EMC's Case Framework Platform xCP Saves Time and Money

By Barb Mosher (@barbmosher) Oct 6, 2009

EMC Finalists for xcP Platform Developer Challenge When EMC Documentum's (news, site) xCelerated Composition Platform (xCP) was released in June of this year, it was not to great fanfare. But that didn't mean that EMC didn't think they had a great platform on their hands. They wanted to clearly demonstrate the cost and time savings it provided — "proof points", Whitney Tidmarsh, Chief Marketing Officer, Content Management and Archiving Division called them.

Now they have those proof points with the announcement of five finalist companies from their Documentum xCP Designer's Challenge. Read on to learn more about the xCP Platform and the Challenge.

xCelerated Composition Platform (xCP)

xCP was first announced at EMC World in May. It is a platform that allows you to build and deliver case-based solutions rapidly. It includes pre-packaged and pre-integrated components for content management, business process management, monitoring and reporting, compliance, intelligent capture, collaboration and customer communications management.

As a note, CMIS is built into the xCP platform and EMC is excited about the specification becoming an official standard in a January 2010 timeframe.

This is not a platform that requires a lot of coding, but rather composing and configuring. Also included in the platform are rapid deployment tools, best practices and solution accelerators.

When developing xCP, EMC looked at the predominate use cases for Documentum and selected the top 20 applications. These applications had two common elements:

A heavy dependence on BPM (both predetermined and non-determinate)
They were very oriented around composite filing — a Case

Roughly 1.5 years in the making, Tidmarsh called it a work in progress. EMC is working with partners now to flush out Solution Accelerator aspects of the platform. They claim case-based solutions can be created 50% faster than traditional approaches.

To prove their claims, EMC issued the Designer's Challenge in May.

Documentum xCP Designer's Challenge

The challenge went out to anyone, not just their current customers/partners, to develop a value-based application using xCP and say how long it took. EMC was pleasantly surprised at the solutions that were developed for this challenge.

The criteria for how the five finalists were chosen:

Build a solution someone would actually use in a business scenario
Use a wide range of xCP's capabilities and components
A focus on composition and configuration and less on coding

Today, the top five finalists are announced. So what solutions made the list?

Healthcare Content Collaboration Gateway Application: Developed by Trends Global in just 8 days, this is a virtual patients records solution.
Contract Lifecycle Management Application: Developed by EMC partner Selectica in 45 days, this was a pilot solution for a redesign of their Contract Management solution.
Case Book Application: Developed by MatchFirst in 22 days, this is a generic case book application.
Roadpulse Application: Developed by Booz Allen Hamilton in 8 days, this is a local and state government notification system for infrastructure concerns.
Education Center Application: Developed by Avantias ub 18 days, this solution streamlines the education center.

xCP Welcome Screen

xCP Electronic Patient Record

The winner will be announced at Momentum Europe in Athens, Nov. 9-12, 2009. They will receive US$ 35,000 cash prize and an opportunity to demonstrate their solution. Second place wins US$ 10,000 and third place US$ 5,000.