Standards

ECM Standards Flurry

Hadn’t planned on this post today. Saw a post out there by Bex Huff that I wanted to comment upon. Bex basically rants in his post. I’m not being dismissive, he states that he is ranting. I like a good chunk of what he says, but I have two comments.

First, a Correction

In regards to universal connectors created by third parties, Bex states that they were bought up and shut down by Documentum. This is not accurate in the least. There were two major players at the time in the US market and another in the European market. Here is what really happened.

Continue reading →

Why ECM Standards?

4 Comments

There has been a lot of new discussion on ECM Standards of late. I’m pretty excited about it. I don’t agree with it all, but discussion is good. I can’t respond to everything in one post. Well, I can, but that will take a lot of time. So I am going to respond to lowest level observation. When I say “lowest level”, I mean that if you don’t buy into this detail, the rest are irrelevant.

Some have stated that ECM standards aren’t practicable. These reasons vary from the shifting technology to the fact that serving-up the lowest common denominator of functionality provides a nearly useless standard. These are valid concerns. The question that we need to ask is, What problem are we trying to solve?

Continue reading →

Choosing a Target for Standards

Reaction to my previous two posts revealed two simple things about the Universe. Enterprise Architects want/need ECM standards now. Enterprise Content Management people don’t think that the ECM world is ready for them. They are both right, so let the fighting begin.

Brian “Bex” Huff wrote about the lack of useful ECM standards and how writing a standard to the lowest common denominator would leave it all but useless. He raises some excellent points, but I think there is an important thing here. If an ECM system doesn’t support a minimal level of functionality, is it really Enterprise worthy? If it isn’t ready for the Enterprise, do we care if it can’t integrate with everything else? I’m thinking No on both counts.

Continue reading →

My Deconstruction

Well, it didn’t take long, but my first post on Standards has drawn some attention. James McGovern deconstructs my post doesn’t appear to pull many punches (though he may very well have done so). If you are in the ECM space, read his post. It offers an interesting view on the ECM space from the outside. While I had thought about waiting to respond until I had heard from others, my faith that I will hear from others on this topic is not very high. I would love to be proven incorrect. I welcome the feedback, but I’d like to hear from some ECM people.

I think I will start by saying that I agree with James on most points and he has a lot of valid questions. For some of them I know the answer. For others I don’t but plan to find out. And for a few I’m not sure if I can get the answers. I will be posting more on Standards as I go forward and learn more. I need to learn more first so that I don’t completely cut anyone off at the knees unfairly. Those that deserve it on the other hand….

The point of my post was mostly to mention the little I know about EMC’s efforts and remark on how my view of Standards has changed over time and recently. They are important and we need them, yesterday. Now that I’ve had this realization, I plan on making others care as well.

I will answer one question, what my definition of leaders in the ECM marketplace is. It is a very narrow definition of leading. I was referring to those that lead in the vision of what ECM is. These are the people that developed an ECM platform that can serve all parts of the Enterprise, not necessarily a platform that works as a part of the Enterprise. The type of leader that is needed, that James refers to, may not exist yet. I reserve my final judgment until I can confirm my gut on this issue.

Technology Standards and the Enterprise, Getting Too Much Attention?

3 Comments

I have a bunch of things that I have wanted to talk about on this blog. I am going to be the first to admit, that standards wasn’t really on my radar to write about here. In years past, whenever I got to the standards portions of ECM presentations in years past, I only cared because saying a product met standards meant it might be easier to sell. More recently, I had begun to understand and care, but only enough to pay more attention and think about how it can help my current projects. In the past few weeks, the topic of standards has been showing up all over my radar, and then it hit me. I need to make everyone else care as well.

Continue reading →