I've been hearing a number of my Documentum customers say that they will be (or are considering) using SharePoint for front-end web publishing and Documentum as a repository.  I must say that, at first,  I was surprised. Documentum enthusiasts talking Microsoft? Blasphemy? Of course not. ECM buyers are simply trying to please their often Documentum-frustrated, Windows-friendly users and, at last, there's a new kid on the block that promises to help them do so.

Now I don't yet know much about the new kid; but he does look nice. Sharepoint's presentation layer is attractive, even comforting; after all, it looks like the interface I face, the interface my 70-year-old father faces, and the interface my eleven-year-old niece sees when she does her homework. Sure, ECM users take on far more complicated tasks than any of the aforementioned, but who can blame them for wanting to do it with the same Microsoft-ease available to the individual consumer?

But Sharepoint doesn't have the power !

I've heard that argument.

And, yes, Documentum is also the legacy Document/Content Management application at most of my clients- they're not ready to trash the deep investments they've made in the product, technology, platform, or however Documentum is being labeled at the moment.

And while, in the past, companies like OpenText and Filenet competed head-to head with Documentum, Sharepoint has come to market and, at least for now, Momma-Microsoft has offered to share. And so has EMC, for that matter. It's called collaboration, co-opetition.....

  Why not just put on some love beads and a flower-power t-shirt and call it a love-in?

Am I being cynical? Yes, of course.

I'm also not convinced that the CIO's office thinks that one-stop shopping is a bad idea.

Is this happening on the ECM on the OpenSource-side (though here it makes more sense) too?

I suspect that they're gagging on the same kool-aid. 

Here's what Alfresco's VP of Business Development, Matt Asay ,says about Drupal:

"I'm a big fan of Drupal and there are plenty of high-volume sites that use Drupal. I'm definitely not saying any of the above as a slur on Drupal.

In fact, some have considered using Drupal and Alfresco together, which makes sense if you think of Alfresco as the heavy-duty back-end repository and platform and Drupal as the front-end web publishing tool. Alfresco has a PHP API that makes this feasible...." 

My summary? If you can't fight' em, build a bridge that leads to your country. And then....?

I'm taking bets.