There's something happening here. What it is ain't exactly...

There are some Documentum die-hards leaving EMC. Their reasons?

" I’m due for a change ," says Craig Randall, formerly a Distinguished Engineer, EMC.

Don Robertson, who was an architect at EMC in Documentum's Platform group, simply says, " In a few weeks I will leave EMC to take on a new position ."

Both Randall and Robertson have nice things to say about EMC's and Documentum's future direction, but I wonder how cool each of them actually thinks it is (the Documentum-related part, anyway).

Do software engineers really leave their jobs when they see something really revolutionary happening with the products they're currently developing?

Do they leave when the stock is rising sharply?

Or are EMC's plans for Documentum simply not compelling enough to retain these very talented fellows? I suspect the latter.

And I'm sure (and I'm being sincere here) that it's just by coincidence that Laurence Hart aka Pie recently blogged about his first Content Management application and that "Documentum Guru" Johnny Gee blogged about his introduction to Documentum and that EMC's Lee Dallas blogged on the same topic.

It feels kind of like a eulogy. Not of Documentum itself, but of Documentum as we know it.

And based on the position descriptions I'm seeing  lately, Documentum is no longer the "job ticket" it once was ; in fact the demand for Documentum professionals is at a four year low.  This is partly due to the recession, of course ; but there's also the Sharepoint factor to consider. After all, even though the demand for "Sharepoint ECM" has fallen of late, it was nearly non-existent in  July of 2006. It's also important to note that not every company who lists a "Sharepoint ECM" related position uses the term ECM; consider that the overall demand for Sharepoint professionals has risen dramatically,

All that being said, I'm not suggesting that Documentum Pros should head for the soup kitchen. The demand for exceptional Documentum professionals is still high. We're also seeing a new demand for Documentum + (a new technology) architects, administrators and developers.

What should you be doing if you're a Documentum Pro who wants to continue growing your earning-ability? Learn something in addition to Documentum. I suggest Sharepoint, Alfresco, Adobe Flex. What's being paired with Documentum where you work? E-mail me (Virginia@BrilliantLeap.com)  and let me know. I'll compile the results and post them. That way we'll all know what's hot and what's not in the land where Documentum was the only main player.

Comments

[twitter.com/piewords]

It was a coincidence. I was having drinks with Cheryl McKinnon who was with Open Text (now with Nuxeo). She came from the PC DOCS crowd where I started. After talking for a few hours I was inspired to write my post. That, in turn, inspired 20+ people to do the same, including Johnny and Lee.

I'm not worried, yet. If I see higher level defections, then I will worry.

-Pie

[shiningarts]

Documentum as we know it may become history as we are witnessing IT industry great shift as the big wave “Cloud Computing” is about to crashing in. I used to work intimately with some of the people listed in the blog. No doubt, they are some very smart and intelligent IT professionals. Nevertheless, they are the old guard. They are accustomed to the old way of thinking in IT processing. They are leaving because their previously sought-after expertise has become yesterday’s relic in the new world of transformation.

The role of ECM will be inevitably diluted or redefined as this trend continues and accelerates as the expected IT industry transformation is going into the full swing. One of the examples of these trends is social software, where all sorts of processes and other IT stuff, including ECM, converge or mash up into something we are just discovering. In the big scheme of things, this change is not only happening in ECM space, it is occurring in every software or hardware environment. EMC is one of the software and hardware vendors who seem keenly aware of these changes and they are trying to adjust their trajectory proactively. Unfortunately in the sight of some, brand names such as Documentum will be lost in the midst of the transformation.

I think Microsoft is thinking ahead and not considering SharePoint as a part of ECM as it does not truly fit into ECM space. I think it is a hybrid of the social software and proprietary architecture with some ECM tendencies. However, there should still be a sizable demand for ECM professionals in the foreseeable future since the new paradigm will not be up and running instantaneously. In fact, the needs for good Documentum professionals will go up in the short term because the old ECM skillsets are hard to find and no new professionals are going to join due to the aforementioned trends. After all, it is a little difficult to become an effective Documentum consultant by and large because you’ve got to be a jack-of-all-trades because Documentum tends to intersect at all kinds of IT touch points with other technology. Check this out: http://www.cmswatch.com/Trends/1699-ECM-skills-shortage . But the demand will eventually wane as the other paradigm rises and sticks as a prevalent consensus of the future IT processing environment. Well, we are getting overly philosophical, reflective, or weighty these days…

[twitter.com/kominetz]

I wouldn't wait too long to see what senior management does; they have easier outs if something bad happens. It's like you're on a ship, there's an iceberg dead ahead, and you don't have a life jacket. You can either wait to see what the people with life jackets do, or you can go get a life jacket of your own ...