A few Documentum-oriented readers of this blog have e-mailed me back-channel to ask why I wrote about Captiva two posts ago; the answer I gave is this: "To provide a view through a wider lens." From my observation, EMC's intention is to design products around business-oriented solutions; therefore no specific product, almost by definition, can do the whole job. So while a Documentum developer, for example, may see his/her role as customizing, configuring or writing code around WebTop, DFC, DCM and so on; EMC looks at the entire solution set: "How can we build as close to a Plug'n Play for our customers as possible ?"

A good example of this is EMC's Transactional Content Management solutions set. It's built for clients who have Accounts Payable Processing, Health Insurance Document Generation, and Business Process Management (the demo at EMC World was around information exchanged between an individual involved in a car accident and his insurance company) needs. These are areas in which high-volumes of information are input ( the EMC solution enlists Captiva), then managed via Documentum and finally delivered to customers in various formats and through various means through Document Sciences which does "customer communications management."

The idea between marrying these previously disparate products is simple- EMC can offer a full solution to its customers- the interfaces come "built in." And if we are to take Mark Lewis at his word (and I see no reason not to) the approach offers a competitive advantage to EMC, "We're the only supplier in the industry with an end-to-end solution."

According to the top three vendors in the ECM-space (EMC, IBM, Oracle). the market calls for infrastructure-based solutions (this supports EMC's mission to increase its presence within a client firm) with everything as much "out of the box" as possible. Gartner says that, "The increased focus of infrastructure vendors, especially Microsoft, on content management has led to consolidation in the ECM market." So, if everyone's right, Wall Street should be pretty happy. EMC Storage customers seem to be. I can't find data to support that for EMC CMA or Documentum specifically, but if you want your vote to be included in the larger EMC picture, go here.

Where am I going with all this? Perhaps to ask a few questions and make a few points.

1) If the almost out-of the-box trend continues and you're an IT professional who works in the ECM Space, your job will be more and more about optimizing configurations and less and less about design, coding, and customization.

2) It may make sense to get total-vendor solution savvy- understanding how a solution set works as a whole might create efficiencies and/or generate cost savings (maintenance, at the very least, should be simpler) for your employer or customer.

3.) Are ECM customers sacrificing the use of best-of breed-technologies when they marry a vendor?

4.) What's happened to leveraging leading-edge technologies for competitive advantage? Are ECM solutions not geared toward that anymore? (When products like Documentum and CoreDossier were new, early adapters could beat competitors in getting therapies to market first by leveraging the Document Management and Publishing technologies to complete and publish FDA submissions in record time. Being first to market in Pharma often wins customer loyalty and market dominance. for years.)

5.) What happens to innovation in the space? Gartner says, "The shift toward larger infrastructure vendors - with IBM, Oracle and EMC competing at the high end and Microsoft commoditizing the market at the low end - ultimately means fewer choices for end users and less opportunity for innovation.