Tim Bauer’s Running Thoughts

Semi-daily webcast summaries/insights

Salesforce.com - Fashionably Late to the ECM Party?

Not really a ‘running thoughts’ post … more of a sitting bull (watched this webcast over lunch).

Housekeeping aside, clearly Salesforce.com (SFDC) has a good shot that existing SFDC customers will consider using them for ECM. The integration of Koral to their stack (see this article from 04/07) has, based on the looks of what they are showing today, been successful.

You can read the running thoughts below (or in the attached PDF) but here are the keys I saw.

Webcast Details Notable Points
Title/Link:

  • Salesforce.com - Content Management

    • no link. not recorded. live each Wednesday.

Duration:

  • ~40 minutes

Speaker:

  • Gregg Johnson

    Not sure what Gregg’s past is but he seemed to be articulate in the ECM space and what SFDC is up to at this time

Recommend to Watch? Maybe.

  • If you are taking lunch at your desk and want some background insight and/or if you have live questions you want to push to the Content Management team this is a good medium. They answered all 3 of my questions on the spot.
 1. Earth to SFDC … Who Charges Per User?

  • While the functionality is pretty good the pricing model is a question mark for me. While competitors like MSFT and ORCL base ECM pricing on CPU and scope (internal or external) SFDC is sticking with a per user charge for anyone. I think it was an incremental $50/month/user but I could be wrong (I’ll post an update if I get it). Regardless, SFDC should consider the successful pricing structure that players like Stellent did. You pay, per user, for contributors while consumers are free. That works far better. Until they do that the scope of potential application is rather limited (see below). On the flip side, to get similar ‘internal only access’ functionality from Sharepoint you have to layout $7k for one server … add on costs to support and run it you are probably looking at around $20 to $30k. If getting SFDC content management turned on is $600/user/yr you might have a better pricing at lower user count levels.

2. Niche Doc Families Tied To CRM Users Make Sense

  • Given the point above, the right use of SFDC (as its priced now) is niche doc types that tie to the user roles that leverage SFDC heavily already. For example, if you are doing professional services in SFDC then resumes make sense to store out there and legal contracts around each gig as they are part of the transaction flow. I wouldn’t go too far past that however.

3. The fish that got away - Group Subscribe

  • One design consideration I think they left on the table but shouldn’t have was the ability for an admin to subscribe groups / roles. They didn’t enable this due to, according to them, too much noise on the update alerts if people were subscribed to a large volume of things by default. I think they need to consider the models being formulated to managed high volume ‘alerts’ in tools like Friendfeed. Using techniques like that (boiling down 25 alerts of the same type to a single line, filters of alerts by author, etc) you get the control they are looking for.

Since this webcast was only available live I snapped screenshots periodically while I took notes. Take a look at the Notes / Screenshots from Webcast to get a sense of the snapshots coupled with the notes.

Overall, I liked what I saw and probably will use the service … just for limited document types in the organization (around transactions that SFDC serves by default).

** START OF RAW SCRIBBLE TAKEN WHILE SITTING **

…………..○ Most business data is unstructured
……………………….§
…………..○ Features from field
……………………….§ Hard to find content
……………………….§ Sales creates materials (recreates)
……………………….§ Chaos when content changes
……………………………………□ BAUER ? - Universal URL
……………………….§ No feedback loop
…………..○ ? From me
……………………….§ To handle versions due you have the concept of a ‘universal’ URL for a asset? Similar to Stellent? So i can use that URL and always get the most recent version.
…………..○ Costs of Poor Content management
……………………….§
…………..○ Using Consumer Web to Business Model
……………………….§ Google - keyword search
……………………….§ AMZN - Reviews - rate books
……………………….§ Flickr - tagging
……………………….§ RSS - Subscriptions
……………………….§ Etc
……………………….§
…………..○ Extend Collaboration for Every Employee
……………………….§ Use for profession services around knowledge mgmt
……………………….§ Product is built for use cases
……………………….
…………..○ 13M in
…………..○ Demo
……………………….§ 4/2/2008, 12:13 PM
……………………….§ ? From me
……………………………………□ So can the content manager assets be used to in place of document fields that are default available in various things like ‘cases’ or ‘opps’
……………………….§ Content Workspace Overview
……………………………………□
……………………………………□ Tag clouds discussed
……………………………………□ Content not in folders
……………………………………□ Based on tags instead
………………………………………………..® BAUER COMMENT - Good Idea
……………………………………□ Flickr analogy
……………………….§ Example of search on router
……………………………………□
……………………………………□ Searches tags
……………………………………□ Searches doc attributes (like title)
……………………………………□ Searches full text of document
……………………………………□ Relevancy ranked
……………………………………□ Show ability to filter documents by tags in repository
……………………………………□ BAUER ?
………………………………………………..® can you save to SFDC repository from Office suite? Is there a plugin?
……………………….§ Sort results on high ratings or downloads
……………………………………□ Use feedback on what the best documents are
……………………….§ Preview mode prior to download
……………………………………□
……………………….§ Subscribe power
……………………………………□ Updates on change
……………………………………□ Bauer - ?
………………………………………………..® can you assign subscribe to roles in SFDC (so a forced subscribe on a group)
……………………………………□ Can subscribe by … tag … author … etc … similar to RSS feed
……………………….§ Ratings on doc (thumbs up / down)
……………………….§ Comments on document
……………………………………□ Get notified when comments happen
……………………….§ Add a new version
……………………………………□ Add reason around xyz comments …
……………………….§ Shows who is subscribed to what documents
……………………………………□ Used for search results
……………………….§ Downloads
……………………….§ Custom fields … can be added
…………..○ Content upload
……………………….§
……………………….§ Choose workspace
……………………………………□ Drives security
……………………….§ Add tags
……………………………………□
……………………………………□ Can make a global tagging library … defined list of tags … or recommended list of tags … from which adds can be made
……………………………………□ Tags by content type
………………………………………………..® Dynamic
……………………….§ Integrates to SFA
……………………………………□ In Opp Screen
……………………………………□ Find content
……………………………………□ Recommend content based on information in Opp
………………………………………………..® So you can use fields on a SFA screen to drive a recommend content
……………………………………□ Brings up search screen
……………………………………□ Attach relevant materials
………………………………………………..®
……………………………………□ Does get the latest and greatest version (but need login to get the right version)
……………………….§ Admin features
……………………………………□ Add individual users
……………………………………□ Leverage all of the information around users … for security
……………………………………□
……………………………………□ Setup tagging rules
………………………………………………..® Open, guided, restricted
………………………………………………..®
………………………………………………..® 4/2/2008, 12:29 PM
……………………….§ Q&A
……………………………………□ My question — Copy paste URL … to email .. Point back to page … point to best version
……………………………………□ Cant upload from office … may use WebDAV to enable that to happen (save as)
……………………………………□ Can you assign subscriptions … on the idea exchange … so they are thinking about it .. Risk in doing it .. Mass subscribes causes information overload
………………………………………………..® Should consider the friend feed model …
……………………………………□ Take content from salesforce … take user information… one version … merge fields?
………………………………………………..® Not out of gate
………………………………………………..® PDFs can’t manipulate
………………………………………………..® Word doc … print out and merge in data
………………………………………………..® Looking at ways w/ adobe to enable it
………………………………………………..® Start from a record (not a document) … use mail merge functionality … content gets involved if you start w/ a document versus a record … word or PDF would start w/ embedding …
………………………………………………..® Exactly … prefill the merge fields … do that w/ mail merge … you cant find a piece of collateral … hit a button … and stick information into the document … he is tinkering around w/ some sales engineer …
………………………………………………..® Dynamic assembly of documents … like ppt … ability for rep to mix up a document … not available in short term
……………………………………□ Gregg.johnson@salesforce.com
………………………………………………..® Free trial
………………………………………………..® Live org … 30 day test out
………………………………………………..® Add content to trial … etc

** END RAW SCRIBBLE TAKEN WHILE SITTING **

April 2, 2008 Posted by bauertim | 3-No Go (unless you are bored) | , , , | 1 Comment

Sharepoint: Secretariat or Trojan Horse

When you gaze at Sharepoint as of right now … which horse do you see? Secretariat or the Trojan Horse? I guess it depends what side of the walls of Troy you sit on … but lets ponder a bit anyway.

Webcast Details Notable Points
Catalyst Article:

Writer: John Fontana

  • Senior Editor @ Network World. Lives in Denver. Seems to cover a broad space (Infrastructure) so hard to tell his bias if any.

Read Article? No

  • We all know there is a ramp up in Sharepoint sales but what does it really mean in context. That is what I pondered as I stumbled across this article.
 1. Sharepoint as Secretariat

Being a runner, I get misty just watching the raw power of Secretariat on film. That horse had to love running. Such power. Is MSFT’s Sharepoint similar? The article makes Sharepoint sound like it. To the point you aren’t awarding the triple crown … you do it twice - collaboration, portal, search, enterprise content management (ECM), business process management and business intelligence. Just like “Big Red” MSFT is trying to make a stance that the sum of their parts is better than other combinations (or niche plays). But is that relevant here? Do you need the parts fused? Does that drive notable business value? If it were possible to have such a seamless environment it would be a a notable impact to most businesses … HOWEVER … while Sharepoint has a compelling story here I am still leary if this Sharepoint angle is the only and/or best. Let’s take a few examples.

2. Collaboration - What Working? Blogs, Wikis, Dashboards

When you study the landscape of multiple companies you see that the efficient collaborators are really driven by a few features. They document most of their work in Wiki’s. They share thoughts and insights internally/externally via blogs and then they provide a summary view of that activity from a dashboard. These are all things Sharepoint can do (but so can any coding environment) but not so good in its vanilla form. Personally, Fujitsu researched a variety of 3rd party WIKI solutions for Sharepoint due to their gap in functionality. Same story with Blogs. So in this area the rollup of Sharepoint is really a Trojan Horse in my view. It isn’t the best solution out in the market and the integration in other areas doesn’t trump it. You would be better off building a solution on Google (checkout the early release of Google Sites, Jive Software, or Confluence for example)

3. Portal. Sizzle or Steak?

The Business Data Catalog (BDC) webparts in sharepoint is an excellent example of how MSFT is positioning portal. You get a webpart and point these wizbangs at a data source and wham - instant access. Not so fast McFly. In tactical deployments right now it isn’t working so hot. Most of the time you have to rebuild the BDC connections from scratch getting very close to a service feeding a datagrid (translation its just like custom development in effort and cost). Still, for the delivery of admin screens and simple transactions on custom solutions I do think the Sharepoint listparts can expedite delivery and work well. So I will say this is one area that does intrigue me about Sharepoint still. Thier listparts and BDCs hold promise. More horseflesh than wood here.

4. ECM/BPM - Does Storing Documents Make You A ECM Player?

If you are trying to manage your digital assets (ECM), Sharepoint is an option but in reality there are strong reasons to think harder before leaping here. For starters ask yourself what is the INDUSTRY standard of BPM features. You have on demand solutions like Salesforce.com, Open Source Alternatives like Alfresco, and emerging angles like AMZN’s S3 that (with some investment) could evolve into far better solutions for managing your data (which is one of the core assets you own as a company) while costing you much less money (not a lock in implication). If you are still intrigued by the MSFT offering … move slowly. It would be better to spend your investment dollars right now on how to tag and structure the meta of your unstructured data right (the true value, getting search on documentation going) than choosing a repository to put it in (you have survived this long … right?).

Relative to BPM, there is a solid workflow in Sharepoint that can drive your business but … similar to ECM … I think you have to decide at a macro level around BPM and not just do a rollup decision. Workflow automation (manual or systemic) is a core aspect of your business. There are reasons why major products like Feugo and Interstage have been investing in the space for years. A better plan here would be to understand the macro strategy around BPM for your org in 3-5 years and see if MSFT’s roadmap fits well enough.

Both these aspects are Trojan horses in my view (although I am a fan of the workflow in Sharepoint and MSFT as a whole).

(** I skipped BI above on purpose as the BDC, to me is the primary unique value statement there **)

In short, I think the core of Sharepoint is about team collaboration and in reality there are better cheaper answers in the market. Study what true collaboration enablement is in your ORG then jump for the shiny widget (which may be MSFT … but may not).

What do you think?

** START OF RAW SCRIBBLE TAKEN WHILE RUNNING **

– No running notes today … spent too much time typing off this article (have to move on the inspiration)

** END RAW SCRIBBLE TAKEN WHILE RUNNING **

March 28, 2008 Posted by bauertim | 1-Definitely Watch This | , , , , , , , , , , | 2 Comments

Why Google Cares About Neural Networks

It seems nueral networks need to get pulled out of the sock drawer you have your Ton Loc album stashed in. At least if you put any weight into why Google had Geoffrey Hinton in for a talk a few months back.

Being a guy who did his thesis on neural networks (and referenced Hinton quite a bit in the process) I thought it was my duty to watch this discussion, and, as you might expect there were a few salient points:

Webcast Details Notable Points
Title: The Next Generation of Neural Networks

Speaker: Geoffrey Hinton

Where: URL

Recommend to Watch? No.

  • Highly technical.
  • Propeller heads only.
 1. Google’s Interest in AI - Auto Generation of Semantics for the Mountain of Unstructured Data.

At least my guess. At the end of the talk Geoffrey began to apply AI principles against the riddle of tagging massive stores of documents (hello Google) with semantics (hello RDF). It was a good reminder that the best categorizer is the human mind … but when the scope of work is too large it would be better to create a machine (AI) to mimic the brains process of categorization.

2. Unless You Are (1) Google or (2) an AI flunky … only dip your toe.

Again my opinion. AI remains a very complex field so even if you have a project like #1 above I would only dip your toe in this field. As in consider the core conventions that thought leaders like Hinton are leveraging in their models (such as how to evolve a data vector representing a document’s feature set). Then stop. Put down the neural network …and go back into classical rule based approach to AI from there. Better yet, ponder how crowdforce models (getting your employees, customers, etc to do the task in the course of their other tasks) can provide you with a living neural network that categorizes your ‘stuff’. That might be a better riddle to solve.

Still the topic is interesting and relevant today. Especially as the issue of semantics evolves on digital assets. I will need to dust my thesis “Image Segmentation of the Prostrate Gland via Nueral Networks” off and read it again. Not.

Here are my raw notes for those amused.

** START OF RAW SCRIBBLE TAKEN WHILE RUNNING **

–Perceptron. Didn’t adapt. Learn weights to decision units. Limited.
–2nd Generation. 1985. Feature detectors. Forward / Backward passes.
—Works for non-linear units.
—Huge disappointment.
–1990’s .. Kernal methods tangent … perceptron … training example to a feature .. then optimize off features and weight ones that it keeps … fixed backprop
–Back prop
—Bad as required labelled data
—10^5 is too big … learning time did not scale
—Neural issues
–Learn to do computer graphics (infer vision from there)
–Binary stochastics neurons
–Output of 1/0 … probabilistic
–Learning Module .. Restricte BOltzman Machine
—Can update units in parallel .. no lateral interaction
—Governed by energy function
—energy function drives network going to low energy states
—parameter on connection … vary via feature detectors
—Compare on/off … when fantasizing (no data input) vs data exposed (real) … adjust weights … very simple neuron focused learning .. requires 100 steps … so slow
—Just run 1 step … now fast … change based on statsitics of data and real data
—put random weights on connections, put in data, reconstruct image, then loop (activate, increment, decrement)
–25k connection strengths (each is feature) … connection strength represented by pixel bright …
–Example … so very good at creating twos … give it a two … recreate a two
–Example … data in not trained on … give it a 3 … it pukes 2’s
–Now train layers by features … get more abstract features … go up 3 layers … learned WITHOUT knowing the labels … more layers is a better model of training data
–Visibile vector creating another similar vector
–Find a distribution that is simple than real life data … then find a parametric mapping of a data distribution … in short remove some ‘noise’ … weights evolve in that manner
–his model is 3 layers … 2 layers go back/forth … use for perception imprints … pattern established … then hit the 3rd
–example .. hand written digits … learn 500 features (nuerons) … 28×28 image to 500 … 500 middle … 2000 top layer … 10 label neurons … dont tie label to top … just form loose associations
–top level (2000) is a boltzman machine … low weights … energy landscape w/o view … then cut channels in weights
–learns long / narrow ravines of energy but different enough … to distinguish between 1 and 2’s
–variation of learning passes … tune at end … up pass, multiple on boltzman layer (1000) … then down pass to input one time adjusting up connections
–21:55 — Nice example of perception learning running … shows image of weights changing
–23:40 — Good example of generation …
–Brain state and mental state … neuron state vs perception of your mind
–26:10 — show how the brain state moves between various forms … weird fives …
–27:30 — Comparison chart to other learning models (note K: Nearest neighbor 3.3% is what I used on my thesis)
–discussion search via backprop
—hard to search … get stuck in geo local minimums
—work around by tying to features …
—learn same net w/o labels … put labels … on areas … tune various pieces
–32:00 Could apply to document database. Document vector versus image.
–Finding binary codes for documents
–Use document as a query … create a document vector …
–40:00 Summary — Restricted Boltzmann Machines good for image representation of large bodes of documents

** END RAW SCRIBBLE TAKEN WHILE RUNNING **

March 21, 2008 Posted by bauertim | 1-Definitely Watch This | , , , | No Comments

Salesforce.com (SFDC): Spring 08 - New Stuff

Salesforce (SFDC) has a summary of their new features for Spring 08 here:

Demo of Spring 08 Release
http://salesforce.acrobat.com/spring2008

I only hit the “platform as a service” and “Content” (skipping Ideas, SFA, Marketing, Service & Support, and Partners). Within those two areas however there were some notables:

  1. DB Changes — Just Like Ruby On Rails Migrations? It was amusing to watch them (in the course of talking about how they enable team development via an IDE built just for on-demand development) show an edit to the XML definition of a table in the IDE. All the sizzle of the Ruby on Rails migration convention … maybe more. They pushed that edit up to SFDC and wallah the production (could of been sandbox) showed the new field ready for use. Very nice.
  2. Every Layer Is A Service. UI, Logic, Integration, Database, Infra … all are accessible via an API in the IDE it seems just as if you were in the native SFDC environment. The one I am most interested in is the UI Layer as that is where RIA stacks like Flex could be applied. Unfortunately that is still in beta (developer preview).
  3. ECM Aspirations … watch out GoogleDocs, Office Live? There was a brief discussion on the features of this area. Workspaces (ala Office Live), meta tagging (better than most out there), versioning, security, content types. All very good. The hidden power, i suspect, is that this is all extendable by Apex via triggers and such on the base content objects. That is where you begin to separate from other on demand players that only allow tight sets of capabilities. I’ll look into that.

Salesforce.com SFDC Stack

Here are my raw notes for those amused:

 Demo of Spring 08 Release http://salesforce.acrobat.com/spring2008
*** #1 ***
Eric Bezer - Platform Features
*** Notables *** -- 0:00 (@12) -- Force.com -- Dev as a service added to stack -- core pieces -- metadata, IDE, sandbox, codeshare -- deploy apex code snippets (managed, unmanaged, etc) -- visual force ... any UI for SFDC ... developer preview --- CUstom WIdgets --- This is where FLEX lives (bauer comment) -- Code / Logic  --- Now avail in Enterprise (prior was just Ultimate) --- Get a new sandbox if you are a customer (copy prod .. load 10MB of data manually) --- email services (process inbound emails) --- dynamic approval routing (point click ... apex business logic) --- new functions (formals - vlookup, regex (regular expressions eval format) -- Integration --- API sessions auto refresh (used to timeout - bug fix) -- DB Layer --- Custom driver --- Secruity by hierarchy of access of objects ... good for objects out of role hierarchy -- 6:00 Demo (14m adam gross) -- Recruiting application -- Positions / Candidates / Job Seeker --- Apex code to convert candidate to new hire -- Enable job seekers to browse -- Setup --- db, biz logic, ui --- ojbects, code, pages (in setup area) -- build app to access meta data (force.com ide) --- 1st IDE for on demand dev --- package explorer --- Create project --- force.com ide brings down all meta from SFDC put in local project explorer --- xml representation of those objects --- html editor ...  --- 11:00 in --- show mod of existing object (xml) ---- Add new field ---- Auto change of DBin SFDC (via API) -- 13:00M --- Code share ---- Show how use google code as repository ... connect IDE to google code (same w/ SVN, etc) ---- select project, share, select repos .. ---- All source managed ... so kept in synch ---- show google view  ---- New developer ... example of logging in ----- browse google repos grab recruiting app ... check out -- 19:00M still going  --- Talking mostly about IDE and collab dev --- How you can push to your prod sandbox ---
*** Raw Notes *** 

 *** #2 ***
Greg Johnson - Product Marketing
*** Notables ***
 *** Raw Notes *** -- 0:00 Overview -- Structured vs Unstructured data (ECM) -- Content = Unstructured -- Version control -- (bauer thought - universal URL like Stellent?) -- Features - tagging, featured content, customize search, content types, storage monitoring -- 3:00 Demo -- Workspace (security) --- Can control tag types (free form or valid list) --- Enterprise can do custom fields on documents --- Suggested tag list can be setup --- custom field types - picklist, combo, date, text, etc -- 5:30  -- Types of Tagging - restricted, guided, open -- Types of Content - Similar to Tags (can pull from global pool of types) -- (bauer thought  - example of resumes in a recruiting workspace - tags = skills) -- Sort to see by rating / downloads -- 9:00 -- Featured content gets highlighted in search results -- highlighted in yellow in search ... top of search -- similar to google ads -- default storage 500MB per user ... hit 80% of total -- 10:40

March 20, 2008 Posted by bauertim | 3-No Go (unless you are bored) | , , , | No Comments

ECM: Documentum - .NET

Watched Developing with Documentum in a .NET Environment [10959] today which you can also review here:

http://mylearn.documentum.com/mgrCourse/courseSummary.cfm?id_course=10959&id=194419

Other threads in the forum talk about how to get a login onto this site.

I chose it because we continue to have clients talking to us about leveraging ECM investments they have made more fully. Integrating them into the transactional systems where it makes sense. Some of those clients are MSFT focused (two actually).

Note this webcast is a bit dated (6/2004) but the keys I took away was:

    1. Old School EMC wins. Documentum had a very robust model at the time (2004) for enabling integration from Visual Studio. Better than what I see today w/ Stellent.

    2. New School … Webservices … ?. Documentum was working on (in 2004) webservices. They didn’t have as good as an answer as Stellent had then. However thier strategy is the same (java patterns gen’d to wsdl). I expect Stellent keeps this lead or they are at par at this time.

Not worth listening to directly … my notes should suffice. The speaker didn’t elaborate much from the slides and wasn’t very dynamic either.

Here are the notes.

Quote:
EMC: Developing w/ Documentum in .NET……….○ NOTE GIVEN ON 6/24/04 — So might be dated.
……….○
……….○ 2:00 — David Folk. Product Manager @ EMC for Documentum
……….○ 2:30 — MSFT Features Considered
………………..§ Support
………………..§ Scale
………………..§ Security
………………..§ API
………………..§ Migration (from MSFT or other platforms)
……….○ 4:00 — Goal is to be native in VS (plug ins, etc)
………………..§ Interop Assembly (Documentum Foundation Classes - DFC)
………………..§ Documentum ADO.NET Services (DAS)
………………..§ 7:30 — Best Practices and examples of .NET integration w/ Documentum is on developer site
………………..§ Business Object Framework
……….○ 8:45 — DFC Primary Interop Assembly (PIA)
………………..§ DFC = Documentum Foundation Class (the layer he is responsible for). Client API’s for accessing server.
………………..§ Java based API’s
………………..§ 100 interfaces about
………………..§ PIA allows seemless access from .NET of DFC
………………..§ Already had a COM library
………………..§ PIA uses COM code (bauer thought — overhead issue?) … layer 1 — DFV (Java), layer 2 — DFJB (COM) — layer 3 DFC PIE (.nET)
…………………………□ Says there is no performance impacts from clients yet (bauer thought but PIA is new at this time)
………………..§ 14:00 - PIA .NET 1.1 based at this time
…………………………□ Installed in global assembly cache
…………………………□ IntelliSense and Object Browser support (bauer thought - sounds ’simplier’ than Stellent)
………………..§ 17:00 - Full help support w/ intellisense (not the norm for other vendors)
………………..§ 17:30 - Object Browser - Full support. See interfaces in PIA. Methods per intfc. Online help.
…………………………□ Without this you would have to translate the java doc
………………..§ 19:00 - Intfc upgrade can be separate (distinct policy file)
……….○ 19:20 - Data Access, .NET and Documentum
………………..§ Documentum ADO.NET Services (DAS)
………………..§ ADO.NET … supports disconnected and connected sessions
………………..§ If you are thinking Crystal Reports … ADO.NET can do more (as shown w/ EMC)
………………..§ ADO.NET is about getting access to data bound controls that can bind to a data structure (so EMC used that)
………………..§ Use widgets to interact with the data store (odbc, dfc, ado.net, jdbc, webDAV, ftp, file share, dfc)
………………..§ Performance (avoid layers mentioned above) … (bauer thought - I thought that wasn’t an issue [wink])
………………..§ Use for Winforms, ASP.NET, and crystal
……….○ 25:30 - Arch of ADO.Net
………………..§ Shows how Documentum works through this
…………………………□ Disconnected (data grid, listbox, combobox) — Data View, Data Table, XML, Data Set, Data Adapter, Connection.
…………………………□ Connected — Data Reader, Command, Connection
………………..§ 28:00 - Standard Interfaces of ADO are supported
………………..§ Meta data access simplified here (via DAS)
……….○ 31:10 -
………………..§ ADO.NET will be foundation for reporting services (vs ODBC)
………………..§ Could speed up webpart development
……….○ 32:39 - Static Demo of DAS integration in VS.
………………..§ DocBase command
………………..§ 10 step process walked through
……….○ 35:00 - DAS is a value add (pay extra) product from Documentum
………………..§ Could do DAS functions w/ DFC … just makes it easier
……….○ 36:30 - Other products
………………..§ Webservices infrastructure for accessing business objects
………………..§ Release 5.3 planned - provide patterns implemented in java. Documentum provides tools to register that w/ a run time. (bauer comment — So it’s a wizard–similar to stellent)
………………..§ Important (even w/ java -> wizard -> wsdl) since webservices become the norm
………………..§ Longer term looking to show a library of webservices (versus having to gen from pattersn now). Acknowledge extending webservices will be very complex.
……….○ 41:00 - Looking ahead - Support
………………..§ O12 - xml, research pane, smart docs
………………..§ Webparts
………………..§ Smart clients (avalon)
………………..§ WinFS
………………..§ Yukon
……….○ 43:30 - Resources
………………..§ Developer site - http://customernet.documentum.com/developer/dotNET.html
………………..§ Disc Forums - http://forums.documentum.com/jive3/index.jspa
………………..§ Dev News - http://customernet.documentum.com/developer/newsletters/newsletter0104.htm
……….○ 44:00 Q&A
………………..§ David Robertson - Petro Canada - Liscensing.
EMC: Developing w/ Documentum in .NET

……….○ NOTE GIVEN ON 6/24/04 — So might be dated.
……….○
……….○ 2:00 — David Folk. Product Manager @ EMC for Documentum
……….○ 2:30 — MSFT Features Considered
………………..§ Support
………………..§ Scale
………………..§ Security
………………..§ API
………………..§ Migration (from MSFT or other platforms)
……….○ 4:00 — Goal is to be native in VS (plug ins, etc)
………………..§ Interop Assembly (Documentum Foundation Classes - DFC)
………………..§ Documentum ADO.NET Services (DAS)
………………..§ 7:30 — Best Practices and examples of .NET integration w/ Documentum is on developer site
………………..§ Business Object Framework
……….○ 8:45 — DFC Primary Interop Assembly (PIA)
………………..§ DFC = Documentum Foundation Class (the layer he is responsible for). Client API’s for accessing server.
………………..§ Java based API’s
………………..§ 100 interfaces about
………………..§ PIA allows seemless access from .NET of DFC
………………..§ Already had a COM library
………………..§ PIA uses COM code (bauer thought — overhead issue?) … layer 1 — DFV (Java), layer 2 — DFJB (COM) — layer 3 DFC PIE (.nET)
…………………………□ Says there is no performance impacts from clients yet (bauer thought but PIA is new at this time)
………………..§ 14:00 - PIA .NET 1.1 based at this time
…………………………□ Installed in global assembly cache
…………………………□ IntelliSense and Object Browser support (bauer thought - sounds ’simplier’ than Stellent)
………………..§ 17:00 - Full help support w/ intellisense (not the norm for other vendors)
………………..§ 17:30 - Object Browser - Full support. See interfaces in PIA. Methods per intfc. Online help.
…………………………□ Without this you would have to translate the java doc
………………..§ 19:00 - Intfc upgrade can be separate (distinct policy file)
……….○ 19:20 - Data Access, .NET and Documentum
………………..§ Documentum ADO.NET Services (DAS)
………………..§ ADO.NET … supports disconnected and connected sessions
………………..§ If you are thinking Crystal Reports … ADO.NET can do more (as shown w/ EMC)
………………..§ ADO.NET is about getting access to data bound controls that can bind to a data structure (so EMC used that)
………………..§ Use widgets to interact with the data store (odbc, dfc, ado.net, jdbc, webDAV, ftp, file share, dfc)
………………..§ Performance (avoid layers mentioned above) … (bauer thought - I thought that wasn’t an issue [wink])
………………..§ Use for Winforms, ASP.NET, and crystal
……….○ 25:30 - Arch of ADO.Net
………………..§ Shows how Documentum works through this
…………………………□ Disconnected (data grid, listbox, combobox) — Data View, Data Table, XML, Data Set, Data Adapter, Connection.
…………………………□ Connected — Data Reader, Command, Connection
………………..§ 28:00 - Standard Interfaces of ADO are supported
………………..§ Meta data access simplified here (via DAS)
……….○ 31:10 -
………………..§ ADO.NET will be foundation for reporting services (vs ODBC)
………………..§ Could speed up webpart development
……….○ 32:39 - Static Demo of DAS integration in VS.
………………..§ DocBase command
………………..§ 10 step process walked through
……….○ 35:00 - DAS is a value add (pay extra) product from Documentum
………………..§ Could do DAS functions w/ DFC … just makes it easier
……….○ 36:30 - Other products
………………..§ Webservices infrastructure for accessing business objects
………………..§ Release 5.3 planned - provide patterns implemented in java. Documentum provides tools to register that w/ a run time. (bauer comment — So it’s a wizard–similar to stellent)
………………..§ Important (even w/ java -> wizard -> wsdl) since webservices become the norm
………………..§ Longer term looking to show a library of webservices (versus having to gen from pattersn now). Acknowledge extending webservices will be very complex.
……….○ 41:00 - Looking ahead - Support
………………..§ O12 - xml, research pane, smart docs
………………..§ Webparts
………………..§ Smart clients (avalon)
………………..§ WinFS
………………..§ Yukon
……….○ 43:30 - Resources
………………..§ Developer site - http://customernet.documentum.com/developer/dotNET.html
………………..§ Disc Forums - http://forums.documentum.com/jive3/index.jspa
………………..§ Dev News - http://customernet.documentum.com/developer/newsletters/newsletter0104.htm
……….○ 44:00 Q&A
………………..§ David Robertson - Petro Canada - Liscensing.

July 20, 2007 Posted by bauertim | Uncategorized | , , | No Comments

JBOSS & ECM - Anyone Home?

watched this webcast this morning as I was curious how JBOSS was addressing ECM given they really don’t have a ECM product.

LINK

Some keys I took away:

    1. Marketing similar to MSFT They wouldn’t want to admit it but they are going to market similar to MSFT. They own the core infrastructure and then expect vendor partners to build solutions on top of it to address client needs. Alfresco (the vendor talking with them) did just that … building a first version of a ECM suite on top of JBOSS infrastructure.
    2. Alfresco a mini-me Sharepoint? It was interesting to watch the demo (the first 30 minutes was thier spin on the portal market — which i skipped) in that i could see ’some’ of the sharepoint functions at play. The real question (as with all client decisions on investment) is what capabilities do they need from thier, in this case, WCM framework and where there are gaps in needed capabilities from different approaches how much does it cost to close them. This may or may not lead to Alfresco on JBOSS being the right model. Was intriguing though. Did I mention it is free as well $-).
    3. “Support from the Source” Interesting tagline that RedHAT and Alfresco are pushing.

Here are the detail notes for those amused.


• Industry Issues Webinar on Portals
• Alfresco is the partnering vendor
• Overview
………….○ JBOSS
……………………..§ Support from the source
………….○ Alfresco
……………………..§ First opensource cms
……………………..§ Model documentum, filenet
……………………..§ Founded documentum
…………………………………□ Has documentums team now for sdks
…………………………………□ Has interwovens wcm team
• 5:00 - Portal definition
• 8:50 - What is knowledge mgmt
• 34:00 - Demo of Integration of JBOSS portal w/ Alfresco portlets in Jboss
………….○ Team, news, doc library, discussions
………….○ Show 1 portlet jboss wise
………….○ Show editing of static content w/ an ordered approval process
……………………..§ Version control and detail
………….○ Have virtual directory functionality (so explorer view for users)
………….○ Rules are available on drop
……………………..§ Document properties extracted to ecm product
……………………..§ Pdf version created automatically
……………………..§ Mail (via thunderbird)
………….○ RSS feeds that communicates new information in the portal
………….○ Ability to search for a person by skill (not shown how) .. Similar to people finder in MSFT
………….○ Templates (smartplaces) .. That has a similar UI, files, process, auditing etc (ala sharepoint)
………….○ [bauer - key question pricing vs SP for Alfresco, otherwise they are short]
………….○ Concept of ’spaces’ … which is your doc repositories that hoave all the doc versioning / library functions.
………….○ Shows creating a rule in space
……………………..§ Workflow, meta extract, transform, set aspects (like templateabe, versionable, translateable,etc), move to specific space, etc
• 49:00 - Demo done .. Jabber
………….○ Develop rules, aspects, actions are possible in their framework
………….○ Rhino JavaScript engine included
………….○ Really enables record management
……………………..§ For example just a few scripts are required for DOD compliance w/ Records Management
• 50:00 - Q&A
………….○ How compare to other OS CMS? Like OpenCMS …
……………………..§ want to address WCM space but more importantly hit ECM (like RM, and DCM, Image Mgmt, etc). 20% of market is WCM. That is why they hired interwoven for WCM and DCM team for other areas.
………….○ Wiki?
……………………..§ Later this year releasing a WIKI interface. Open up arch later as well to PHP to allow the strong WIKI solutions based on PHP in as well
………….○ Portlets created / embedded?
……………………..§ What was demo’d was out of box
……………………..§ Free market templating lang creates team spaces that pull from the vanilla product
……………………..§ High end solutions can have specialized portlets but using “FreeMarker” since it can process XML and access Java object model in alfresco (talk to and get document properties).
……………………..§ Look in data dictionary. Look at presentation templates. 10-12 lines in .. Iterations, xpath, etc can be done.
……………………..§ Very similar to SEAM (using that as part of the workflow). Get container data. Iterate a documents children (folder, associated docs) and wrap w/ HTML
……………………..
………….○ Smart Folders. Navigation on meta not fixed diretory
……………………..§ In 1.4 release next coupole of months (q4 minimum)
………….○ Cost of product
……………………..§ OpenSource (Free). Going for services contract.
……………………..§ Support is $10k per CPU
………….○ “Support from the Source” team
………….○ When will doc libs and such be their own portlet?
…………………….. (1.4 version in q4)
……………………..§ John.newton@elfresco.org

August 3, 2006 Posted by bauertim | Uncategorized | , | No Comments

Documentum: EDM Overview

How many E’s, via ackroynms, can I get in a subject? Looks like three.

    EMC = EMC
    EDM = Enterprise Doc Mgmt
    ECM = Enterprise Content Management

Anyway I watched this ‘quick’ (25 min) Sales Training: EDM [15545] webcast on the myLearn site of Documentum. If you need a login for that search the forums another post discusses it. I watched it because we continue to see ECM pipeline in WI and Documentum continues to be in the mix at all times. Specifically the pipeline is around EDM (Enterprise Document Management) so I was curiuos on Documentum’s angle in this space.

Turned out that this was a very overview webcast but, as always, there are tidbits:

    • 1. Bundle Strategy They talked about how Documentum has a bundled strategy on pricing. They offer the whole enchilada. Not pieces. That is great if you are a hungry customer. But if you want more of a Weight Watchers fare … you are going to overpay (or put alot of food in the freezer). Kidding aside this is a serious point. We need to understand if the client needs all those bundled extensions and, if not, are there other options that are similar for the extensions they do want for less cost.
      3. One repository (Beats Stellent) I get the sense from this discussion that EMC has build a one repository model for the EDM line. This is relevant because other products (like Stellent) actually have one repository optimized for images … and another, lighter weight one, optimized for electronic documents from a knowledge worker. This is a benefit in my mind. I believe Stellent intends on consolidating but it is vaporware right now.
      3. Nice Overview Slides My favorite was the list of document types (~200 by EMC’s count) in a typical org. So when you talk about the value of ECM products … think about what is going on around those document types. I have attached the images at the bottom of this post

Typical Documents by Functional Download

doc_types_typical_org_2.gif

doc_workflow_overview.gif

Here are my detail notes for those amused by such things:

Quote:
Naomi Miller - Director of Product Marketing
………….○ 1:00 - Agenda
……………………..§ Business Drivers
……………………..§ Challenges
……………………..§ Documentum’s Solution / Value
……………………..§ Customers Example / Payback
………….○ 1:00 - Trends
……………………..§ Standardization / Optimize (TCO)
……………………..§ Content Enable Apps (ERP, CRM, SCM, PLM, etc)
……………………..§ Compliance - Documentum got their start w/ Pharma companies
……………………..§ Enterprise Publishing - any info, any audience, any lang, any time
………….○ 4:00 - Documents Fuel the Enterprise
……………………..§ Image
………….○ 6:00 - Business Challenges w/ Paper
……………………..§ Volume & Variety (form)
……………………..§ Inefficient / Expense
……………………..§ Inadequate Access
……………………..§ Compliance - Litigation. If you can’t produce the docs you are assumed to be guilty (actual case law on this)
……………………..§ Customer Service Requirements
………….○ 8:30 - Overview of Key Aspects
……………………..§ Capture.
…………………………………□ High volume scan of docs / faxes
…………………………………□ Partner w/ Captiva & Kofax
…………………………………□ ADM uses Documentum to do 50,0000 images a day
…………………………………□ Can also do natively from word lines
…………………………………□ Integrated to Photoshop, Quark, WCM solutions, Autocad as well … etc
……………………..§ Content Services (all bundled is their msg)
…………………………………□ Workflow (bundled)
…………………………………………….¨ GUI tool. Tied to product.
…………………………………………….¨ Services on those flows.
…………………………………□ Security / Audit
…………………………………□ Versioning
…………………………………□ Lifecycle
…………………………………………….¨ State of document
…………………………………………….¨ Business rules to drive workflow
…………………………………………….¨ Permissions set. Labels applied as you go through workflow (ie security changes)
…………………………………□ XML
…………………………………□ Virtual Doc
…………………………………………….¨ Pieces to a virtual file
…………………………………………….¨ Compound docs
……………………..§ Integration w/ Enterprise Applications
…………………………………□ SAP, Siebel, PSOFT, others
……………………..§ 19:00 - Benefit
…………………………………□ Op Efficiency
…………………………………□ Knowledge Mgmt
…………………………………□ Compliance Risk & Costs (decrease)
…………………………………□ Leverage Content Infra
……………………..§ 20:30 - Customer success -
…………………………………□ Corp Express
…………………………………………….¨ 150,000 products
…………………………………………….¨ 12 million invoices
…………………………………………….¨ Move to a self service model on invoices instead of call center
…………………………………□ NCSU _ North Car State U
…………………………………………….¨ Replace legacy imaging system
…………………………………………….¨ Push to PSOFT
……………………..§ 23:00 - Q&A
…………………………………□ BPM. Compete w/ EAI & WOrkflow tools (Tibco, vitria)? Etc
…………………………………………….¨ Strategy. Have workflows for docs. Do need a standrads based way to communicate w/ the EAI/Tools. Tie via BPM.
…………………………………………….¨ Connect between workflows. BPM is the client workflow tool … model there …
…………………………………………….¨ So not outside of document repository … connect to enterprise bus.

June 7, 2006 Posted by bauertim | Uncategorized | | No Comments

ECM: Documentum - .NET (2)

Watched Developing with Documentum in a .NET Environment [10959] today which you can also review here:

http://mylearn.documentum.com/mgrCourse/courseSummary.cfm?id_course=10959&id=194419

Other threads in the forum talk about how to get a login onto this site.

I chose it because we continue to have clients talking to us about leveraging ECM investments they have made more fully. Integrating them into the transactional systems where it makes sense. Some of those clients are MSFT focused (two actually).

Note this webcast is a bit dated (6/2004) but the keys I took away was:

    1. Old School EMC wins. Documentum had a very robust model at the time (2004) for enabling integration from Visual Studio. Better than what I see today w/ Stellent.

    2. New School … Webservices … ?. Documentum was working on (in 2004) webservices. They didn’t have as good as an answer as Stellent had then. However thier strategy is the same (java patterns gen’d to wsdl). I expect Stellent keeps this lead or they are at par at this time.

Not worth listening to directly … my notes should suffice. The speaker didn’t elaborate much from the slides and wasn’t very dynamic either.

Here are the notes.

Quote:
EMC: Developing w/ Documentum in .NET……….○ NOTE GIVEN ON 6/24/04 — So might be dated.
……….○
……….○ 2:00 — David Folk. Product Manager @ EMC for Documentum
……….○ 2:30 — MSFT Features Considered
………………..§ Support
………………..§ Scale
………………..§ Security
………………..§ API
………………..§ Migration (from MSFT or other platforms)
……….○ 4:00 — Goal is to be native in VS (plug ins, etc)
………………..§ Interop Assembly (Documentum Foundation Classes - DFC)
………………..§ Documentum ADO.NET Services (DAS)
………………..§ 7:30 — Best Practices and examples of .NET integration w/ Documentum is on developer site
………………..§ Business Object Framework
……….○ 8:45 — DFC Primary Interop Assembly (PIA)
………………..§ DFC = Documentum Foundation Class (the layer he is responsible for). Client API’s for accessing server.
………………..§ Java based API’s
………………..§ 100 interfaces about
………………..§ PIA allows seemless access from .NET of DFC
………………..§ Already had a COM library
………………..§ PIA uses COM code (bauer thought — overhead issue?) … layer 1 — DFV (Java), layer 2 — DFJB (COM) — layer 3 DFC PIE (.nET)
…………………………□ Says there is no performance impacts from clients yet (bauer thought but PIA is new at this time)
………………..§ 14:00 - PIA .NET 1.1 based at this time
…………………………□ Installed in global assembly cache
…………………………□ IntelliSense and Object Browser support (bauer thought - sounds ’simplier’ than Stellent)
………………..§ 17:00 - Full help support w/ intellisense (not the norm for other vendors)
………………..§ 17:30 - Object Browser - Full support. See interfaces in PIA. Methods per intfc. Online help.
…………………………□ Without this you would have to translate the java doc
………………..§ 19:00 - Intfc upgrade can be separate (distinct policy file)
……….○ 19:20 - Data Access, .NET and Documentum
………………..§ Documentum ADO.NET Services (DAS)
………………..§ ADO.NET … supports disconnected and connected sessions
………………..§ If you are thinking Crystal Reports … ADO.NET can do more (as shown w/ EMC)
………………..§ ADO.NET is about getting access to data bound controls that can bind to a data structure (so EMC used that)
………………..§ Use widgets to interact with the data store (odbc, dfc, ado.net, jdbc, webDAV, ftp, file share, dfc)
………………..§ Performance (avoid layers mentioned above) … (bauer thought - I thought that wasn’t an issue [wink])
………………..§ Use for Winforms, ASP.NET, and crystal
……….○ 25:30 - Arch of ADO.Net
………………..§ Shows how Documentum works through this
…………………………□ Disconnected (data grid, listbox, combobox) — Data View, Data Table, XML, Data Set, Data Adapter, Connection.
…………………………□ Connected — Data Reader, Command, Connection
………………..§ 28:00 - Standard Interfaces of ADO are supported
………………..§ Meta data access simplified here (via DAS)
……….○ 31:10 -
………………..§ ADO.NET will be foundation for reporting services (vs ODBC)
………………..§ Could speed up webpart development
……….○ 32:39 - Static Demo of DAS integration in VS.
………………..§ DocBase command
………………..§ 10 step process walked through
……….○ 35:00 - DAS is a value add (pay extra) product from Documentum
………………..§ Could do DAS functions w/ DFC … just makes it easier
……….○ 36:30 - Other products
………………..§ Webservices infrastructure for accessing business objects
………………..§ Release 5.3 planned - provide patterns implemented in java. Documentum provides tools to register that w/ a run time. (bauer comment — So it’s a wizard–similar to stellent)
………………..§ Important (even w/ java -> wizard -> wsdl) since webservices become the norm
………………..§ Longer term looking to show a library of webservices (versus having to gen from pattersn now). Acknowledge extending webservices will be very complex.
……….○ 41:00 - Looking ahead - Support
………………..§ O12 - xml, research pane, smart docs
………………..§ Webparts
………………..§ Smart clients (avalon)
………………..§ WinFS
………………..§ Yukon
……….○ 43:30 - Resources
………………..§ Developer site - http://customernet.documentum.com/developer/dotNET.html
………………..§ Disc Forums - http://forums.documentum.com/jive3/index.jspa
………………..§ Dev News - http://customernet.documentum.com/developer/newsletters/newsletter0104.htm
……….○ 44:00 Q&A
………………..§ David Robertson - Petro Canada - Liscensing.
EMC: Developing w/ Documentum in .NET

……….○ NOTE GIVEN ON 6/24/04 — So might be dated.
……….○
……….○ 2:00 — David Folk. Product Manager @ EMC for Documentum
……….○ 2:30 — MSFT Features Considered
………………..§ Support
………………..§ Scale
………………..§ Security
………………..§ API
………………..§ Migration (from MSFT or other platforms)
……….○ 4:00 — Goal is to be native in VS (plug ins, etc)
………………..§ Interop Assembly (Documentum Foundation Classes - DFC)
………………..§ Documentum ADO.NET Services (DAS)
………………..§ 7:30 — Best Practices and examples of .NET integration w/ Documentum is on developer site
………………..§ Business Object Framework
……….○ 8:45 — DFC Primary Interop Assembly (PIA)
………………..§ DFC = Documentum Foundation Class (the layer he is responsible for). Client API’s for accessing server.
………………..§ Java based API’s
………………..§ 100 interfaces about
………………..§ PIA allows seemless access from .NET of DFC
………………..§ Already had a COM library
………………..§ PIA uses COM code (bauer thought — overhead issue?) … layer 1 — DFV (Java), layer 2 — DFJB (COM) — layer 3 DFC PIE (.nET)
…………………………□ Says there is no performance impacts from clients yet (bauer thought but PIA is new at this time)
………………..§ 14:00 - PIA .NET 1.1 based at this time
…………………………□ Installed in global assembly cache
…………………………□ IntelliSense and Object Browser support (bauer thought - sounds ’simplier’ than Stellent)
………………..§ 17:00 - Full help support w/ intellisense (not the norm for other vendors)
………………..§ 17:30 - Object Browser - Full support. See interfaces in PIA. Methods per intfc. Online help.
…………………………□ Without this you would have to translate the java doc
………………..§ 19:00 - Intfc upgrade can be separate (distinct policy file)
……….○ 19:20 - Data Access, .NET and Documentum
………………..§ Documentum ADO.NET Services (DAS)
………………..§ ADO.NET … supports disconnected and connected sessions
………………..§ If you are thinking Crystal Reports … ADO.NET can do more (as shown w/ EMC)
………………..§ ADO.NET is about getting access to data bound controls that can bind to a data structure (so EMC used that)
………………..§ Use widgets to interact with the data store (odbc, dfc, ado.net, jdbc, webDAV, ftp, file share, dfc)
………………..§ Performance (avoid layers mentioned above) … (bauer thought - I thought that wasn’t an issue [wink])
………………..§ Use for Winforms, ASP.NET, and crystal
……….○ 25:30 - Arch of ADO.Net
………………..§ Shows how Documentum works through this
…………………………□ Disconnected (data grid, listbox, combobox) — Data View, Data Table, XML, Data Set, Data Adapter, Connection.
…………………………□ Connected — Data Reader, Command, Connection
………………..§ 28:00 - Standard Interfaces of ADO are supported
………………..§ Meta data access simplified here (via DAS)
……….○ 31:10 -
………………..§ ADO.NET will be foundation for reporting services (vs ODBC)
………………..§ Could speed up webpart development
……….○ 32:39 - Static Demo of DAS integration in VS.
………………..§ DocBase command
………………..§ 10 step process walked through
……….○ 35:00 - DAS is a value add (pay extra) product from Documentum
………………..§ Could do DAS functions w/ DFC … just makes it easier
……….○ 36:30 - Other products
………………..§ Webservices infrastructure for accessing business objects
………………..§ Release 5.3 planned - provide patterns implemented in java. Documentum provides tools to register that w/ a run time. (bauer comment — So it’s a wizard–similar to stellent)
………………..§ Important (even w/ java -> wizard -> wsdl) since webservices become the norm
………………..§ Longer term looking to show a library of webservices (versus having to gen from pattersn now). Acknowledge extending webservices will be very complex.
……….○ 41:00 - Looking ahead - Support
………………..§ O12 - xml, research pane, smart docs
………………..§ Webparts
………………..§ Smart clients (avalon)
………………..§ WinFS
………………..§ Yukon
……….○ 43:30 - Resources
………………..§ Developer site - http://customernet.documentum.com/developer/dotNET.html
………………..§ Disc Forums - http://forums.documentum.com/jive3/index.jspa
………………..§ Dev News - http://customernet.documentum.com/developer/newsletters/newsletter0104.htm
……….○ 44:00 Q&A
………………..§ David Robertson - Petro Canada - Liscensing.

May 10, 2006 Posted by bauertim | Uncategorized | , , | No Comments

ECM: Documentum - Imaging

Digging around in EMC’s ‘myLearn’ site this morning. Decided to watch this webcast around BPM and Imaging given the ongoing activity in pipeline around process automation. You find it by loggin in here:

http://documentum.myLearn.com

searching for “BPM and Imaging - KOPC 2006″. FYI, search the forums for instructions on how to get a working login

http://wis-demo.gr.com/phpbb2/viewtopic.php?p=8607#8607

At 10,000 feet the core message I heard was:

Quote:
1. Nice Overview of an ECM solution 7 minutes in. Wove via four areas. We should leverage similar in position of any ECM (Sharepoint, NW, Stellent, Documentum).
2. Excellent example of collaboration integration to thier business process automation efforts 31 minutes in. In short they create workflow steps that create a collobration space (eRoom in thier lingo) that has defined activities that need to be completed at which point the collaboration room rengages the workflow and archives itself into the process with the other docs being manipulated.

Here are my detail notes:

Quote:
• BPM and Imaging - KOPC 2006

Pasted from <http://mylearn.documentum.com/mgrCourse/launchCourse.cfm?id_registrant=193270&id_host=325&id_course=18973>

• Solution: Document and Image Processing
• 2:14 - Paper Management Problem
………..○ Still see customers w/ this problem
………..○ Manual
………..○ Official files can only be sequentially handles
………..○ Compliance controls are hard on paper
………..○ Customer service issues on paper
• 4:00 ROI easy on paper
………..○ Copies
………..○ Filing/Retrieve
………..○ Avg stats - 19 copies of doc, $20 to file, $120 to search for misfiled, lose 1 out of 20 docs, 25 hours to recreate lost docs, $8 to process invcs (70% is doc handling)
• 5:12 EMC acquires captiva (capture software).
………..○ Over holidays
• 7:00 Imaging Vision - Technology View
………..○ Focuses (industry)
………………….§ Mortgage, Insurance Claims, New Account, Invc Processing
………..○ Process Services
………………….§ Colloboration Workspaces
………………….§ Business Process Automation
………..○ Content Services
………………….§ Docs, Forms, Rich Media, Web, Images, Msgs, Reports
………………….§ Capture / Edit
………………….§ Library
………………….§ Transformation
………………….§ Classification
………………….§ Search
………………….§ Publish/Distribute
………..○ Repository Services
………………….§ Compliance / Retention
………………….§ Policy Mgmt
………………….§ Archival
………………….§ Intelligent Storage
………..○ Integration Services
• 10:00 — Acartus Acquired
………..○ That plus Captiva gives them end-to-end focus
• 11:00 — Three Focuses
………..○ Capture
………..○ Process
………..○ Archive
• 12:00 - Capture
………..○ Captiva Focus - Products - InputAccel (base platform), FormWare, Dispatcher, InputAccel(invcs), eInput
………..○ Devices: Scan, Fax, Multifunction, etc
………..○ Extract / Validate information from the document (OCR)
………..○ Doc Types Handled: Structured (all same), Semi Structured (different by vendor but large groups similar), Unstructured (each doc diff)
………..○ 17:15 - Dtl review of InputAcel
………………….§ 18:30 talk of extracting data from images and how
………..○ 20:00 - ABM-AMRO Customer Example
………………….§ 800,000 images a day processed
………………….§ Multi-Function devices at branch submits to a central solution
………..○ 22:00 - Captiva remains separate, continues to sell for FileNET’s and Stellents of the world
• 24:30 - Process
………..○ Real value add is streamlining processes
………..○ They call it “Business Process Management”
………..○ See four steps
………………….§ Model / Simulate
………………….§ Deploy / Execute
………………….§ Monitor / Manage
………………….§ Analyze / Optimize
………..○ Products they offer:
………………….§ Required
……………………………□ Process Engine (model/simulate)
……………………………□ Business Process Engine (deploy/execute)
………………….§ Optional
……………………………□ Business Process Services (Webservices layer)
……………………………□ Collaborative Edition
……………………………□ Formlet user lisc
……………………………□ Process connectors for: iLog (rules eng), IDS Sheer (Simulator), Cognos (Reporting)
………..○ 29:30 - High Volume Process Enablement
………………….§ Queues, Queue management, workflow around queues
………………….§ Part of Documentum 5.3 (10/2005)
………..○ 31:00 - Collaboration Integration
………………….§ Manage collaboration objects as part of record
………………….§ Part of all Documentum areas (web, outlook, etc)
………………….§ Design Business Process … certain steps can be flagged as requiring collaboration. Talk to collaborative edition (eRoom) … create room, add data, add people, trigger alerts back to room, have exits on room that retrigger process.
………..○ 34:00 - Process Specific BPM Templates
………………….§ Use in pre-sales
………………….§ Offer to clients as starting point
………………….§ Loan Origination, Claims Processing, New Account Setup (late 2006)
………..○ 34:30 - Recent Deals (q4) on BPM
………………….§ Auto Insurer. Field adjusters loading content files to HQ. BPS used to receive and route uploads to be processed.
………………….§ Chip MFG. Contract management.
………………….§ Credit Card Operator. Dispute Management Application. Rules engine
• 38:00 - Archive
………..○ Store / Archive / Retain
………..○ Focus: End of life transactions and assoc docs, COLD
………..○ Compliance / Retention functionality is top of mind for the business right now
………..○ ILM? Image Lifecycle Management
………………….§ Steps: Create/Capture, Change, Route, Approve, Publish, Retire
………………….§ Claim routing/High availability
………………….§ Large Volume
………………….§ Process focus
………………….§ Clear need for ways for better usage of storage (huge storage keys)
………………….§ Strong compliance / retrieval needs
………..○ 42:00 - Example - Cincinnati Financial
………………….§ Processes Enabled: Underwriting, Marketing/New Product, Legal/Compliance, Policy Creation / Admin, Claims Admin, Customer Service
• 44:00 - Key Imaging Applications
………..○ Horizontal Apps (PO, Invc, Mail Room)
………..○ Fin Svcs
………..○ Gov
………..○ Life Sci (Patient, Case Rpts, HIPPA, Product Research/Trial Docs)
• 48:30 Competitive Positioning (per EMC)
………..○ IBM -
………………….§ Strong - Viable vendor, MQ
………………….§ Weak - Legacy Platform, Complex,
………..○ FileNET
………………….§ Strong: Well established in FS vertical, strong partners
………………….§ Weak: Not complete, migration to p8 is still a fee and hard
………..○ Mobius
………………….§ Strong: Known COLD vendor
………………….§ Weak: No breadth, imaging, or BPM
………..○ Others (Stellent, Hummingbird, Interwoven)
………………….§ Message: Full ECM platform and EMC vendor.
………………….§ Interesting didn’t talk to Strength and Weakness

May 6, 2006 Posted by bauertim | Uncategorized | , , | No Comments

Documentum Resources

I watched the webcast “Resource Advantage”today … about 20 minutes if you go fast … 30 if you don’t. Gives a good overview of thier various sites and how they can help partners (some discussion of customer sites). Unless you are focused in the ECM space I probably would just review my notes and go surf around on the various sites. It was rather tedious as it was done on Macromedia’s ‘breeze’ platform and saved requiring a user to click ‘go’ between pages … ugh.

Here is the link to where the presentation was:

http://mylearn.documentum.com

You have to login as outlined below … may require you to create a login using our partner code and your business email (GR.com) on http://partnernet.documentum.com first.

Quote:
EMC: Resource Advantage
………..○ Slide5 - PartnerNET
………………….§ Demos
………………….§ Screen cams
………………….§ Success Stories
………………….§ Competitive Briefings
………………….§ Pricing
………………….§ White papers
………………….§ Product presentations
………..○ Slide 11 - Sales Kits
………………….§ Product Solutions (CM, RM, Image/Scan, eRoom)
………………….§ Industry Briefs (Healthcare, Fin, Aero, Life Sci, Gov)
………..○ Slide 12 - Benchmarking/Sizing
………………….§ XLS
………………….§ Software and Hardware pricing
………..○ Slide 15 - Partner Technical Resource Guide
………………….§ Guide to where various materials are on PartnerNET. Most used on proposal creation (find responses)
………………….§ Under Partner Program Management / Partner User Guide
………………….§ TOC
……………………………□ Documentum Overview
……………………………□ Why ECM
……………………………□ Key Websites: Corp, customer, partner, supp, dev, download; training, consulting, pre-sales briefings, pre sales tech
………..○ Slid 19 - Documentum Recorded Events
………………….§ Under Events > Recorded Events
………………….§ 20 categories, Webex Based, 30-40 min
……………………………□ BPM, Compliance, ERP, Portals, Gov, DAM, Image Proc, Electronic Forms, Ent Pub, Info Lifecycle Mgmt, Marketing, Plant and Facility, Records Mgmt, Scanngin, VMWare, WCM
………..○ Slide 23 - MyLearn
………………….§ Another site
………………….§ myLearn.documentum.com
………………….§ Login works if you put in a fujitsu email … ie tim.bauer@us.fujitsu.com … (even if it isn’t real) … just put in your work email in the alternative email field on the 2nd ste
………………….§ Classroom, Live, SelfPaced, library, training plans
………..○ Slide 25 - Customer NET
………………….§ Slide 26 - Forums, bugs, tech support …
………………….§ Different login (valid biz email - again)
………………….§ Registration … auth support logins can do log cases
………..○ Slide 31 - Dev Site
………………….§ Customization Options
………………….§ Source code snippets
………………….§ Best practices
………………….§ Downloads via > Product Documentumation
………………….§ Another separate login (links to account is business email) … so create your ‘partnerNET’ login 1st … that ones works user a ‘gr.com’ login … then the others (@ least MyLearn did) will pick up you are valid from that

May 1, 2006 Posted by bauertim | Uncategorized | | No Comments

« Previous Entries