Documentum to focus on convergence

Regular

posted 20 Jul 2004 in Volume 1 Issue 2

As part of the countdown to KM Europe 2004, which takes place in Amsterdam from the 8-10 November, ei talks to some of the key vendors that will be exhibiting. This month, David Gingell of Documentum tells Rebecca Cavalôt about the company’s plans for the event.

Since its inception, KM Europe has represented a forum for both practitioners and vendors from across the information-management spectrum. And, in line with Ark Group’s view of knowledge management as a concept that draws on document-management, content-management, collaboration and information-retrieval technologies, Documentum will look to use this year’s show as a chance to reinforce its position as a vendor that not only delivers document and content-management software, but also provides collaboration solutions.

David Gingell, vice president of marketing, EMEA for Documentum, maintains that the convergence of CM and collaboration signals a maturing of technologies. The company will showcase products that it feels will best meet client demands for solutions that address all aspects of their knowledge-management needs.

Documentum’s recent acquisition of askOnce’s content-integration technology has enabled the organisation to create a complete virtual repository solution. This facilitates the management of all aspects of cross-repository content, encompassing internal, external, structured and unstructured content, regardless of where it resides. Documentum believes this will enable customers to increase their CM capabilities, particularly for those facing regulatory compliance issues. Through the acquisition of askOnce, Documentum can now help companies manage their information through its entire lifecycle – from creation to storage, usage, search and retrieval, and destruction – to meet compliance and security guidelines.

Convergence is Documentum’s theme for the event and the organisation believes that, with CM to underpin the process, it can use collaboration to bring workers together and exploit knowledge more effectively. Advanced collaboration capabilities have been implemented into the company’s existing eRoom solution. Documentum eRoom.net is a hosted subscription-based collaborative workspace that can be tailored for specific projects, processes or business initiatives.

Recently enhanced features include:

Collaborative project and programme management – with a structured project-planning tool that provides web-based project scheduling;
Pre-configured business applications – to aid collaboration across specific work processes;
E-room communities and unlimited e-rooms to facilitate knowledge-sharing over disparate locations.

Gingell believes that customers need to rely on solution providers to automate both simple and complex business processes and that Documentum’s technological convergence will meet this requirement.

He is excited about KM Europe, seeing the event as a platform from which to generate awareness of Documentum’s expansion in this field.

“KM Europe is the most important gathering of knowledge-management professionals in one place at one time over the whole year,” he says. “It provides the perfect opportunity to position Documentum firmly under the KM banner by showcasing our integrated products.”