Brilliant Leap

Why Java developers should learn Alfresco

I've got a heck of a recruiting assignment on my hands, one of my clients needs extremely bright JAVA developers to join their Enterprise Content Management solutions team. I'm talking about folks who have worked with Java 6 for the past few years, who get excited about design patterns, TreeMaps and maybe even Open Source. My client wants to train them to become Alfresco developers.

"What a great opportunity," those in the ECM space tell me.

"I'm interested," say the Documentum developers I speak to.

But my client isn't interested in most of them. "Documentum people don't know Java, they know Documentum JAVA," is what the say when I present them.

"Your client may be right," say some of the Documentum gurus I mention this to. "The API does a lot of the JAVA work for you."

So that leaves me recruiting well employed, well paid JAVA developers who have barely heard of  ECM, WCM, Alfresco, Documentum, Open Text, and explaining to them that there's an exciting future in the ECM/Alfresco space.

Now let me be clear, I'm not complaining and I'm not lazy. I get paid for identifying top talent and helping them see that my clients have better opportunities for them than their current employers. And I almost never work with a client companies who aren't growing rapidly, who don't offer attractive compensation packages, and who aren't doing exciting things.

My challenge is illustrating why a future with Alfresco  (which is an Open Source ECM technology)is brighter than sticking with just plain JAVA.

Putting Documentum WebPublisher to bed

I hadn't intended to write another post about EMC's decision to replace Documentum WCM with Fatwire's WEM (Web Experience Management), but I've gained some new insights since I wrote the original post. I also got some interesting comments that I thought were both intelligent and worth mentioning here.

First the comments:

John Kominetz wrote:

Here are my thoughts on Brilliant Leap’s latest post about EMC dropping Web Content Manager [Brilliant Leap: Na na na na, Hey hey-ey Goodbye].

I remember when Documentum turned its back on their Big Pharma customers to chase the web content management dream during the tech bubble. So now they’re backing away from WCM after dropping DCM? Hmm. Then there’s EMC’s “we’re not worthy” submissive stance regarding Sharepoint. Hmm.

Finally, the choir admits that Documentum is losing marketshare

I've been ranting at EMC for more than three (3) years, writing big, long posts that say that Documentum is losing important customers. I first wrote about it in  April 2007 when ECM Managers in Pharma and Finance began asking me what I was hearing about Sharepoint. I wrote about it some more when  Documentum developers started to ask me if they should be learning to work with another ECM vendor's (Sharepoint, Alfresco?) software. 

Then I wrote about it again in July 2007 when industry analyst Alan Pelz-Sharpe said it was a good time for Life Sciences firms to reassess  their ECM investments. In case anyone is not aware, the majority of the big Pharmas were (and, in fact still are) heavily invested in Documentum; but they're beginning to move away from it. Some of them have plans to move to Sharepoint; some have moved specific application areas to other ECM systems; and others are saying things like "We'll keep it as a repository for now." I have not spoken to a single Documentum client in the Life Sciences industry in the past 15 months that has indicated that they're planning to increase their Documentum footprint.

Now I've been a Documentum recruiter since the early 1990's ; I have a big database of Documentum corporate clients, professionals and end-users. I have typically been a big Documentum cheerleader because the community of Documentum professionals I have worked with (and continue to work with)  were so passionate about the "wins" the technology could deliver. Early on people saw that Electronic Document Management Systems (as they were called at the time, the "E" became "Enterprise" a few years later) might help take the drudgery out of drug submissions and clinical processes; they saw that it could be used for drug labeling and to help document important manufacturing data. If  patients reported adverse drug reactions, or if it was found that a "lot" of drugs had been contaminated, they could be tracked down quickly. Some visionary CIO's hoped to build "digital dashboards" using Documentum that would help scientists and researchers share information so that they might discover new therapies. In many ways these people believed that the systems they designed and the programs they coded would help save, or at least improve people's lives. According to EMC blogger Pie, Razmik Abnous said that:

Na na na na, Hey hey-ey Goodbye

Barb Mosher at CMS Wire writes that "EMC says they can't own and be experts in everything, so strategic partners are a critical element to their business strategy." She is alluding to EMC's announcement that they are partnering with Fatwire to "jointly offer solutions for Web experience and brand management."

Say ta-ta to Documentum's WCM offering and to Web Publisher.

Pie and the Big Men On Content have already discussed the benefits of this move from an EMC perspective. In summary, they say this: EMC's WCM offering stinks, Fatwire's rocks, so EMC is going to give up on trying to get its WCM offering right and will begin to offer Fatwire to its customers.

For Documentum customers (or future Documentum customers) who haven't yet invested their time and money into making WCM work for them, this sounds like a clear win. But what about those who use Web Publisher now?   It's predicted that EMC will be sunsetting it before the end of 2010, and though they'll continue to support the product for the next few years, they won't be updating it or its features. So, the bottom line is that current Web Publisher customers have some decisions to make.

Got an ECM Project to do? There's never been a better time....

Last week I went to Alfresco's Lunch and Learn in Manhattan and was pleasantly surprised to find the room filled to capacity. It had been snowing that morning; there were 90+ car crashes in the area and even the trains were running behind schedule. Despite all that, the ECM inquirers, end users, and geeks didn't let the weather keep stop them from trudging through midtown to see what the Open Source ECM vendor had to offer. I went because I wanted to learn about Alfresco's latest features (3.2 was released in January) and because it was a good opportunity  to say "hey" to a handful of folks that I knew would be in attendance.

What I found exceptional about this gathering (aside from the content) was the diversity of ECM/Document Management experience among those in attendance. On one end of the spectrum was Adam Storch of Microstrategies, who has been building ECM/DM solutions for over 17 years, (using the likes of  Alfresco, Interwoven, Documentum, FileNet, Sharepoint... should we count Lotus Notes?), on the other end was a woman who was just beginning to think about dipping her toe into ECM waters. "We have to start managing our content, so we're exploring the possibilities," she said. She went on to explain that she'd been talking to a number of different vendors. "Which one is best?" she asked.

"It depends on what you want to do and on who you ask," I told her.

I offered to introduce her to some ECM veterans sitting in the room, but she declined. "When people are presenting their solutions, they all sound wonderful," she said. "But I'd bet that getting the "walk" to match the "talk" is an entirely different thing," she added, noting that she had one chance to "get it right." 

As we went on talking, I thought about all the different people who I knew that could help her, and came to realize that I could ease her fears. ECM/DM technologies were no longer new. There are many people who have over a decade of experience; they know from trial and error what works and what doesn't; and they've developed methodologies which deliver time and time again. This wasn't true in the early to mid-1990s when having prior imaging experience, knowing how to spell Documentum, or how to program in Visual Basic in conjunction with Crystal Reports were often enough to win you a job. Back then, people were building solutions hoping that they'd not only meet the users' needs but that they'd actually work. This doesn't have to be the case any more.

Liquent's New Daddy Has Bucks

Why is no one writing about Liquent being acquired by Marlin Equity Partners? Sure, there’s a press release (the same press release) all over the web, but no one seems to be speculating as to why Thomson-Reuters sold Liquent (to make money? to cease losing money on its investment? it longer fit its product portfolio? they got an offer they couldn't refuse?....) or exactly why Marlin purchased it.

For those who aren't familiar with the document/information management/regulatory Life Sciences space, Liquent (its products include(d) Insight Manager, Publisher, Viewer, CoreDossier, and EZsubs) provides the software that most of the major pharmaceutical and biotechnology firms use to prepare and publish their drug submissions to the FDA and its international counterparts. Founded as ESPS (Electronic Submissions Publishing Systems) in 1993, with funding from Adobe Ventures, it initially revolutionized the assembling and publishing of documents required for new drug applications (NDAs). Though I’m not able to find precise data on Liquent’s market share, I think it’s safe to say that more than half of the large pharmas use its products for FDA submissions (industry analysts have said that as many as 33/50 of the top Life Sciences firms used CoreDossier at one time). I believe that Liquent has since lost market share to companies like Image Solutions  , Extedo, and most recently Datafarm .

For those of us who are unfamiliar with Marlin Equity Partners, the company says that it:

Announcing Open-line Wednesdays

How's the market? We're probably asked that question more than any other. Jobseekers want to know, clients (companies that hire employees and contractors from us) want to know, and people who just want to know what they could be making if they were working somewhere else want to know. And, chances are, we have a better chance at answering the question that anyone else.

Digitize or be gone!

Digitize or disappear, that was the message at the “Digital Publishing and Media 2010” round-table hosted by EMC and HCL in New York City earlier this month.

Hats-off to Lou Giordano and whoever set up the event because this was indirect selling at its finest. EMC and HCL stayed in the background while James McQuivey of Forrester Research called publishers (educational, trade, periodical), media, and entertainment companies to action.

Go digital or disappear like the newspapers have, he said. Go digital or lose to someone who will digitize and distribute (think iTunes). Go digital and distribute in multiple formats to a variety of digital devices (think about all the content that can be accessed by your iPhone) or lose customers.

Get Your Own Geek Chart!

I'm in the midst of writing a real great post about some greenfields that ECM vendors are working to get a foothold in and, quite frankly, it won't be finished tonight.

So, since I'm trying to post more regularly, I thought I'd offer our regular readers a treat instead- a link so that you can get your very own geek chart, "a little pie chart to put on your blog that links to your  contributions to the web."

The idea is that you enter your user names for sites like Twitter, You Tube,  Flickr, Facebook, and so on, and it makes a chart of where you spend your time sharing.

Can you add this app to CenterStage?

What to say next? Here's where you can make your very Geek Chart.

If you show me yours, I'll show you mine!

Sharepoint and EMC get jiggy in Vegas (and EMC wants everyone to know all about it)

In case you're not aware of it, the Microsoft SharePoint Conference 2009 is in Las Vegas this week; there's a sold-out crowd (7400 are in attendance-up 92% from last year.)  What a great thing for Vegas' economy and, of course, for Microsoft.

If there's an interesting unarticulated thread common to  technology conferences this year , it's that competing vendors are speaking/exhibiting at each other's conferences and boasting about how nicely their solutions play together. Last week Larry Ellison's frenemy Marc Benioff (Salesforce.com)spoke at Oracle's OpenWorld (post to come). This week it's EMC sponsoring SharePoint Conference 2009 (SPC2009).

How into SharePoint is EMC? EMC put a press release with the headline "New EMC Solutions Extend Customer Value of Microsoft SharePoint Server" on the front page of its website yesterday This may not seem like a big deal to those who don't follow EMC marketing, but it is; consider that EMC didn't even issue a press release concerning its agreement to offer CSC's FirstDoc as its preferred regulatory compliance application for the Life Sciences industry (see CSC's press release.) In case any EMC Documentum DCM customers missed the announcement, it's time to start thinking about saying ta-ta to DCM.

Getting back to EMC's declaration of love for (aka interoperability with) Sharepoint, EMC's Bill Galusha blogged long and hard about the subject yesterday. The short story is that EMC has  built a number of Sharepoint connectors including: