At the end of November it was that time again. Gartner presents its vision on the vendors of Enterprise Content Services (ECS). This is always a moment of squeezing and hoping that there is nothing unexpected in this research report. As a renowned partner of OpenText, the leading supplier of content services platforms, this indicator is nevertheless very important.
I find the research results difficult to assess every year because my trust in Gartner is not always that great. This is because we know a little too well how it really works behind the scenes. It is known that money plays a rather important role in the ranking that you get as a company. A good example is the comment I got from a CEO of a player who suddenly appeared out of nowhere in a Magic Quadrant: “Yes, great man, we are good at it. This is really going to make a lot of money. It did cost some money, but I am sure we will earn it back ”.
Furthermore, Gartner analysts, like me, have very specific and strong opinions about things. On the one hand that is of course good, but on the other hand it sometimes gives a too one-sided picture. For example, as a company you can only offer one solution. Such as OpenText for example. This organization has several ECS solutions in its portfolio, but ultimately only one of these solutions is included in the analysis. And that solution is also determined by Gartner itself. A medal with challenges on both sides.
Magic Quadrant for Content Services Platforms
Take a look, here is the Magic Quadrant content services 2020.
It contains a number of things that we also see in the market:
- The top visionaries remain fairly the same group of companies;
- The rest also remains fairly the same;
- Especially with the smaller niche players, more and more are disappearing. They cannot compete;
- Microsoft continues to grow with their Office 365 platform for Content Collaboration.
But it also contains a number of things that we cannot place:
- Nowhere in Europe we come across much Hyland-OnBase. I know exactly two in the Netherlands. At the European level it is interesting to consider whether this level is appropriate;
- Alfresco reduced their R&D budget last year. We see stopped programs or projects in difficulty at very many customers. Now that Alfresco has been bought by Hyland, the end is soon in sight. Who has ever heard of Perceptive Software again?
Finally, our close friend: OpenText. They eventually entered the competition with xECM (eXtended ECM). This is an intermediate layer between Business Applications and Documentum or Content Server. This is actually real Content Services as it does not really have its own interface, but is fully focused on integration from Business Applications. It is strange that very little is written about this at Gartner in this report. Both with regard to OpenText and everyone else. Apparently, compared to Content Management at Gartner, content services has not quite landed in the head either.
My conclusion
This year it is again a report full of interesting topics that mainly cause a lot of discussion. This is partly due to the wide margin that has been taken with regard to the full and complete picture of the available offer and the unruly reality of every day.