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SOAPBOX
43
The beginning of the
end for ECM
The OpenText acquisition of Documentum represents a
changing of the guard in the ECM market and an opportunity
for emerging providers, claims Julian Cook, Director of UK
Business at M-Files
information is almost entirely based on
where the information is stored. There are
two fundamental flaws with this approach.
First, information often has to be in
more than one place, which varies based
on the role of the person needing the
content, as well as where the information
is in its lifecycle. For example, a contract
may be important to a sales person on
the basis of the customer it relates to,
but for the legal department, its relevance
might be based on the type of contract
it is and whether it is coming up for
renewal. Devising a single folder structure
to enable both sales and legal to manage
this document in a way that is clear and
relevant to them is impossible.
Second, folder structures are almost
entirely subjective as people organise
and manage information in a way that
makes sense to them as an individual.
This cannot be reconciled without forcing a
static structure in a top-down fashion. This
is the old way.
The new approach is all about context
– what the information is and whether it is
relevant to the user’s current need. In the
modern, ‘what it is vs. where it is stored’
approach, any information can show up
in multiple places based on the context.
These places aren’t fixed, they are dynamic.
A single, unique contract can show up
with other customer-related information
for sales, and also show up with legal
contracts, independent of customer, for
the legal department. This new approach
to ECM is not just about cloud or mobile,
it’s about a whole new dynamic way to
organise, process, secure, retain and
dispose of information.
Metadata is the driver of the new
modern architecture; it allows us to define
what something is and what it is related to
in an objectively precise and intuitive way.
Once you focus on what information is and
why it’s important, rather than where it is
located, you open up an entirely new world
of information management.
The recent announcement of the
acquisition of Documentum by OpenText
represents a watershed moment in
the enterprise content management
(ECM) market and an opportunity for
businesses to depart from the ways of
the past. Documentum and OpenText
are both over 25 years old. Companies
such as these become entrenched
in traditional business models and
approaches, making innovation in the
technology harder than ever.
This is cause for concern for the
customers of both companies, as the only
way the combined entity can show returns
from the acquisition is likely to be through
price increases or cost cutting.
While OpenText and Documentum
played a central role in the beginning of the
ECM market, they have also contributed to
many of the challenges businesses face
with their current systems. They’re complex
and difficult to use, creating barriers to user
adoption, while also being complicated and
expensive to deploy and maintain.
Furthermore, almost all ECM systems
today, including both OpenText and
Documentum, use a folder-based
paradigm, meaning that classifying,
organising, processing and securing
Julian Cook
Director of
UK Business,
M-Files
Leading the pack
Quadrant.”
Greg Milliken, vice president of
marketing of M-Files Corporation, said:
“M-Files brings an entirely new, modern
approach to managing information,
one that focuses on context, and ‘what’
information is rather than ‘where’ it’s
stored. This is a whole new way to
organise, process, secure, retain and
dispose of information, and we believe
it fits perfectly with Gartner’s recast
definition of ECM.”
According to Gartner, growth in the
worldwide ECM market is accelerating:
in 2015, it grew by 9.4% to $5.9 billion
(in constant currency), following a rise of
6.2% to $5.4 billion in 2014.
M-Files is growing even faster than the
market, with significant revenue growth in
the three main geographic regions of the
United States, Europe and Asia. A surge
in demand for cloud-based solutions has
seen a 56% increase in SaaS revenue
year-on-year. M-Files also supplies on-
premise and hybrid solutions.
Driving this growth, the company has
continued to expand its channel network
to nearly 500 partners in more than 100
countries.
1. Gartner
Magic Quadrant for Enterprise Content
Management
by Karen A. Hobert, Joe Mariano, Gavin
Tay, October 31, 2016.
M-Files Corporation is the only ECM
vendor to appear in the ‘Visionaries’
quadrant of the Gartner 2016
Magic
Quadrant for Enterprise Content
Management
, following a tightening of
the criteria for inclusion.
The report
1
states: “The dynamics of
the global ECM market are changing. As a
practice, ECM is evolving into a strategic
framework for services that target specific
use cases and audiences…Gartner has
responded to these new dynamics by
refining its definition of ECM to emphasise
a more flexible approach and by stiffening
the criteria that determine whether
vendors qualify for inclusion in this Magic
