HP has been offering Document and Records Management (RM) for two years.  Yet, buyers typically don't short-list the vendor, and many don't even know that HP has an offering in this space.

In 2008 HP bought TRIM, a well established RM system, by acquiring Tower Technology. When combined with HP's own archiving technology, TRIM looked set to offer a compelling and cost effective system to the market. Indeed the sheer scale of HP as an organization, along with its expertise in Archiving and Storage, suggested that they could become a major presence in the ECM (Enterprise Content Management) sector, either leading, or at least competing alongside the likes of EMC and IBM. But as of today, despite the acquisition of TRIM, HP has yet to make a mark.

I have recently been updating the HP TRIM product evaluation for our ECM vendor evaluations, and in the process of that work can at least acknowledge that HP seems to have finally figured out what they want to do with this technology.  They want it to be the cornerstone of what they would describe as a "Governance Engine," a unified a approach to centralizing the work of retention, disposition, and archiving of unstructured (think documents) and structured (think databases) information across an enterprise's many systems.

This lies in contrast to their earlier plans to deliver (probably via further acquisitions) a broad-based ECM platform. The apparent impetus for this new HP strategy has been viral SharePoint deployments, and as TRIM was always a Microsoft-centric product set, it has not been too hard for HP and redirect TRIM toward that market.

As we have often stated here, RM is an important but underfunded and under-acknowledged enterprise need. How well HP will do I cannot say, but what gives me pause is that their present strategy seems very reminiscent of fellow IT giant CA.  CA bought a collection of RM and archiving technologies, designated them as a central part of their enterprise governance strategy, and after failing to make any progress, they sold the lot to Autonomy.  CA's strategy was a total failure, and the best one can say of it is that they got a bit of money back at the end of the experiment.

Enterprises need RM solutions that are user friendly, affordable, and efficient. They also need a broad community that more effectively champions RM and better articulates its real value. Hence I'll watch HP's progress with considerable interest, as the role of chief RM cheerleader in this market is currently vacant, and is in need of being filled. With luck and a good wind, other vendors along with HP will also rise to the RM challenge and help to redefine its role within today's enterprise. I am not so much interested in whether HP can sell its products, but as to how they can contribute to a much needed dialogue, and be a part of much needed change.