Quarterly results have never been so closely scrutinized as they are right now. Tony yesterday contrasted the varying fortunes of Interwoven and Vignette. Today we get news from EMC that it boosted revenues in 2008, exceeding many Wall Street expectations.

In fact storage and information management vendors in general are expected to do relatively well in this downturn as information volumes are not shrinking they are only growing, and as data remains blissfully unaware of '"recessions'." That's the good news . The bad news is that EMC plans to lay off 2400 people.

As an ECM watcher I want to know exactly how EMC's CMA (Content Management & Archiving) division fared before projecting my thoughts out too far, but my suspicion is that they have done OK -- and that they will continue to be an ever more strategic and important part of EMC's market strategy. But laying off so many people in such a bad economy despite recording huge revenues (nearly $4B a quarter), will do little to improve EMC's image.

For though we often suggested adding EMC|Documentum products to our clients' short lists, our own experiences and those of our EMC customers reflect back an often harsh, tough, or callous (take your pick) approach to business on behalf of the vendor. It's an image many EMC employees are quite brazen about and proud of -- but it's not heartwarming stuff, and plays out badly with many of their customers and the industry as a whole.

The fact is that 2009 and will be a tough year for some businesses while others will thrive. It's always the way -- in tough times the biggest fortunes are made. And in these tough times, task automation, litigation, and self-service will become mantras. Firms that sell solutions to meet those specific customer needs will likely do well.

Yes it's a tough world, yet those who plan to capitalize on other peoples' distress, can choose to do so either callously or with modicum of humanity.  It would be good to see a bit of the latter come into play as the year progresses.