Windows users will need to assess carefully how
specialised their content needs are before lining up for the
software giant's new content platform, says Jim Murphy
Microsoft's approach to content management will be via the
desktop. The enterprise content management (ECM) platform it
announced at this year's Professional Developer's Conference in
September is the widely adopted and growing Windows SharePoint
Services, which essentially offers Microsoft Office users content
and search services via Windows Server 2003.
Microsoft's ECM will also employ the newly announced Windows
Workflow Foundation, which will itself be available in Windows
Server.
Microsoft is finally firmly stating its plans for ECM, a path
that was inevitable considering massive consolidation in the
software market. Also, Microsoft is increasingly pressured to offer
compelling capabilities and features to spur buyers onto the next
versions of Office and Windows, which together make up about 83% of
Microsoft's revenue.
Product developments, marketing investments and partnership
efforts will be geared toward solidifying Microsoft's position.
With ECM, Microsoft is not introducing a new ECM product, but
enhancing and combining a range of existing capabilities to address
ECM problems.
The strategy should take full form in line with the introduction
of the next version of Office, at the end of 2006.
No traditional content management supplier has been blindsided
by the Microsoft news. All have undertaken strategies to compete or
complement Microsoft and the other enterprise heavyweights.
Documentum, for example, was acquired by EMC in an effort to
establish content management's position as underlying
infrastructure, right above the storage layer - that is, as opposed
to the hands-on appeal that Microsoft will invariably bring.
Open Text is acknowledging Microsoft's entry and demonstrating
industry and infrastructure support for Microsoft's ECM strategy.
Similarly, Interwoven is adopting an "If you can't beat them, hug
them" approach with an "embrace and extend" strategy to exploit the
opportunity that Microsoft's foundation will bring.
Clearly, Microsoft is not trying to put the traditional content
management suppliers out of business. Rather, it is more concerned
with growing Office and Windows revenue and protecting itself
against encroachments from IBM and Oracle.
Microsoft's advantage is not about managing a broader array of
information. Rather, its appeal will be to information workers who
are already accustomed to using Office and Outlook. So Microsoft
proposes to bring content management to the masses gradually,
rather than bringing the masses to content management, thereby
supposedly smoothing the transition (that is, if they are not
disoriented by the newly announced Office 12 interface).
Oracle's recently introduced Oracle Content Services 10g, by no
coincidence, is also billed as "content management for the rest of
us" and aligned with its Oracle Collaboration Suite.
IBM is offering an array of content management capabilities
across horizontal layers of collaboration (with the Lotus line),
middleware (with WebSphere), repository (with DB2), going all the
way down to storage infrastructure.
At the same time, IBM is offering vertical- and process-specific
systems, often with partners, to address business urgencies, while
SAP also sees opportunity in content management, although its
strategy tends to focus on content management, collaboration, and
knowledge management in the context of specific business processes
such as product lifecycle management (PLM). Still, SAP's
relationships with traditional content management providers have
been somewhat strained as SAP gradually introduces competing
capabilities to its customers.
Certainly, Microsoft, Oracle and IBM will be competing directly
for customers, but establishing and extending fruitful partner
ecosystems will be the key to long-term success. Unlike structured,
best practice-based systems such as enterprise resource planning
(ERP) and customer relationship planning (CRM), content management
needs entail variability and unpredictability across numerous
verticals and business processes, so they rarely lend themselves to
packaged software applications. Implementation and software
partners will be needed to bring value to customers as well as
protect customers from the inevitable changes in Windows and Office
in the next few years.
Companies relying on Microsoft Outlook/Exchange, Office or
Windows should decide whether, when and how Microsoft will play a
role in their ECM strategy. If ECM is to become an application for
the masses, Microsoft has a long-term advantage over other
suppliers, offering a general-purpose foundation in Windows
SharePoint Services today.
On the other hand, if you hope to reduce dependency on
Microsoft, Oracle and IBM are also making aggressive investments to
serve content management as well as related collaboration, portal
and search needs.
If you require business- or vertical-specific expertise, and
your needs are more immediate than the beginning of 2007, the
traditional suppliers mentioned above offer worthy, proven systems.
All are also making accommodations for the existence of Microsoft,
so a decision for the short term need not be short-sighted.
Jim Murphy is research director at AMR Research,
specialising in information infrastructure