Documentum group gets new name and new direction

This week at EMC World in Boston, EMC announced a name change for the Documentum group, and with it a change in direction focusing on using the information in "intelligent" ways. EMC Documentum was part of the Content Management and Archiving group, which is now known as the Intelligent Information Group.

This new name reflects a significant shift for venerable Documentum, one that is built around "case management," information access and governance.

Laurence Hart of the Washington Consulting Group, who writes The Word of Pie Blog wasn't sure this was a positive move because it could reflect a radical change in direction, one he wasn't sure he liked. Hart was concerned that Documentum could be losing touch with its core document management roots, particularly the focus on case management.

Mark Lewis, president of the Information Intelligence Group, says he can't worry about naysayers. He has to do what's best for the company and he believes if he maintained the status quo, his company could have become irrelevant as content management grows increasingly into a commoditized service. "The problem we are facing," Lewis says, "is that [the] conversation we want to have is how we can leverage information. We are not putting down the base [of core Documentum users], but we have moved on."

Geoffrey Bock of Bock and Co. believes it's a smart move, one that could transform Documentum from what he called a "dumb repository" into something that could make intelligent (there's that word again) use of content by moving business process management up the stack from purely operational to transaction and project-based processing.

One organization that examplifies this new approach is EMC customer Bank of America (NYSE: BAC). They have had to absorb several large pieces since the financial meltdown in 2008, including Countrywide Mortgages and Merrill Lynch, and they are using EMC products and services to help ease the transition. The tools being used include Captiva for content capture and Webtop for personalized web content based on information they learn about the customer. 

Lewis candidly admitted that change is hard and over the last two years while he defined this strategy, he had significant turnover in his executve team, at least partly because not everyone was happy with this change. He says he can't be concerned about people who fail to see the wisdom of his new strategy. He's doing what he thinks is best to keep the company growing and relevant. "If people feel abandoned because we are broadening our reach, I can't worry about that," he said.

This is a big change for one of the older content management tools. Lewis believes it's a good one and he's going all in with this strategy. Time will tell if he made the right choice.

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