, and customers.  This is a conference evaluation, not on the strategy or direction of EMC.  That will come later. Check my EMC World page for all my links.

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