ECM Product Selection

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ECM Product Selection A Practical Guide
Alan Pelz-Sharpe, Principal, CMS Watch
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About CMS Watch
Independent evaluations of content technologies
practices
The ECM Suites Report evaluates of 30 major
vendors. 365 pages - updated every six months
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Bad things about ECM software

• Expensive
• Very expensive
• Clunky and difficult to use
• Major time-consuming updates

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Be a smart buyer

• Many spend more spend more time buying a 20K car
  than they do selecting a 500K ECM system
• Marketing hype obscures real capabilities
• Dont be obsessed with technology
• Most ECM systems are large, expensive and
  complex to implement - there are alternatives
• False sense of security
• vendor and product survival is not guaranteed
  not even among the large vendors and products

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ECM selection methodologies

• Most common Features-based selection
• Functional specifications actually make it
  harder to evaluate and select products
• May also force the purchase of an oversized
  solution
• Better alternative Requirements-based selection
• A pragmatic alternative in an immature
  marketplace
• All your requirements can be documented in fewer
  than 20 pages!
• Focus on key selection criteria
• Dont assume a common ECM terminology
• Use narrative use cases to provide context for
  the vendor

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Research/Input from..

• Consultants
• System Integrators
• Users/Business Units
• Buyers
• IT
• US Canada
• Europe
• India
• Australia NZ

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What the use case reveals.

• Scanning, Imaging, Recognition
• Security and confidentiality
• Document centric collaboration
• Records Management issues??
• Workflow/Case Management

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Review the alternatives

• Develop a workplan
• This can be the basis of your RFP
• Consider an RFI to narrow approaches
• Demand that responses be in line with use case -
  not generic!
• Demand to see demos not ppts

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Due Diligence

• Always interview reference firms
• Ask to see specific modules in production
  environments
• Consider a POC
• Meet the team - ensure team you meet is the team
  you work with
• Review the vendors industry credibility with a
  pinch of salt

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E is for Enterprise

• Suite for all the needs of an enterprise
• Functional solution that can scale
• ECMS
• BOB
• BCS
• Point Solution

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Example of Escalation Storage
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ECM Suite Vendors

• OpenText
• Interwoven
• Vignette
• Xerox
• Microsoft

• EMC
• IBM
• Oracle
• Alfresco
• Hyland

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Mid Market..

• EVER
• NewGen
• Tower
• Objective
• Xythos

• CA
• Nuxeo
• Saperrion
• FormTek

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Functionality and Intangibles
Example of Escalation Storage
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Scenarios
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Bubbling under.
Microsoft
Open Source
International players
SaaS
IBM Oracle
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THANK YOU
Contact Info

• aps_at_cmswatch.com
• www.cmswatch.com

Summer 2007 - Component Content Management, Web
Analytic and Basic Content Service Reports