IBM Updates ECM Portfolio, Offers Starter Packs

IBM announced fairly significant updates to its Enterprise Content Management (ECM) product families, including Business Process Management (BPM), eDiscovery and Archiving.

Apparently having heard the market scream for leaner, smarter product options and cost efficiency, the Big Blue has also introduced starter packs — licensing-wise slimmed-down product versions targeted for smaller or departmental deployments — for four of its ECM product lines.

More on CMSWire: IBM Updates ECM Portfolio, Introduces Starter Kits

(Some) Reasons Why EMC Wants to Grab eDiscovery Vendor Kazeon

No longer rumored in the halls of the ILTA conference, the intent of Enterprise CMS and storage vendor EMC to acquire Kazeon is now official. The unconfirmed deal size is at about US$ 75 million.

What does that mean for the two companies? How did the eDiscovery industry take the news? Let’s take a look at some first reactions and thoughts.

Kazeon’s software is said to be able to perform early case assessments and eDiscovery activities across multiple ESI sources — in addition to analytics, concept-based search and collaborative review. Exactly what EMC needs to round up its SourceOne software suite and to make it all in-house without having to OEM any of its parts.

EMC positions the outcome of the deal as an “end-to-end eDiscovery solution” that will extend capabilities of the existing SourceOne family of products from eDiscovery, archiving and compliance perspectives.

But can Kazeon really support that claim? The competition doesn’t think so. According to Recommind’s Craig Carpenter, Kazeon can do collection and legal hold, but doesn’t have sophisticated review capabilities, which will need to be either built or acquired.

Coincidentally, EMC has been reselling eDiscovery software from Kazeon, StoredIQ and Clearwell Systems in the past. But it was Kazeon that was welcomed to the family. Carpenter told us that the acquisition plans were “not a very well-kept secret.” But the “heavy-betting money was on StoredIQ. Clearwell was also an option ahead of Kazeon.”

What helped Kazeon to differentiate from other candidates, says Carpenter, is its enterprise search capabilities, which are considered a critical component in today’s eDiscovery.

This acquisition is a long-awaited chance to pop that champagne for Kazeon’s “long-suffering shareholders,” as Clearwell’s CEO, Aaref Hilaly refers to them. Kazeon raised a whopping more than US$ 60 million in funding in the past several years only to report less than optimistic revenues of around US$ 8 million.

The jury is still out on whether this acquisition will be successful and have any impact on the business of the biggies like IBM, Microsoft and Open Text.

More on CMSWire:  Why EMC Wants to Buy eDiscovery Vendor Kazeon?

State of the ECM Industry 2009: Content Still a Mess

AIIM has released its annual State of the ECM Industry research report. And although the term Enterprise Content Management was coined about eight years ago, the research findings are still not very optimistic in some areas.

Not surprisingly, the bottom line is that electronic content in many of its shapes and forms in the organizational landscape is still (mainly) a mess.

AIIM has found that managing electronic documents is still a challenge for a whopping 47% of organizations. On top of that, business communication channels like IMs, text messages, blogs and wikis are uncontrolled and off the corporate radar for 75% of businesses.

Looks like ECM is still an industry in the process of growth with all the growing pains that come along with it.

Full article on CMSWire: State of the ECM Industry 2009: Content Still a Challenge

How Content Management Can Save the World

Ever think about global warming, air pollution and dying out populations of polar bears? Or whether your grandchildren will be able to leave the house without an oxygen mask?

Scary picture, huh?

With Obama reigning and his plans to save the planet, Gartner’s research  is right on time. Recently, Gartner offered its take on six strategic areas in which enterprise content management can deliver both green benefits and business efficiencies.

There are multiple advantages to a green(er) enterprise. With green IT practices being strategic this year, businesses can not only control costs and efficiency, but also reap environmental benefits.

Full article on CMSWire: Why Obama Loves Enterprise Content Management

Open Text Embraces Recommind, Releases New eDiscovery Product

Open Text is in the full swing of things following a slew of announcements at the Open Text Content World conference. This time, it’s a new eDiscovery product in partnership with Recommind, a provider of enterprise search and eDiscovery solutions, to offer a new product called Open Text eDiscovery Early Case Assessment.

The solution promises to minimize the need for third-party processing and help control the high costs of legal reviews by culling irrelevant information before it goes for review by outside counsel.

Full article on CMSWire: Open Text Embraces Recommind, Expands eDiscovery Tool

SpringCM 5.0: Content-Centric SaaS ECM

Had a chat with Dan Carmel, SpringCM Inc’s CEO, about the newest version of  this SaaS Enterprise CMS player’s product — SpringCM v5.0. Carmel is (but of course) very optimistic about the new major release.

SpringCM 5.0 is touted as the “first SaaS platform that allows companies to easily deploy multiple content-centric applications” across different enterprise workgroups. Hooray for value added resellers (VARs), who can use this platform to build repeatable and low-cost apps and sell them to customers.

The yummiest part of the new release is SpringCM’s integration with 22 Enterprise Content Management (ECM) technologies spanning imaging, document capture, business process automation, e-mail and records management, etc. – catering to such audiences as accounts payable, logistics, contract, proposal and records management and compliance.

Full article on CMSWire: Content-Centric SaaS Apps the Next Generation?