In a recent article in Infoconomy, I argued that Microsoft and Oracle's enterprise content management strategies represent two sides of the same ECM coin.
Say what you will about Microsoft CMS (MCMS). I have criticized the company in the past and possess misgivings about what the next rev of the software means for current customers.
Among the buzz at Microsoft's Professional Developers' Conference came demos of RSS and Workflow infrastructure built into the forthcoming Vista operating system.
I say quietly, because the announcement of Oracle Collaboration 10g seems almost timid compared to the noisy but unfortunate promise of a tsunami when the product was foreshadowed last year.
According to CRN, a Microsoft executive, Chris Capossela, publicly confirmed what Redmond has been telling channel partners for some time: that MCMS will get folded into Sharepoint under the new Office 12 roll-out scheduled for the end of 2006.
Interwoven has announced plans for tighter integration between it's Worksite DM and collaboration tool and the Microsoft stack, including MS Office and SharePoint.
You might have to wait a bit longer for the much-awaited next version of Microsoft CMS (still quaintly known as MCMS 2002) according to resellers quoted in CRN.
When Oracle launches an ECM offering you have to take note, although the company has a history of talking more about content management than delivering.