Interview : Alan Pelz-Sharpe, Principal and Lead Analyst CMSWatch

Hello readers!

Today I continue interviews around the ECM ecosystem. After a CEO, a Vice President, an Architect, a Consultant, a founder and bloggers... I have the great opportunity to interview an independant Analyst.

Remember : The subjects I focused on for these interviews are
1. To introduce men and women playing a role in ECM environment
2. To discover the ECM community
3. To explore ECM Solutions
4. To learn more about technologies and content management practices.

So today, I interview Alan Pelz-Sharpe Principal and lead Analyst on The ECM Suites Report at CMS Watch

Hello Alan !

First of all, many thanks for the time you are spending to share your knowledge about ECM.

First of all, let's present yourself, what's your role at CMSWatch and what are you doing day after day ?

I am a Principal Analyst and Partner at CMS Watch. I research the ECM market, and write technical evaluations of the leading tools for our customers. I also consult directly and spend a lot of my time talking to buyers and users of ECM technology. At CMS Watch we never work with or for vendors - all of our work is for buyers and users - I travel a great deal and spend a lot of time on the road either consulting, researching or speaking at conferences.

I read recently an old article from you about the relationship between Vendor/Analyst/Buyer... It's incredibly hard to be neutral in your job. Could you resume and present those relations ? How it works ? What's your tips and tools to be neutral ?

It is very difficult indeed, and frankly it is a lot easier to make money if you work with vendors. That is a sacrifice we make, and I think it is the right one to make. Being neutral, writing what we believe to be true and staying free of ethical conflict is central to our work at CMS Watch, but that does not mean that we have bad relationships with vendors. Most vendors like what we do and are very supportive of our work, one or two do not - and that's ok. Remember that for vendors, the craziness of paying an analyst firm to write a favorable/independent report is not something they like to do. The whole machine of analysts consulting to vendors, vendors paying the same analysts, and the analysts then trying to give honest and bias free advice is a broken model, but its a very profitable one!

By the way, Could you present CMSWatch ?

Certainly, at CMS Watch we cover what we call 'Content Technologies' so that is everything from Document Management to Web Content Management to Web Analytics to Digital Asset Management and Search - and all things in between. Our goal is to give detailed technical evaluation advise to buyers of technology - and we feel that we offer real value. Value in that we save people many weeks of time in selecting the right product, and value in that we help people avoid major mistakes in their projects - ECM projects are notorious for falling short of expectations. We all do this because we have all been there before, we are long term practitioners - I myself have been in the Document/Records/ECM space for 20 years.

Let's back to the past... in 2008-2006. What was the main trend of ECM Market ?

Difficult to say to be honest - on the one hand we could argue it was consolidation (IBM acquired FileNet, Open Text bought a bunch of companies, HP acquired Tower etc) - but I think really the main trend was SharePoint. Both SharePoint as a toolset in its own right, and SharePoint as a threat/opportunity/partner for the established ECM vendors.

and in 2009 ? What will the main trend ? (CMIS Adoption, Vendor Consolidation, Open Source Explosion, Web2.0 style...)

I think the big trend in 2009 will be a return to basics - document processing, the web as self service - in other words projects that realize a solid return on their investments. Clearly in a recession price is an issue and Open Source and SaaS will have their role to play but I don't see an explosion. CMIS though I think will start to become more important, we are already seeing buyers adding this requirement to RFP's.

I want to buy an ECM solution. Is there a methodology to make a choice between all ECM products ? Is it really possible to compare ECM solutions ?

Yes there is a methodology, and it is perfectly possible to compare ECM solutions - but you have to buy our report to know the secret ;-) But seriously you must compare ECM solutions - and accept and be aware that there are wide differences between them. You need the one that is the right fit for your needs, not 'the market leader' or best known name. Factors such as their industry specific expertise, regional support etc are just as important technical considerations.

Based on your experience, do you notice a difference on content management between country (Europe, US, Asia...) ? Is there a different way to manage contentdue to location ?

Oh there are huge differences - I have been blessed to live in the US for 8 years yet I am a European and spend lots of time there - in addition over the years I have travelled regularly to Asia, so this is in fact an area that I find particularly fascinating. If I were to summarize (and stereotype) in the US there is a tendency to swap technology out on a regular basis (and add more technology to the mix), in Europe investments tend to be long term, and in Asia there is a tendency to custom develop.

Do you make a difference between Open Source ECM solution and Proprietary? Why ?

Yes I do, and I do so simply because buyers and vendors alike make that distinction. At CMS Watch we are followers not market leaders - we leave the crystal ball gazing to our friends at Gartner and Forrester (who do a very good job at market predictions). So if the market makes a distinction we will follow. That being said it is a very common conversation for me to have with buyers - explaining to them the differences between different open source options, some are true community supported and developed, some are very proprietary and only open source in terms of some vague licensing terms....

Is it really important for buyers to know this difference in the open source solution ? The most important thing is not simply support ?

Yes its important - and I say this as somebody who often recommends open source options to his clients. Its important because cultures have to resonate. Some firms are just not going to buy into the open source way and are never going to be comfortable with reliance on the community - they want (and need) the support of a major software firm. Though this is difficult for many in the open source community to swallow, its nonetheless true. Conversely there are many who thrive with open source solutions. But my bigger concern these days is not in pointing out the differences, but more the similarities. There are some good true to the source open source solutions out there (particularly in WCM) but more and more 'open source' solutions are simply proprietary solutions that don't charge an up front fee for software but simply rely on maintenance fees for their livelihood, nothing wrong with that - but its not the open source ideal I first encountered circa 1999....

I had the opportunity to read The ECM Suites Report 2009 and I was really impressed by the number of technical and commercial informations (I also learn a lot about ECM...). Could you present this report ? How long does it take to create one?

To create a report like The ECM Suites Report can take anything from six months and it is an ongoing task to keep it up to date - many many interviews are conducted with users of the technology we review, as well as sitting through product demonstrations etc. It is a big job, and though it is one I have done on many occasions now, it is not something I would recommend to anyone else - it can add many years to your life! Our goal with all our reports is to ensure that you have a solid understanding of the topic as well as the individual software solutions - we try and balance it so that both the IT person and the Business person can gain value. The purpose of each product evaluation is not to give you what you can get from the vendors marketing, but to provide a critical analysis. Where it works well and where it doesn't - allowing you the buyer and user to enter into relationships with suppliers with a full understanding of their limitations.

Could it be possible to know the methodology used to realize this kind of report ? Do you make a lot of debates with vendors ? Do you test hundreds servers with product demonstrators ? Do you listen client feeedbacks ? others...

The methodology is simple but very thorough - in that we construct an evaluation matrix at the beginning so that there is consistency between each evaluation - we then usually start by undertaking a lot of desk research, reviewing everything we can get our hands on - demonstrations of the product with the vendor or one of their partners - and then (most important) we interview buyers and users of the products. Client/customer feedback is central to what we do - we are there solely for buyers and users, so in many ways they dictate what we do. For example some vendors complain that they are not included in our reports but their competitors are included. We include vendors solely based on their visibility in the market and requests from our customers. If we don't see a vendor appearing on buyer shortlists then they will not be included.

After all that works, have you your personal ECM definition? (or is ECM just a marketing term?)

ECM is a marketing term - but there is nothing wrong with that. To me ECM is about controlling information - information and process management. I (and we at CMS Watch) separate out Web Content Management as distinct from ECM. I think this is right to do - managing web content and processes is very different to managing document processes - hence we have different services and reports. But ECM as a term is sticking and it is as good a term as any I think.

In 2009, can you advise us on public meeting/ event or conference we must not miss ? Will you be present ?

I speak at a lot of conferences and there are a few that I really enjoy, I enjoy them because they offer a great opportunity for buyers and users to interact. The big one is AIIM Expo in Philadelphia this spring, AIIM Expo is the grand daddy of them all and actually a lot of fun to attend and speak at. In the UK I like Online Information later in the year (usually Dec), a different crowd but again very good. The events run by Janus Boye in Denmark in the winter is (IMHO) the best for Web Content Management.

Finally, can you recommend us weblinks or blogs about ECM or IT in general ?

I subscribe to over 500 blogs that are ECM specific - most are not that great, but have flashes of brilliance and insight. I guess if I were to mention a couple I would point people to the AIIM blogs, as well as Big Men on Content and Word of Pie. There are some other really good ones and I hope I haven't offended anyone by not mentioning them - of course the CMS Watch blog is pretty good too :-)

What would you say to conclude this interview?

Nothing, other than to say that I think in this economy ECM is not a bad place to be - what we do with ECM is essential and its need grows ever stronger.

Many thanks, Alan, for this interview. We wish you a nice and exciting journey on Open Source (or not) ECM Road!


To find out more about CMSWatch : http://cmswatch.com/

and if you want to follow Alan, read his blog : http://cmswatch.com/ECM/Trends/

PS : You can download this interview at this url : http://www.scribd.com/doc/11639533/Open-Source-ECM-Interview-ENG-Alan-PelzSharpe-CMSWatch