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Big Blue Cheers, 'We're Number One in ECM!'

By Barb Mosher

Nov 19. 2007

Filed Under: enterprise cms forrester gartner ibm magic quadrant

The Forrester Wave for ECM Suites in 2007 is out, and like its rival the Gartner Magic Quadrant, it has listed IBM as the leader in Enterprise Content Management.

The Forrester Wave: ECM Suites Q4, 2007 was released November 9th. It evaluated 11 ECM vendors against 60 criteria in three high level categories: Current Offering, Strategy/Roadmap, and Market Presence.

IBM was listed alongside Oracle, EMC and Open Text as leaders in Enterprise Content Management with a suite breadth and strong focus on Enterprise Information Management. Overall though, Forrester gave IBM the thumbs up for the number one spot.

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We’re talking specifically about IBM’s FileNet P8 version 4.0 ECM Suite (thank the lord for acquisitions). According to the Forrester report, “IBM distances itself from other enterprise content management (ECM) suite vendors by offering the richest core set of ECM capabilities: imaging, document management, content archiving, records management, and content integration.” In addition to FileNet P8, its Lotus offering and information management portfolio add to its clout as an ECM leader.

According to a press release from IBM, the company’s ECM suite supports the company’s global Information Demand initiative.

Notice the lack of talk about IBM’s WCM capabilities here, which are apparently lacking in a major way. Even Gartner, in its 2007 Magic Quadrant report, says IBM’s web content management lags behind their competitors.

Leaders

So who else came out smelling like a rose in Forrester’s report? Well again thank the lord for acquisitions because Oracle’s Stellent buy pushed it onto the leader board with EMC and the lone pure play vendor Open Text (bolstered by strategic partnerships alongside Microsoft and Oracle).

Strong Performers with Differentiation

Microsoft’s SharePoint is moving up. Part of its advancement is related to the single foundation for collaboration and content management issues, and to the integration with the desktop world via MS Office.

Interwoven and Vignette are hanging out here, selling content-centric applications as opposed to “a suite to rule them all.”

Lastly, Hyland Software’s OnBase differentiates itself based on its Microsoft platform and content-centric focus.

Contenters with Room to Grow

SAP is here, but maybe it should just be used solely for accessing content, not serving as repository, says Forrester. Xerox is making its mark with on-demand services like imaging and workflow.

Lo and behold, an open source vendor has made it to the score board.

Alfresco brought its offering to the table and managed to grab a seat at the back. The report says it’s best as a departmental initiative because of its lack of key capabilities like BPM, enterprise search and collaboration.

But hey, at least Forrester acknowledges there’s a whole world of open source out there that can compete. Too bad Gartner doesn’t see it the same way.

All in all, no real surprises here, since we heard most of it from Gartner first (their Magic Quadrant report was released September 30th).

Even CMS Watch has similar viewpoints on the ECM landscape. Maybe we could convince these guys to produce a single report instead of making us pay for three reports that tell us almost the exact same thing.

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Comments

Aha! But you see that's the thing - WCM and ECM are not the same thing - very different in fact, hence we have split into two reports. One web focused, the other document focused.

We agree that IBM do a good job at document management (imaging through workflow etc)...of course in our evaluation of them we also give you a deep (and truly independent) technical evaluation for your money - not just a point on a 2x2 grid ;-)

Best!
Alan

Posted by: alan pelz-sharpe on November 19, 2007 5:09 PM

your last sentence says it all. The analysts ability to charge for common knowledge are going the way of DOS and the dinosaur. The person or company that figures out how to combine the collective feedback from bloggers, end customers, and partners and present it in a free (or perhaps low fee) based format are going to put an end to the dynasty and over-lord mentalities of the traditional analyst firms. Perhaps end users (the ones that actually buy the products) will be more interested in what their peers have to say than what the vendors pay for the analysts to say. There is a business out there to aggregate that data -- who wants to build it? We can help with the workflow part.

Posted by: jeff on November 19, 2007 8:44 PM