EMC opens Documentum up 13 November, 2007 By Paul Weinberg

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One example cited by an EMC spokesperson is the review and approval of a bank loan to a customer in the financial services sector. For this process to go forward a number of signatures are typically required on a number of documents that are in turn based on functions underpinned by different systems from various IT vendors.

A single content enabled solution could merge all of the steps and allow everyone in the decision-making chain to work from the same set of information, stated Steve Robins, director, industry and solutions marketing for EMC.

"As opposed to a paper based system where it has to be either photocopied, or moved around organizations, everybody can have immediate access to it and it is all the same information."

The other element is that this same content enabled solution might include embedded security policies that determine which employees in the decision making chain have access to particular documents on the people seeking the bank loan, Robins continued.

"Typically [in content and records management], you need to purchase one technology from one company and another technology from another and instead of doing that we have a complete solution to solve this problem."

EMC has broadened Documentum in the latest version to be more of a solutions oriented platform, which ISVs can use to build solutions to solve specific business problems.

"There are a lot of these pieces that come together to form a content enabled solution and we have been working with companies close to 20 years providing solutions.[Documentum 6] is the next logical phase in the development," stated Robins.

Making Documentum more solutions oriented is a necessary step if EMC wants to penetrate specific vertical market niches among small and medium sized businesses that generate $50-million or less in revenue, stated George Goodall, senior research analyst at the Info-Tech Research Group.

The big software companies behind the major various application specialties such as enterprise resource planning and content management are finding that the large enterprise market is saturated, the analyst continued.

"They realize they can't do it by themselves; so they have to develop a platform to drive a channel ecosystem. So, the channel partners can develop the specialized template that is required to get down to that size of the customer."

EMC has a host of competitors in content management including IBM's FileNet, Open Text and Microsoft.

But the player giving EMC a run for its money because of its high profile in the mid-market is Microsoft with its Office SharePoint server 2007 plaform, Goodall suggested.

"The new SharePoint, lacks the functionality of a broad mature product like Documentum, but it has a lot of market traction, a lot of interest and more importantly a huge eco-system of channel partners who are willing to extend and do things with it." Nonetheless, the analyst added, EMC does have some advantages including a broader storage/software focus in its current product line, and the decision by the vendor to make Documentum "a more open platform."

Currently, more than 500 partners including resellers, ISVs and system integrators are engaged in the Documentum eco-system.