High Quality
Open the downloaded document, and select print from the file menu (PDF reader required).
Interview Laurence Hart, Senior Manager/InformationManagement Solution Lead at Washington Consulting
Hello Everybody !For the next interview, we will go to U.S.A.Today, I have the great privilege to interview
Laurence Hart, Senior Manager/InformationManagement Solution Lead at Washington Consulting, Documentum Expert, blogger of www.wordofpie.com,ECM philosopher and twitter junkie.Hello Laurence !First of all as usual, let me thank you for the time you take to share your knowledgeabout ECM.So Laurence, where content management experience has begun for you ? What wasyour first CM project and which solutions did you take?
Coincidently enough, I recently wrote about this very topic on my blog. My first system was acorrespondence tracking system for the U.S. Air Force. I was brought onto the project as thedatabase expert and was tossed the content management piece. It was DOCS Open from PCDOCS (later acquired by Hummingbird and then Open Text). We used a custom interface, butall of the content and search was powered by DOCS Open.cf.http://wordofpie.com/2009/09/08/my-first-content-management-application/
Nowadays, Is there an evolution of CM needs or is it the same as your first experience ?
The needs are the same, but the context and scale are changing. Users still need to track andmanage their content, but now we are dealing with images and web content in addition to thescanned images and Word documents. Before, we were juggling between a network share andthe new repository, now we are juggling SharePoint, multiple legacy repositories, and contentstored in non-content focused business applications. I used to just worry about securing adocument, but now I have to consider records management and eDiscovery when determininghow to handle some content.Sometimes I miss the old days.
Let's back to you for a moment, Can you tell us more about your position? What's yourrole and what are you doing day after day?
I run the Information Management Solution for Washington Consulting, Inc. I'm the leadingsubject matter expert for our company and I provide guidance to multiple projects and clientson how to address their needs. On good days, I'm sitting with clients and talking about how tosolve their problems and designing solutions for them. Quite often, I am writing proposals andfinding good people to work with on delivering solutions. I still keep my hands dirty by playing with the latest releases of software in the ECM space. I say it is to keep current, but Ireally do it because I find it relaxing and fun.
Interview Laurence Hart, Senior Manager/InformationManagement Solution Lead at Washington Consulting
Could you present Washington Consulting ? What's the purpose and objectives? Whatkind of services do you offer
?We are a Management and Technology consulting firm located in Washington, DC.Information Management is a big piece of what we do, and that ranges from developingstrategic roadmaps to "simple" Documentum and SharePoint work. However, we also haveERP implementations, Project Management Office (PMO) support, Organizational ChangeManagement, and Business Process Reengineering (BPR) practices. They joy of my piece isthat I get to work with all the different groups because everybody is trying to solve the content"problem".
You have worked with Documentum, since 2000. For my readers, who essentially loveOpen Source :o) , could you present this historical CM Solution (its history, itsfunctionality and its architecture)?
No problem. Founded in 1991, Documentum has been one of the "big-three" ECM vendorsfor years, even as that membership has evolved. It is immensely scalable (I have a systemwith 40TB of content) and is free of proprietary languages or interfaces. It is very strong incore content management, RM, and BPM. It's collaboration efforts had been withering for afew years as eRoom grew old, but their new CenterStage product shows some promise. Whilethey deliver on WCM and Digital Asset Management, those offerings are stronger whenviewed in combination with the rest of their suite.I think one area that shows great promise is their work with XML content. Their acquisitionof X-Hive has really helped them here and I think that could become a big differentiators between the big ECM vendors, assuming that SharePoint doesn't wipe them all out. Now if only they could simplify their license model.
Can you tell us what are the strengths and weaknesses of this solution from your point of view?
I think I covered that to some extent, but I think Documentum has two weaknesses, the user interface and the complexity. My most successful projects do not utilize the standard user interface. We use it as a content platform. This is also where it gets complex. I keep learningthings about Documentum everyday. A Document expert is someone that knows enough toget through any client meeting and can then quickly look-up detailed answers to the thingsthat they had to bluff their way through. I, and others in the community like Scott Roth andJohnny Gee, have forgotten more about Documentum than many with 3-4 years experience.As for strengths, it is strong. I can throw users and content at it without fears that it will scale.I think that it's object-oriented approach to modeling content is flexible and powerful. They'veextended this to allow custom behaviors on actions, and with version 6.x, they supportaspects. Their is very little that the Documentum platform cannot do, as long as youunderstand the complexity.
Interview Laurence Hart, Senior Manager/InformationManagement Solution Lead at Washington Consulting
Now let's start some philosophy :o), during this summer (and last years), you have poston your blog some information about your vision of ECM ? Could you resume yourvision ? Why have you your personal ECM definition?
My vision for ECM is more than the tools. That is a problem with the AIIM definition, it talksabout tools. Content is everywhere. We need it accessible from everywhere without emailingit to other companies or having to take it out of one system and placing it in another. ECM is a platform that provides content to users in the business context where they need it most. Usersshouldn't know about Nuxeo, Alfresco, or Documentum. They should only know that if I scanthis document, I can grab it and the presentation I made yesterday and share it with my business partner without worrying about the "how".The technology isn't there yet, but we should be aiming for that target. When ECM was firstcoined 10 years ago, no vendor could state that they met the definition.
During this year, you also worked on CMIS. Why are you enthusiastic whith this futurestandard and Is it a revolution ?
I'm enthusiastic because the CMIS standard is the first step to making my vision for ECMcomplete. Applications need to access content without worrying about the specifics of therepository in which it is contained. It will allow legacy systems to stay in place longer andhelp separate the business application decision from the platform decision.Is CMIS a revolution? That is a tough question. It is still early to tell as it is just approachingthe Public Review stage. It is already starting to gain traction with vendors and customers, soI would say that it has the makings of a revolution. If Microsoft continues to support it, andincorporates it into SharePoint, then I see a revolution as being entirely possible.
What's your feelings about Open Source solution and open source move in CMecosystem ?
I'm glad that Open Source is gaining ground. I think it will force the ECM "leaders" to focusmore on simplicity and responding to users. I already see the vendors starting to be moreresponsive to user feedback than they had in the past. To be honest, I think the Open Sourcemovement is a blessing for small to medium organizations that needed content management but couldn't afford the license fees. I am also beginning to strongly believe that the OpenSource approach is the only way to deliver WCM systems that can keep up with the rapidlychanging face of the Web.
Add a Comment