Pelz-Sharpe Alan Pelz-Sharpe

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ECM Suite is an oxymoron

5-Jan-2007

Tags: Document Management (ECM), Industry Standards, Marketplace at Large, Selecting Technology

A recent blog post argued that vendors often drive discussions with buyers rather that the other way round. In that vein, I would like to state for the benefit of anyone considering buying ECM technology that there is really no such thing as an "ECM Suite" -- not beyond product labeling and marketing that is. To look at high level vendor diagrams (the kind they show you in sales presentations), you would think for example there there is a repository. Well in fact there is almost always more than one, and let's call them what they are: file stores. In any large ECM deployment, no matter which product you buy, you will have have multiple file stores for multiple purposes. You will deploy products that bear the same brand or group name, but in fact do not work together -- or only interoperate after purchasing yet another module to interpret between two systems. Despite all the hoopla about consolidation, best-of-breed remains far from dead as an option, and for those in the industry who talk about "seamless" and "integrated" digital asset, records, document, and web management, they need to look beyond the PowerPoints and get out and talk to real users.

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