Good article from David Coleman over on Collaboration Loop. The partnership with Opentext is a very good example of leverage of the Microsoft platform and a strong solution for clients.
OpenText (http://www.opentext.com/) under the strategic leadership of Tom Jenkins has evolved from a document and archive management firm to a serious player in the collaboration space. With their new strategy we at Collaborative Strategies believe that they are a good vertical counterpoint to Microsoft’s horizontal play in this space. …
…There are a number of “elephants” in the collaboration space, and Microsoft is one of them. Rather then being on the dance floor with these behemoths, OpenText has wisley decided to work with Microsoft and add on to what they are currently offering. Microsoft is seen as a “horizontal” collaboration play. As it turns out, OpenText found that about 60% of their 20 million users also use Microsoft desktop applications and SAP. So OpenText did deals with both of these “elephants.” To the features found in Microsoft desktop applications and SharePoint, OpenText offers a search engine, archiving engine, portlets and case management. Partnering with Microsoft gives OpenText access to the 800 million users of Microsoft desktop applications….
[Via Collaboration Loop]
Odd. and its being touted as a corporate collaboration suite.. Surely it searches ?
—* Bill
LOL
@ Bill. No The current enterprise search in SharePoint is very good and it also provides search capability beyond the SharePoint SQL store. What I suppose the article indicates OpenText has specific functionality alongside / on top of this. Rest assured that search has a very strong focus moving forward as well so you can expect a lot in the new SharePoint release.
@ Ben. 😉 lessons learned here. The new SharePoint version wont be the same as SharePoint 2001 to 2003.
I think all of us in the industry are watching Microsoft closely in the New Year – and though there is clearly a lot of talk around MS ECM. Its still unclear to me where the OpenText situation fit’s in…
MS already has good partnerships/relationships with Interwoven (via the iManage acquisition) for example. How is this different – possibly MS is considering buying OTX, and there would be some sense in that.
But it raises a lot of questions – what about Meridio for example, are they now out in the cold???
I have heard from enough sources that MS is going to do a good job in ECM, and that the roadmap is solid. But anouncements such as this to be honest simply muddy the water for me….
So, let me get this right…
Without a 3rd party application you can’t even search sharepoint properly?
Hold on, will OpenText allow you to archive documents from Sharepoint and then import them back into the next collaboration product you’re had to upgrade to 2-3yrs later? Could be very useful.
The next MS collaboration product is bound to be 64-bit and won’t be a straight upgrade from Sharepoint, just one of those nice rip and replace things.
Alan,
I do not have all the answers either.
I personally don’t think Meridio is out in the cold as you put it. Meridio was one of the first ECM ISV’s who bet on SharPoint / Office System as the underlying platform. In its footsteps companies like Tower Software and OPen Text follow.
MAny of these ISV’s provide added value to what Microsoft provides as a platform. This added value can be achieved in for example solution for vertical markets (pharmaceuticals is a good example) as well as specific horizontal solution (SOX for example)…
Hang on Peter – *another* version of sharepoint ? God, I hope for your customers sake that you can migrate to it…!
🙂
A Microsoft Roadmap. Its less a roadmap than a list of desires. Its always amusing comparing the plans with the actual product when it comes out, isnt it ?
—* Bill
Bill,
Sorry to have to say this but your comment clearly shows you have some catching up to do Bill. On one hand your are “complaining” that the speed of innovation on Exchange isn’t going fast enough and on one hand you seem surprised that Microsoft is innovating of of its most successful products : SharePoint ?
Just as IBM releases new versions of Lotus Notes / Domino so does Microsoft …
SharePoint is part of Office System, so in this “wave 12” besides the new version of MS Office also a new version of SharePoint will be released.
Motivating clients to migrate to this new version is just as challenging as for any other software vendor who releases new versions of its products.
If you read up on the stuff I have posted around ECM for example you will recognise one the the motivators for clients to consider this new version.
Och, I’m not complaining about innovating sharepoint. I just hope to god that the actual users have been considered, and its not another “death march” upgrade for the poor customers.
Consider E12. Bereft of features, they decided in their questionable wisdom, to make it 64 bit. Apparently the old creaky Jet Engine required more memory space(and presumably more memory!) to make it efficient.
No actual business features mind. Just 64 bit platform. 64 bit windows, 64 bit AD, new data store, new hardware.. A “minor” upgrade. yeah.
So now this “new” version of sharepoint. I just hope that the customers can upgrade in place (as previous exchange upgrades could not).
I’m not complaining that microsoft is innovating.. This might be the first actual example of it this millenium. I just hope those rocket scientists in redmond thought of the customer this time, and not how “cool” it is, or how “neat” the UI is.
🙂
Still, as you pointed out, theres’ a bunch of Greyheads from Iris there to keep them right this time… They’ve a lot to learn about backward/forward compatibility from Notes, as your Colleague Michael Koglier likes to say… Actually, I think he likes to say “why doesnt notes die!!!”… Because, of course, the customers still gain huge business benefit from its continuity…
—* Bill