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AIIM Show is Here!

By Michael Alsup posted 04-19-2010 11:24

  

I am getting close to 30 AIIM Shows I have attended. I probably missed 2 or 3 in the early 1980’s, but none since then. Even so, looking at the booth layout online, there are some things that stand out for me:

1. Capture is a big deal this year. There are lots of big and small capture vendors. Kodak is there in a tiny booth. Knowledgelake is there in a huge booth by Microsoft, where you would expect them. 15 years ago, Kodak was my barometer for the industry and Knowledgelake didn’t exist.

2. Open Text is there again. I can’t remember the last time they were there. Good to see them back. This could be the Captaris acquisition or other new company.

3. IBM is there in a little booth in the Microsoft pavilion. What is up with that? Is this where the FileNet team that defined the imaging industry ended up?

4. The Microsoft booth is huge when the impact of all of the companies in the Microsoft pavilion is considered. Not surprising with the impending launch of SharePoint 2010. Microsoft still needs to learn when they should “embrace and extend” vs. “rip and replace” based on the industry, prior company investments, actual requirements, etc.  I saw an announcement this morning that SharePoint 2010 has gone RTM, that is Release to Market packaging.  SharePoint 2010 has strong new capabilities in the RM arena that will be visible at AIIM.

5. There is only one ECM or RM integrator there whose name I recognize. (Questex says that several are there in partnership in vendor's booths) We are on a different path than the people we have competed with in recent years. We are introducing product to extend our services. As Harrison Ford said in Working Girl, “The players change, the game remains the same”.

6. Two credible analyst firms are in attendance, Doculabs and the Real Story Group, once known as CMSWatch. Both are longtime AIIM supporters. Both have added significantly to our understanding of best practices.

7. I am looking forward to some RM advancements in the EMC booth in their SharePoint products.  Both Documentum and Source One have powerful connectors to SharePoint.  Documentum extends this to enterprise RM using Retention Policy Services and External Blob Storage.  Andrew Chapman and his team have done yoeman's work in this area. 

8. I am looking forward to figuring out how the new HP Tower RM solution works with SharePoint.  There has been high level information available, but I have not been able to obtain more information.  Do they pass the full SharePoint property bag to the External Blob Storage resource?  How do they deploy to the enterprise?  What is the relationship to physical RM?  This is a fascinating new solution

9. I think that Philadelphia is a good venue for AIIM. Close to NYC and Washington DC, as well as Eastern Pennsylvania and Northern New Jersey. Lots of ECM and RM in the neighborhood. I would still like to see the Show back in NYC, at Javits, but that may be more nostalgia than anything else.

What other things are people looking for at the AIIM Show this year?  I will post a summary after the show. 



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