Document Management Players Brace for Microsoft
Initial strike may devastate small firms
(Two articles from the Open Text thread that might
be of interest. Peter.)
By Dominique Deckmyn / Computerworld 8/30
08/30/99 Microsoft Corp.'s long-awaited entry into
the document management space next year is expected
to cause a major shift in a market dominated by a
handful of vertical players.
In May, Microsoft first outlined its plans for providing
a range of technologies for the data worker. A key
component is code-named Tahoe, which will provide basic
document management features such as document check-in and
check-out, and routing and version control. Tahoe's tight
integration with the Windows environment will be "pretty
compelling to customers," said Jonathan Penn, an analyst
at Giga Information Group Inc. in Santa Clara, Calif.
Microsoft has been quietly discussing Tahoe with the
leading document management vendors since last fall,
encouraging them to add value to it rather than compete
with it. Although those vendors are saying they aren't
worried by Microsoft's entry, they're rushing to integrate
more tightly with Microsoft Windows, Office 2000,
BackOffice and Outlook.
Michael Harris, a marketing executive at Costa Mesa, Calif.
-based FileNet Corp., said his company is betting heavily on
integrating with Microsoft software. FileNet's Panagon
software is built on Microsoft's Component Object Model,
which will make it easy to integrate Microsoft's basic
document management features with FileNet's vertical
applications, Harris said. He added that Microsoft's Digital
Dashboard concept for a personal portal may provide an easy
way to integrate Panagon with Tahoe.
Documentum Inc. in Pleasanton, Calif., another major document
management vendor, earlier this year said it would move from
providing an infrastructure for custom document management
applications to developing packaged applications for vertical
markets. But it too is working on a road map for integration
with Windows 2000 and Tahoe.
"Microsoft doesn't really have anything but an announcement,"
said Dan Latendre, vice president of product marketing at
Open Text Corp. in Waterloo, Ontario. But he said Open Text
will integrate its Livelink software with Microsoft's Tahoe.
Most observers agree that Tahoe's document management features
are quite basic and targeted mainly at Lotus Development Corp.'s
Domino.doc -- an add-on to the Domino groupware server. But if
Domino.doc and Tahoe fight over the market, they will affect
lower-end vendors such as Xerox Corp. and Eastman Software Inc.,
said Andrew Warzecha, an analyst at Meta Group Inc. in Stamford,
Conn.
And:
Open Text Warns:
Message 11248124
Good luck to all. Peter. |
