That's Not My Name is the refrain of a fun little song byt the TingTings I hear it playing in clubs (those that feature SPIN bikes, treadmills and dumbbells NOT golf clubs or booze). I have a feeling that if EMC's CMA division could sing, Joe Tucci would have it blare out that refrain every time someone refers to it as Documentum.
Why am I saying this? Here's a list of tweets from EMC World:
Joe Tucci wants us to stop using the Documentum branding, and focus on the EMC brand. Did someone forget to tell Mark Lewis? #emcworld
at cma aka artist formerly known as documentum bash at #emcworld with karin, jerry, geoff
Tucci is trying not to say Documentum. Winding-down the branding. EMC and VMware only. But doc management and archiving important
The intros are over. Time to see if #EMC has learned how to keep the #Documentum / CMA people from feeling cut-off. #emcworld
Now, does Documentum de-branding matter? To many well-established Documentum professionals I think it might; after all, they've spent years building their expertise with the technology and it has only recently become pervasive enough that it's no longer mistaken for some specialized form of documentation. "Documentum" has only recently won its own place on drop-down menus on professional and career-related sites as well, and I doubt that most professionals who identify with the term "Documentum" identify as comfortably with the term "EMC" or "EMC CMA"
On an enterprise level Documentum is most often seen as a product/platform in its own right though users clearly recognize that licensing fees are payable to EMC.
Wikipedia says that: Documentum is an enterprise content management platform, now delivered by EMC Corporation, as well as the name of the software company that originally developed the technology. EMC acquired Documentum for $1.7 billion in December, 2003. The Documentum platform is part of EMC's content management and archiving business unit, one of EMC's four operating divisions. (Maybe someone at EMC wants to correct this last part?)
So is there anything wrong with thinking about Documentum as an ECM platform which may, or may not, have anything to do with the rest of the EMC stack? Surely EMC sales and marketing pros are savvy enough to sell the value-add and ease of interoperability achieved when used with other EMC products.
Now, after writing the above, I did a little more due diligence and watched a video interview with Mark Lewis who seems to say that calling Documentum, "Documentum" is ok; as long as it's clear that Documentum isn't a brand. He says that EMC is the brand. And though I think the reporter in this interview did a great job, I wish she had asked a few follow-up questions:
- Is EMC a brand of Enterprise Content Management System or is Documentum?
- Is Cheerios a brand of cereal or is General Mills?
- If you sent your kid to the store to buy Cheerios would you even bother mentioning General Mills?
General Mills seems to be ok with Cheerios being its own brand, here's what the say on their site:
General Mills markets some of the best loved, most trusted brands in the world. From Betty Crocker and Pillsbury to Cheerios and Green Giant, our brands are consistently category leaders.
So, come on Joe, if Cheerios can be its own brand, can't Documentum be a brand as well?
What do you think? Reply here OR there's a poll on LinkedIn.
