In all keynotes given at Momentum Vienna it is very clear. EMC want to move to solutions and lower their ‘commercial’ focus to the base platform.
A bold move of the Documentum team. The enterprise platform is and was always the strongest in the world and often a game changer in a deal.
At Momentum Vienna 2012, the launch of Document 7 is done, but the focus and the firework where not about Documentum version 7.
It is just a simple statement. Documentum 7 is out. It is better faster and more robust.
But an excellent move it is in my opinion.
The platform will not go away. The investments will keep going, but selling a platform is not the way to go in the new normal.
The reason why I’m a long time Documentum fan is because the platform is what it is. Since its beginning in ’88 the base of the platform has not changed. The relational object model concept is still very much the same only more object types are added.
Me being a techy, I like it, but that is not what sells a product. (and it should not!)
What sells is the added value you will achieve when implementing a solution with it. And that is something where all big ECM vendors are struggling with.
EMC already tried several times to get a solution offering going, but all of them failed badly.
This time the approach is so significant different that I think it will become a success.
So what is the secret?
- all solution EMC will create, come out of the professional services group. The base for solutions are custom builds for clients that are migrated to solutions or products.
- once a cusomization is identified as a possible solution, a seperate group within professional services takes ownership of the potential solution. Letting consultants build repeatable solution is not a good idea (when it works it works, I have tested it myself).
- last but certainly not least, only a small part of the solution that a EMC sales will offer heir clients will be build and maintained by EMC. All others will come from their partner community. More specifically their Consulting Preferred Partner Program (C3P).
Specifically the last bullet will be the game changer. Partners are now able to submit their best practice solutions into an approval process by EMC and an independent reviewer to get their solution certified. And certified does not mean that your name will be shown somewhere on one of the last and hidden pages on the EMC website (as it used to be). No, they will be in the EMC Sales price-book and the sales will be compensated for every sell.
Let the games begin and we at Informed Consulting will accept the challenge to come up with some selling solution on top of Documentum and the SharePoint Documentum connector.
