Content Technology Choices
CMS watch has released an update of its content technology vendor map.
The Enterprise Content Line shows hubs for Open Text, IBM, Microsoft, EMC, Oracle and Autonomy/Interwoven. There is also a smaller hub for Alfresco commonly thought to be the gruntiest of open source document management products.
A couple of the strong players in the NZ market are missing (CMS Watch comment that this is just a subset of the vendors that they monitor):
- Objective from Objective Corporation
- TRIM from Tower Software (bought by HP late last year).
- And DataWorks that was going strong in the NZ local government market in the early days of EDRMS but has not won much in recent years
What is increasingly apparent - and no surprise - is the convergence between enterprise content management, web content management, enterprise portals and social software and collaboration.
This throws up an interesting dilemma for the selectors and implementators of ECM solutions. How much do we buy from the ‘get go’ and how much should we implement first up? What do we use as part of a bundle of services from one vendor versus to what extent are we going to mix and match?
In NZ, I suspect that the PRA may be distorting these choices somewhat with a strong driver behind RFPs still being PRA compliance. Note the number of tenders that are still being released asking for a PRA compliant solution - despite solutions not being compliant in and of themselves.
If the PRA driver was removed I wonder what would be the top priorities for NZ organisations in the selection of ECM solutions and what would be the strongest business reasons for investment. Is it finding documents, is it accountability/risk management, is it better ways of working together?
What have been the drivers for your organisation?
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Tags: cms watch, ECM, pra, technolgy choices
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:53 am
The driver for us is simply better document management and record keeping pratices. The PRA was the kick in the pants to get us moving in the right direction!
Key drivers are:
File and find documents.
Authoritive versions.
Breaking down information silos - knowing what we know.
Change of habits - “My Documents” folder = Pure Evil!
If we are worried about compliancy, then an EDRMS will only get you so far - what about the transactions in databases? What about the Line of Business systems? what about the people?
March 25th, 2009 at 3:20 pm
Hi Pete,
Thanks for commenting.
I think those are great drivers and the simple way that you have stated them should help avoid the ‘just for the sake of it’ requirements that seem to be prevalent in EDRMS RFPs where organisations borrow lists of requirements from ERKSS, an international standard or from each other without thinking about what these requirements would actually mean for their organisation.
I also think there’s an increasing appreciation of structured and unstructured information of two sides of the same coin - all about helping us serve better and work more efficiently. I think we’ll see lots of movement here in 2009 and 2010.
Cheers
Sarah