Last week SAP announced that it would begin reselling EMC Documentum products to the Insurance and Finance industries. It's not a world-shaking announcement, but it is interesting for one simple reason: buyers in those sectors now have a choice.  Whereas previously they would have only had the choice of Open Text (SAP's preferred partner), now they can opt for Documentum.

It's worth pointing out that theoretically, SAP customers have always had options other than Open Text, insofar as every major document management vendor markets a connector to SAP, typically for many years now. But when Open Text is the only document management and archiving option on the SAP price list, and is actively sold by SAP reps, then it created the misimpression of "Open Text or nothing." 

So moving forward buyers in these sectors have a choice, and choices are a good thing.  You have more leverage to negotiate and more chance of finding the right fit. OK, so it's only one other vendor, but when the choice previously was something (Open Text) or nothing, any choice is surely better than none.