Microsoft took a swing at the ECM market with it’s Sharepoint 2007 product. Prior versions of Sharepoint were pretty feable in their attempt to address document and content management functionality. Early reviewers have been generally positive in the new capabilities.
The Microsoft Office Sharepoint Server (MOSS) 2007 addresses:
Management of Diverse Content. Consolidates data from multiple file shares and personal drives into a centrally managed repository.
Compliance. MOSS achieved DOD 5015.2 certification earlier this year.
Web Content. Added features for managing and tracking web content
Business Process Automation. Provides tools for automating business workflows.
While Microsoft’s ECM low-end market attack with MOSS is gaining momentum, it still has a ways to go. To remedy that, Microsoft may have at least a couple of new things in the works.
For example, at a recent conference in France, Microsoft listed the release of an ECM portal product for later in 2007. It’s called ‘S2′. At the conference, the product is shown as something separate from Sharepoint. Mary Jane Foley, a frequent blogger on Microsoft activities, reports that the new product would have integration points with Microsoft Office client and server, and may also include a web service component possibly linked to Office Live.
An earlier report also talks about a product code-named ‘BullDog’ from Microsoft. BullDog is rumored to be part of the next Office release (Office 14) to be early-released for comment in Q1 2008 (with a tentative scheduled final release for Q1 2009) and will include Master Data Management (MDM) capabilities. BullDog is likely to be based on software from Stratature, a company acquired by Microsoft.
Interesting moves by Microsoft. Maybe the pieces can coalesce, but a more coordinated approach to enterprise data management might be more effective long term.
