Documentum Collaborative Services for Corporate ECM Application

We are in a process of designing a ECM solution for the Corporate roll out . We are looking at basic services like library services , version control ,renditioning , full text search ,workflow and lifecycle . In this process I was looking at using DCE based Documentum application. We did a proof of concept with the business using DCE based webtop a while back which did not go well ( There were a number of reasons like ACL's were perceived to be complicated , users did not want discussions , chats and user provisions was complex)

Has anyone worked with DCE for a Corporate wide application ?If yes can you share some of your experiences ?

Regards

Keshav Koratkar

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Comments

DCTM_Guru

Have you looked at CenterStage? I think this would be a better alternative given that EMC is no longer pushing/selling Webtop.

keshav

Yes I am looking at Centerstage but am contemplating if the Business users are going to get the whole wiki , blog , and all Web 2.0 features

From my analysis most of the end users want a simple document management utility .

I have started thinking about a new WDK based app to be built from ground up

You are an active member in the documentum community , tell me what is the response of non techie , business users , towards the Centerstage , how many people from a non Hi Tech industry will start a discussion / blog or a Wiki , Its a genuine question ,Not that i am against any of the cool features of Centerstage

Keshav

DCTM_Guru

Its pretty hard to make a good assessment without having all of your requirements; I can only address specific questions and you will have to make the determination on your own.

1) In your original post, you talked about using DCE. DCE is basically Webtop with Collaboration Features enabled (eg rooms, discussions, etc). The installation is actually the same as Webtop - you just enter the DCE license key and the features become available.

2) "...contemplating if the Business users are going to get the whole wiki , blog , and all Web 2.0 features" AFAIK, when CenterStage is released in the fall, the CenterStage Essential will contain basic document management/collaboration features. CenterStage Pro will have wiki and blog features. Parts of Web 2.0 technology will be in both (eg ajax).

3) "I have started thinking about a new WDK based app to be built from ground up" If you are comfortable with WDK programming, then this is probably your best bet, especially if you have very specific requirements. I havent heard whether CenterStage Pro will be released with a developer's API.

4) IMHO Webtop UI has always been a bit clunky. This is in part due to the extensibility of the product. Its hard to make a UI look pretty and make it very flexible. I feel that CenterStage was built from ground up to address the problems with UI; however, in doing so, it may be harder to customize it the way that we WDK developers are accustomed to.

What is your implementation timeframe? I wouldnt fixate on the whole wiki/blog and wait to see if CenterStage Essentials will address your needs. I would hate for you to spend a lot of time and effort on technology that EMC is no marketing (this isnt to say that they wont be supporting WDK/Webtop in the future).

keshav

Johnny

Thanks for the suggestions , Will look at Centerstage Essentials

Regards