ECM Report

My current take is…. yes and no. Yes, obviously, the industry is consolidating. Big companies are buying little companies. Duh. That’s consolidation. But are the products consolidating?

Not yet, certainly. Following the acquistion of eRoom a year ago, Documentum STILL has two completely separate (albeit integrated) products and pricing structures. Is that by design? Perhaps.

I guess I just always assumed that these deal would result in a single, consolidated product with wide ranging capabilities. But more and more I am beginning to think that it is much less about the product and much more about the sales story. Perhaps it is better for a vendor to be able to say “Sure, we have collaboration” than “sure, we have a completely integrated collaboration engine”.

I just keep crossing my fingers hoping that one day we will see a single product with a single architecture, with broad functionality across category types (CM, DM, KM, etc.) that is licensed and priced by functional categories. This scenario ultimately is the most technically sound and gives the customers the most options for deployment without necessarily being the 10,000 lb. gorilla in the first phases of implementation.

I haven’t really seen this product consolidation even though the industry has contracted. Will we ever? Are the acquisitions really just fools gold that look good on paper and generates some buzz? Are smaller, niche companies losing any sleep?