Last month I went to O'Reilly's Tools of Change (TOC) Conference in New York City to learn about how technology is changing the ways in which publishers produce content and in which the public consumes that content.. It's a big, broad subject, and I wasn't there specifically on Brilliant Leap business, but guess who I saw there? Nearly two dozen customers that EMC's Content Management & Archiving division and I have in common.
And yes, I know that vendors can't attend or sponsor every conference at which business opportunities might exist, but...as recently as last November I had attended an EMC co-hosted event “Digital Publishing and Media 2010" that was targeting the same kind but (less receptive) audience.
I found it curious.
The Documentum customers that I spoke to were still in discovery mode; they were exploring what "next steps" they might take to insure their profitability and survival (and they all involved customizing and/or digitizing content and delivering it in multiple formats). Many of them "still" use Documentum as a repository, but they didn't think that Documentum had any new capabilities that would help them move toward the future.
How about the stuff that was presented at EMC's Digital Publishing and Media 2010 event, I had to wonder. Was EMC expecting its partner HCL to show up in all the right places and do all the selling?
Speaking of partners, there were a few EMC-CMA partners exhibiting at the conference, but they were featuring solutions that didn't include EMC products. Why not?
"Documentum is too expensive and you have to pay Accenture for two years to get it implemented," said a vendor rep who used to work for EMC.
I wonder if that's still true. Isn't Documentum becoming more and more configurable and plug'n'play?
Which actually brings me to another point, totally unrelated to the Tools of Change Conference. Where are these plug'n play, easy-to-configure solutions EMC has been promising? For example, Pie says that CenterStage simply isn't ready yet and that some Documentum customers may have to go to a Sharepoint option to get the collaboration capabilities that they need. (Ouch!)
And when it comes to Life Sciences, CSC will sell any flavor of solution (Documentum or Sharepoint) a customer wants to buy. Needless to say, CSC is the big winner in this equation. So my questions are:
- Other than to avoid the pain that comes with any kind of change, is there a reason for existing Documentum customers to stick with the platform?
- Is there a compelling reason for new customers to buy Documentum?
Sure compliance is one answer, but Sharepoint and Alfresco (if they're not already there) will eventually catch-up in that area.
So, what do end users gain, over the long haul, by sticking with or buying Documentum?
It's a serious question. And I'd seriously like to have a reason to write something promising about the future of Documentum. Help me.
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