SharePoint vs Documentum

For Microsoft health and safety of the users - is the highest priority. And to prevent people from falling and being injured while working with SharePoint on the go, Microsoft just doesn't release mobile clients for SharePoint (except one for Windows Phone, which is used by very few users). But there are people for whom money means more than user security. Harmon.ie (the company known for its Outlook plug-in, which allows to collaborate on files stored in SharePoint) has released a mobile application for iPhone/iPad that works as a mobile SharePoint app. Now mobile users with smartphones and tablets can collaboratively edit documents stored in SharePoint, comment them, track the history of changes and versions, agree the documents. It's so easy and convenient that people do this even while walking and because of this already 2675 were injured due to falls and other accidents. The sufferers have already created a web site protesting against the new mobile app - www.DontSharepointWhileWalking.com

Recently we noted that for a long time there is no news about the progress of the enterprise software superstar - intranet system Microsoft SharePoint. And today the news appeared: SharePoint 2010 finally adds full support for the third-party browsers: Firefox, Chrome, and partial support for Apple Safari. Developers say that the limitations of these browsers didn't allowed to use all the bells and whistles of the SharePoint interface before. Wow! That's a really huge achievement of SharePoint developers. There is still no word about support of mobile platforms (except Windows Phone). But there is a word about social features. Jared Spataro, Microsoft's senior director of SharePoint product management recently said that they were carefully studying the opportunities of social networking technologies for enterprise collaboration and Microsoft's approach will be to increase enterprise social features in SharePoint. Looks like SharePoint is really in crisis.

In this case by "Dropbox for Enterprise" we don't mean the business version of Dropbox. The fact is that the expression "Dropbox for Enterprise" has become a new meme. The largest enterprise software vendors want to release a product under the label "Dropbox for Enterprise". That's how they say: "We want to create something like Dropbox for Enterprise" (watch the video). Recall, Dropbox - is the super-popular file syncing and sharing service, which has already attracted 50 million users thanks to its simplicity and multi-platform support. It's business usage is limited due to the strict corporate security standards. But employees still tend to use it bypassing IT admins, and that is why the enterprise vendors are standing in the line to become the Enterprise Dropbox provider.

Today, Microsoft has rolled out a new service Office 365, which is a reincarnation of the SaaS package BPOS. The name change was expected, since Microsoft critics have referred BPOS as "Big Piece of Shit" instead of "Business Productivity Online Services". But not only name is to be changed. The new service except SaaS versions Exchange Online, Sharepoint Online and Lync Online, will include the online office tools Office Web Apps. I.e. Office 365 can now be considered as a full-fledged alternative to Google Apps. The service will be available in 2 editions. Small Business Edition for companies with less than 25 users costs $6/user/month and includes the basic functions. Enterprise edition provides additional customization and administration features, full functionality and provides users with desktop suite Office Office Professional Plus with pay-as-you-go licensing. This edition costs from $2 to $ 27/user/month depending on configuration. Recall, Microsoft also plans to include its CRM and ERP to the SaaS suite. At the moment, Office 365 is in beta stage and will be available worldwide next year.

Just yesterday we talked about Sharepoint Workspace - the tool which allows to sync files between Sharepoint server and user's computer, and today the cloud file collaborative service Box.net (which is positioned as a Sharepoint alternative) released the similar tool Box Sync. This is a program that is installed on your computer and allows you to sync any folder in your online Box.net account with desktop. If you change any file in that folder, it will be immediately synced, and those users who have access to this folder - will receive an alert. For now Box Sync is only available for Windows and only in the paid (business) accounts. Versions for Mac and Linux, as well as the free version will appear later this year.

We have already mentioned that p2p collaboration app MS Office Groove was renamed to SharePoint Workspace and utilized as an offline client for Sharepoint. Now we have got the chance to see SharePoint Workspace 2010 in action and it appears that offline access to Sharepoint - is not the only function of this application. First, SharePoint Workspace can be used without Sharepoint - as well as MS Office Groove. I.e. you can create Groove Workspace (with files, calendar, discussions) and sync it with computers of co-workers or customers. However, the audio-chat and permission levels disappeared from the application. Recall that SharePoint Workspace is not sold as a part of Sharepoint Server, but as a part of Office 2010 Pro Plus.

Last week together with Office 2010, Sharepoint 2010 was officially released. Of course, this is an important event for Enterprise 2.0 industry, however, not so important as we expected. Because despite the fact that Sharepoint 2010 was introduced as a cloud solution, at the moment neither Hosted, nor SaaS version of Sharepoint 2010 are not available. Hosted version (in BPOS-D) will be available only by the end of the year. SaaS-version (Sharepoint Online) by the end of the year will will be available for beta testing and official release is expected only in mid-2011. (We included Sharepoint Online in our Top 10 cloud platforms for Enterprise, but apparently that was too early). And now about the positive moments: Sharepoint 2010 really contains a lot of improvements that will strengthen its (almost monopolistic) position of the intranet platforms market:

It's always a pleasure to watch, when a software giant's senior manager is talking from the stage that: "guys, customers do not want to tinker with the software, they need on-demand solutions ... it's time to move the software to the Cloud." In this case we are talking about EMC. On the video - Paul Maritz, president of VMWare (which is owned by EMC), talking about the benefits of cloud technologies and presenting (of course, revolutionary) platform EMC OnDemand. This platform will be used to host the wide range of applications by EMC and its partners, but for now it provides on the well-known content management systems EMC Documentum, EMC Captiva and EMC Document Sciences. Although Documentum alrady has a set of web-interfaces, the access to the cloud version is implemented via the VMWare's virtualization technologies.

Document management systems (DMS) and related to them Enterprise Content Management systems (ECM) like all other IT solutions are gradually embracing Enterprise 2.0 technologies. This is a difficult move for them. Because DMS and ECM - are quite old and conservative technologies/systems and it's always difficult to change for old school. Besides the main DMS and ECM users are large companies and it's very difficult to upgrade them to the next level. Nevertheless, the progress goes on. Let's take a look on how the Enterprise 2.0 technologies are implemented in DMS and ECM nowadays:

CenterStage - is a collaboration solution that EMC released last year with the new version of Documentum. True, last year only the light version CenterStage Essentials, that provides basic collaboration tools,  was unveiled. Today the full-functional version CenterStage Pro is already available. It provides personal workspaces, powerful search engine, wiki, blogs and other Web 2.0 tools that make it close to Microsoft Sharepoint. Moreover, unlike Sharepoint, CenterStage allows to control version history not only for documents but also for records: blog posts, wiki-pages, discussions. Disadvantage (compared to Sharepoint) is the lack of workflow automation and metadata support. Of course, CenterStage can not be regarded as a full-fledged Sharepoint rival, because it's not a self-sufficient tool and only works in conjunction with Documentum ECM. But for those companies that already use Documentum and haven't implemented Sharepoint yet - it's a quite attractive solution.

EMC calls the new Documentum 6.5 the "perfect balance: between the modern Web 2.0 technologies and compliance with enterprise security". They say "You can provide the world's best enterprise content management system, but if end users do not like to work with it, the vast amount of information just does not get into the system. Documentum was always considered the best ECM-platform, but when it comes to user interface - it wasn't so good". The new version of Documentum includes 3 new user interfaces: Centerstage Essentials (web-interface for knowledge workers that allows to create online workspaces with social tools such as microblogs, forums, tags, ratings, galleries), Media WorkSpace (Flex-based interface for managing media content, that also provides social tools) and MyDocumentum (a simple desktop client intended to access the most commonly used content, even offline).

EMC has released the new version of its enterprise content management software Documentum 5.3. One of the main features of the new system is the module Documentum Collaboration Services, which allows to organize intranet workspaces for communication and collaboration. These workspaces may contain folders with documents, notes and data sheets, calendars and discussion. Another module EMC Documentum Business Process Engine allows to organize workflow with automated task distribution, prioritization and load-balancing. Besides the new version features the plug-in Documentum Client for Outlook, that allows to access documents and tasks from MS Outlook and easily save emails and attachments to the Documentum repository. Version 5.3 also provides enhanced search engine.

The data storage giant EMC has acquired the web-platform for enterprise content management Documentum for $ 1.7 billion. The Documentum acquisition is intended to strengthen the EMC market share in its competition with IBM. Now the users of EMC storage systems will be able to get their hands on more efficient content management tools. Cooperation between EMC and Documentum began last year when the companies developed the storage and digital archive management solution for EMC Centera. Now, this cooperation will continue in a new form - Documentum will become a division of EMC.

Documentum has unveiled the new version of its document management platform Documentum 4i. The main feature of the new version - is its webification. Documentum 4i is based on the Web-architecture that utilises Java and XML to exchange information with third-party applications. Recall, last year the company released a set of extensions Documentum Web Application Environment for web-access to the system. Now, users can access documents via the web browser just like via the native desktop app. Documentum 4i supports Microsoft IIS and Netscape Enterprise Server web servers. Thanks to the XML support Documentum 4i can run as a data source for enterprise portals, public sites and other business applications. Documentum 4i includes the new data repository Docbase server and Enterprise Document Management (EDM) Server 4.0 to automate business processes and content management.