Content management firm Documentum believes it can bring the
ballooning content on corporate Web sites back under control.
Stuart Lauchlan reports.
Ever since the Internet emerged as a viable business platform, IT
suppliers have been repositioning themselves to exploit it. In many
cases, they've done little more than stick an 'e' in front of a
product name. There is, however, much more to becoming a genuine
e-business player than overhauling the product literature. One
company that appears to have learned this lesson is Documentum,
formerly best known as a document management company, but now
reinventing itself as a Web content management firm.
"Of the 8.5 million Web sites out there, only around 2,000
currently use content management," says Jeff Miller, Documentum's
CEO. "As Global 2000 companies race to bring their businesses
online, they face a tremendous content challenge. They must manage
multiple e-business sites with hundreds of thousands of pages and
deal with the prospect of content growing at the phenomenal rate of
200% a year." Miller's thinking is endorsed by analyst Christopher
Harris-Jones of research firm Ovum. "As more and more businesses
turn to the Web, it is extremely important for them to develop a
content management strategy," he says. "The task of managing
massive volumes of changing Web content can't be executed manually.
The only solution is effective tools, which automate as much
content management as possible. These tools are the only way to
ensure a Web site remains attractive to visitors, conveys accurate
and up-to-date information, and keeps all the links working -
despite frequent updating."
But while analysts have to date given Documentum's regeneration
the benefit of the doubt, there remain wider issues at stake which
the company will have to ride out, not the least of which is the
end-user reaction to the changing forces of the market. Content
management may be the logical successor to document management, but
it remains an industry in a state of radical flux.
Document management was a process end-users grasped with
relative ease: products were little more than glorified software
filing cabinets. But in the e-enabled world, documents become
volatile and active components of collaborative commerce. It's a
complex transition for any company to make and it's notable that
Documentum's customers are huge multinationals that can devote the
back-end resources to managing the paradigm shift. A greater
challenge may yet emerge when the company targets the SME
space.
Despite these unknowns, the market presents plenty of
opportunities for new pretenders. "The 'Web content management'
label is increasingly attached to scores of rebadged products,
particularly Web development tools and document management
software," says Harris-Jones.
Document management suppliers have been managing content for
many years, when content was often if incorrectly thought of as
'just documents'. They are adding Web interfaces to their software
and bringing out modules focused on the publication of content on
the Web. The content being managed tends to be large volumes of
documents, which may be split into sub-components with significant
and often complex interrelationships.
"These suppliers often have a deep understanding of the people
and organisational issues required to implement content management
software," says Harris-Jones. "They've also built up substantial
relationships with service providers that can give additional
support to the organisational issues of rolling it out."
Documentum now intends to offer generic content management that
can be adopted by any market sector. It argues that Web content
management so far has focused only on the design and publishing of
Web pages and on Web-team productivity. But funnelling all content
through the Web team results in huge bottlenecks and the
redirection of precious resources to complete e-business projects.
According to Miller, this means typical Web content solutions fall
short of the real need to incorporate meaningful and dynamic
content from across the entire business.
To assist it in the transformation challenge, it has called upon
a series of partnerships with management consultancies, most
notably PricewaterhouseCoopers. While this enables the firm to
offer consulting assistance to end-users and also opens a number of
corporate doors, end-users may draw a parallel with the ERP market,
which also drew upon systems and services houses to implement
complex software. Many end-users ended up hostages to fortune as
the services giants effectively annexed their IT departments.
One early user that has bought into the company's new direction
is Delta Air Lines, which has spent several months updating its Web
site. Documentum software is being used to pre-assemble, track and
control versions of text and graphics objects displayed on the
Delta web site by the e-commerce transaction platform from BEA
Systems.
"The Web site is a central element in our business strategy,"
says Wayne Hyde, vice-president of ePartners at Delta. "We were
handling $400,000 a day on the site last year; now we're doing $2m
a day. At any given time we may have fewer than 1,000 or as many as
12,000 individuals logged onto the site simultaneously."
A key reason for Delta's choice of software was Documentum's
ability to support the dynamic assembly of objects. "Pre-assembling
objects allows us to optimise Web page response time for our
customers," explains Hyde, who adds that the Web content management
software also means the site can be updated and enhanced without
being shut down. "We can't just turn it off - it's too crucial to
the business. You need good content management so that you can do
all the work on your site without taking it offline."
Competitive threats to the Documentum strategy clearly come from
other software powerhouses which are unlikely to watch a
potentially highly lucrative revenue stream slip away. The likes of
Microsoft and Oracle will almost certainly pose a challenge to
Documentum sooner rather than later. For the moment, though, the
company appears to be doing nicely from its e-business
ventures.
Analysts have given a cautious thumbs-up to the new direction.
"Documentum has grasped the potential of its products in the
e-business world," argues Andrew Warzecha, analyst with Meta Group.
"The company's strategy is a positive step, and large-scale content
management deployments require more robust repository and
approval/process automation services than are currently being
offered by suppliers such as Vignette, Broadvision and ATG.
Documentum still has work to do to complete its offerings but it
has seen the e-business light and put together a viable strategy to
become a component player in the larger e-business market."
CEO Miller meanwhile is betting the farm on getting it right. He
believes content management is the future for the company. "We may
not be right with this strategy, " he says, "but we're not confused
about it."
Case Study: Ford Motor
When Ford Motor Company wanted to improve corporate
responsiveness to its network of dealers, suppliers and customers,
it decided the way to do so was via the World Wide Web. The company
prides itself on its ability to respond to enquiries and
continually evaluates new technologies to improve that process.
As a key technology plank of its marketing, sales and service
library, Ford implemented Documentum 4i eBusiness Edition to manage
corporate records, enterprise content and Web content. The platform
will be rolled out to 156,000 users throughout Ford offices
worldwide.
The library is intended to act as common enterprise repository
guaranteeing the integrity of information, automating the re-use of
information, and helping Ford in its pursuit of QS9000 compliance.
It contains vehicle literature, owner and accessory manuals,
ordering guides, policy documents and marketing bulletins. Users
can access thousands of documents using standard desktop Web
browsers. The documents relate to every Ford, Lincoln and Mercury
car and truck made since 1996. Ultimately, the library will include
international operations, making documents available in multiple
languages to facilitate global access.
The library application allows 600 staff to respond to more than
12,000 calls from customer and business accounts every day. By
getting instant online access to any section of a product manual or
related documentation, staff can handle calls faster and more
accurately. "This will accelerate the publishing of accurate
information across Ford's intranet," says Andy Shallman,
vice-president of BRT, which is managing the Documentum deployment
for Ford. The Documentum software is also saving money and
increasing operational efficiency by eliminating Web site
development and maintenance costs.
TImeLine
January 1990 Founded as a wholly owned subsidiary of Xerox to
develop, market and support object-oriented, client/server document
management software
1993 Rolled out Documentum EDMS (Electronic Document
Management System)
October 1993 Xerox sells off 62% of shares
September 1995 Announces EDMS integration with SAP's
R/3
January 1996 Announces Accelera, its first product to
manage Web content
October 1996 Announces RightSite - heavy-duty Web content
management tool
May 1997 Introduces DocSolution for Standard Operating
Procedures
December 1998 Global 2000 customer base exceeds 500
March 1999 Launches broad range of Web applications
June 1999 Announces delivery of 4i platform for managing
content creation and delivery
December 1999 Annual sales revenues reaches $123m
March 2000 Announces plans to focus on content
management
September 2000 Global 2000 customer base exceeds 900