Busy With DoD 5015.2 Certification of MOSS 2007 – Sorry For The Lack of Posts

Forgive me, it has been a while since my last post. I have been a bit busy the last couple of weeks completing the DoD 5015.2 certification testing of MOSS 2007 (SharePoint 2007).

As I mentioned in an earlier post, AIS built the DoD 5015.2 certification add-on pack over the last several months and we just successfully finished certification testing last week.

Here is the press release Microsoft made today: Microsoft’s press release today.

The certification reports will be posted on the JITC product register located here in the near future.

This is an important milestone for Microsoft and adds significant records management capabilities to MOSS. I am happy to see this finally be available for my clients that have invested in MOSS. Microsoft confirmed that licensed MOSS clients will be able to get the DoD 5015.2 certification add-on pack without an additional charge.

So, now with that major achievement behind me I should be able to starting posting more regularly. As always I follow my number one rule: only make a post to BetterECM when I have something to say.

Update: Here is the link to the AIS Press Release

Technorati tags: ECM, Microsoft, MOSS2007, DoD5015.2, JITC, Records+Management, compliance

What Does The Future Hold For ECM?

I presented on the title of this post last Thursday at the AIIM National Capital Chapter breakfast meeting. I had a great time presenting my view of what the future may hold and talked about some of the clues that we may have been able to pick up at the recent AIIMexpo 2007 conference in Boston.

The meeting was very well attended (all you early risers ) and the discussion and questions posed by the audience was very interesting. One of my conclusions (and this should not be a surprise to anyone) was that over the next 3-5 years the Big 3 will emerge as the primary providers of the ECM core infrastructure. As ECM technologies become more of a commodity, those Big 3; IBM, Oracle, and Microsoft will also be joined by a fourth, EMC. Although  EMC will not deliver commodity ECM infrastructure per se, they will remain a significant influencer in the marketplace because of their hardware footprint and company size.

One of the other big predictions I made was that “effectively managing information becomes strategic”. I am hopeful that this prediction comes true! I believe that organizations cannot afford for this prediction not to become true if they are going to effectively leverage one of the most strategic assets they have. I also presented my new concept for how this goal and vision could become reality. I will outline this in another post.

For those who attended the breakfast event last week, I really enjoyed our time together and as usual I learned something from my audience. That is one of the reasons I really enjoy speaking at these events. You can access the slides here. Or you can click through to the BetterECM site to view the slides online.

Technorati tags: ECM, predictions, Web2.0, AIIM

Say Goodbye to Open Text?

I saw this announcement earlier this week and started to think about the Open Text acquisition rumors I’d heard about and wrote about last year.

I did not really feel the need to opine further until I caught the following post from C3 Associates today entitled “SAP Agreement to Resell Livelink the First Step in the Acquisition Tango?” and it made me think about the notion of Open Text being acquired by SAP more deeply.

Well, the more I think about it the more it makes complete sense. After IBM snapped up FileNet and Oracle bought Stellent who else could SAP turn to. SAP has established sound footing powering mission critical business processes in many Global 5000 customers but has never fielded a credible ECM solution to marry to the transactional ERP solutions built on top of SAP.

By buying Open Text, SAP can own and control the unstructured content management side of the enterprise information management equation with a credible solution that can be even more tightly integrated with SAP. It just makes sense. Especially since SAP is competing with Oracle and IBM for the remaining ERP business out there.

So, what do YOU think? Will Open Text be the next redwood to be taken down in the ECM forest?

Oh, by the way, I really like the Blog over at C3 Associates and recommend that you add it to your list of feeds.

Technorati tags: Open+Text, ECM, SAP

BetterECM Upcoming Events

The next couple of weeks are pretty busy. Tomorrow I am participating on a panel discussion called: “Point/Counterpoint: Microsoft vs. Open Source” at the Greater Baltimore Tech Council. The event will be held at the Holiday Inn Select, 2004 Greenspring Drive. Timonium, MD.

After that, I am co-presenting with Connie Moore, VP & Research Director at Forrester for an “invitation only” Executive Roundtable event at the Baltimore Ruth’s Chris Steak House. The event is entitled: “BPM: Realizing Your Microsoft Investments Through Process Automation”.

Finally, come join me for breakfast, next Thursday morning, May 10, 2007 for the National Capital Chapter – AIIM monthly event. My presentation, “What Does the Future Hold for ECM?” will look at the future of ECM by reviewing some of the clues I observed at the 2007 AIIMexpo in Boston last month. I hope to see a great turnout and look forward to a spirited discussion about the future of ECM. The event will be held at the Key Bridge Marriott, 1401 Lee Highway, Arlington, VA, Phone: (703) 524-6400.

Technorati tags: AIIM, Microsoft, MOSS2007, BPM, ECM, Open+Source, Forrester