Today The Enterprise, Tomorrow The World

Not all that long ago, vendors described themselves as content management or Web content management. Since nearly every vendor in the content management space provides a Web-based option, the term Web content management may soon be an anachronism in the imaging industry as most companies adopt the ECM (enterprise content management) label. "We are starting to see content management and Web content management merging," says Pat Turocy, principal analyst in content management for Doculabs (Chicago). "A couple of years ago when looking at traditional EDMS [electronic document management system] vendors and real Web content management vendors like Interwoven and Vignette, there was a huge split. As all of them move to be more global in their product offerings, content management vendors and Web content management vendors are playing in each other's spaces." As a result, VARs may feel pressure to move away from the traditional client/server model and build more solutions on an application server.

At the same time, customers are demanding Web-based applications that can meet the internal needs of a distributed enterprise as well as their customer-facing needs for sharing information. "A year or so ago as the economy ticked down, we at Documentum thought that customer-facing applications would be it," says Naomi Miller, product manager at ECM vendor Documentum (Pleasanton, CA). "But we were pleasantly surprised to find that internal efficiencies were equally important for most organizations."

According to Miller, Web-based content management is more about an environment than an application. Portals and other user interfaces must operate intuitively and provide the business logic to make it as easy as possible for a user to access what they want. That places a challenge on vendors to provide platforms from which VARs can easily configure a system that mimics the way a specific organization works. In many instances, this means VARs have to create an opening screen that looks customized and makes performing a task as simple as possible. "Even a basic Internet browser gives users more options than they usually need," remarks Miller.

"If an integrator has a vertical specialty, he can build a specialized solution for that vertical and extend the practices he's already familiar with," says Art Sarno, CTO of Gauss Interprise, an Irvine, CA-based ECM vendor. Sarno points out that some VARs in document management may have limited their services to the back office but can easily extend them to the Web. That involves not only the process for dealing with the document, but it also means addressing issues like life cycle. For example, a VAR who has been heavily involved with insurance customers may have been working with packages that support raw data rather than images. A portal can centralize content from a number of sources as well as determine who has access and for how long. A document can be coordinated with a database or linked to other documents. At the next level, it can be entered into workflow within the enterprise.

Provide Content Solutions For A B2B World
As internal ECM and workflow technologies turn a document, file, or other data into a corporate asset, an increasing number of companies are looking to capitalize on the value of those assets. Consequently, many businesses want to share corporate knowledge with trading partners or other third parties that are involved in a process. "BPM [business process management] spans applications and business units and can go outside corporate boundaries," says Eric Westerkamp, president and CEO of ECM vendor Quickstream (Colorado Springs, CO). BPM combines the automation of processes (similar to workflow) with application brokering capabilities. The result is a system which allows for disparate applications, either internal or external, to complete tasks without human intervention.

For example, if a salesman convinces a customer to buy a custom widget, the specifications have to go to engineering. Eventually, the engineers sign off on the project. "Up to that point it's document management and workflow," says Westerkamp. "Based on those results, the document can be linked to the ERP [enterprise resource planning] system, which can acquire all the parts and pieces necessary to build it." Business rules can be written in so that when a part is too expensive, another is substituted or a cheaper supplier sought. The BPM can keep track of design hours and material expenses, working across document management, ERP, and financial systems to determine how much should be billed and when it should be billed.

"VARs should be paying attention to BPM and application integration because those technologies will continue to gain ground and have an impact on future solutions," contends Westerkamp. "It's possible BPM and application integration won't have as dramatic an effect for VARs who focus on departmental installations, but I believe even there they will be influenced by this trend."

The Promise Of Web Services
Another trend likely to affect ECM VARs in the coming months is Web services. Web services refers to Web-based applications that dynamically interact, using UDDI (universal description, discovery, and integration) to find each other and share information. "Web services assumes a collaborative view of the world," says Sarno. "Once the key standards are agreed upon, it promises to be a common language for enterprises."

Web services also promises to generate substantial revenue, according to analysts. Gartner Dataquest is predicting that the total solution opportunities surrounding Web services will reach $30 billion by 2005. Analyst firm IDC is equally optimistic, estimating $34 billion in software, services, and hardware sales by 2006.

Westerkamp admits that adoption of the Web services standard would make BPM integration much easier, but he hasn't seen an overwhelming number of Web services implementations. "Web services capability is on everybody's list when choosing a product," he says. "Customers want you to have it, but they don't know what they are going to do with it yet."

"I don't know if anyone is sure yet what we will do with Web services," adds Miller. "The standards are there, but the applications aren't here yet. Integrators are probably still in a 'wait and see' mode. One difficulty is that it implies that multiple vendor products will interact freely, and I don't think that's right around the corner."

Complement Software And Consulting With Hardware Sales
One of the most attractive aspects of ECM installations in general has been the associated consulting and service revenue. Effective systems require a study of business processes, and recreating and supporting those processes can't be accomplished out of the box with any product. Extending content management to a distributed enterprise or outside business partners creates an entirely new revenue opportunity - hardware and infrastructure sales. "Web content seldom resides in a single place and there are all kinds of issues about deployment," notes Sarno. "Security and failover are just two areas where infrastructure VARs can profit from their knowledge of network topology, firewalls, and platforms."

Though it may require integrators to adapt their solutions, the trend toward global content management is good news for VARs. It's likely to increase the seat size for many sales and involve significant professional services revenue for integrators who must perform the design and consulting. While BPM and Web services may still be wish-list items for many customers, VARs should be preparing themselves to deliver those technologies.