I know….the last post on this topicwas reversed…..Documentum was written in before Sharepoint…..oh and there was a “vs” instead of an “&” in the middle :)
One thing I pointed out in my reference to Johnny’s post was that sharepoint and documentum work together (if you don’t believe me Dan Taillefer explains it in how podcast)! And the front end? Well they play in different spaces too….
eRoom – think non-windows users
Sharepoint -think windows users
Both of which can have their data stored for proper records management in Documentum; however, each are a better fit for some environments. For example why would I as a windows user really care about the five reasons why eRoom is a “better” application then sharepointwhen it won’t even work with IE7? Or Office 2007….or Outlook 2007….. or Exchange 2007….. wait a minute I think I see a theme here…. Sharepoint is used to integrate with Windows users and applications AND Documentum for proper records management.
So what’s eRoom for? I know there is a short list of pros to it….. But eRoom is for the rest of the people in the universe…. you know the old hippie *Nix types with long beards and wild hair (or complete lack thereof)? The ones who haven’t heard of MySpace or facebook…..but thought up all the wild technologies that make the web 2.0 possible? Yeah those guys! They care about the flexibility of eRoom and besides there is nothing better that gives them access to Documentum from their Linux laptop….
Josh's Wordpress Blog 
June 26, 2007 at 7:44 pm |
[…] Maher came up with quite an interesting view in his blog. SharePoint is for Microsoft people, and eRoom is for everyone else. His arguments seem […]
June 28, 2007 at 3:22 pm |
I’d agree with you about Documentum and SharePoint working together. They absolutely can and EMC is working on improving that integration because there are people out there who use it. No question.
I wrote the 5 points about eRoom and SharePoint for Johnny’s site and have since commented and even issued a challenge to do certain business tasks.
I am an extensive windows user and your comment about it not working with IE7 is incorrect. They had some code in eRoom (bug) that read IE7 as an older browser and displayed an error message. That has been fixed, months ago. I have clients, including the Federal Government who are extensive windows and microsoft users, but chose eRoom over competing products (SharePoint) because of their needs to nest items within the containers. They also lked inboxes and dashboarding. The ease of installation and maintenance was also a concern and reasons for going with that product.
We don’t use Linux at all, but I do have one Mac at home for my kids. eRoom works on that.
My clients also like the ability to drag and drop files (even whold folders full of files) from the desktop onto the browser which automatically uploads it to the server. SharePoint may be able to do that now, I’m not sure.
I think it comes down to what your needs are. For a full intranet solution, SharePoint is probably better. For collaboration around programs, projects, tasks, and processes, my opinion is that eRoom is better. It has nothing to do with windows or non-windows. I do admit that I am lacking some hair on the top of my head, but that’s been going on for a decade now. :)
Honestly, most of the people I know are standalone eRoom users, not Documentum users. Although I do have a client who has integrated eroom along with Documentum BPM and it is in incredibly sophisticated combination.
Take care!
August 11, 2007 at 3:47 pm |
We use eRoom extensively and will soon use it along with Documentum BPM in combination with Adobe LiveCycle. Our document management system is iManage and that is not likely to change. Further use of Documentum will likely be for content management. Have not been clear whether SharePoint would or would not bring value to our peculiar mix.
Any advice or insights would be greatly appreciated.
John Dickson
Web R&D Manager
U.S. Dept. of Justice
Antitrust Division
202.307.1935
September 14, 2007 at 11:16 am |
I am a consultant deploying SharePoint. I did have a very large customer a year ago that used both Documentum and eRoom very heavily only and I got to administer both of those for a year. I like to learn non-Microsoft technologies since most my bread and butter does come from Microsoft. But I got to configure and administer Documentum and eRoom, I learned how to do the customizations I needed to. But you know what…after being back on SharePoint after that, I realized that my difficulty using eRoom was more that I am use to the way Microsoft implements their functionality and therefore intuitively know where to look for something or what to expect (taking Office 2007’s horrible menu structure out of it!). So me, as being a heavily invested Microsoft user, does find SharePoint better primarily by that. But I am at least honest with myself…I know it is not necessarily that SharePoint is a better product, it may be, it probably is not knowing their fast to get it out the door record…but when it comes down to it…I like how it “looks” and navigates better, I like its integration with the very latest Office products…hey you know if Microsoft didn’t require that we would all still be on XP and Office 2000. Sometimes a “push” in the new direction is a good thing. I have been a consultant for over 20 years. Whereas I don’t like to generalize things, I do agree that we have two basic types of users, Microsoft and non-Microsoft. I have many heavy Unix/Linux based customers that don’t even take the time to properly evaluate the new Microsoft products. They glance at it and state “ooh it just wreaks of Microsoft…just look at those menus…”
I think what we all have to remember in evaluating products, is that, if they weren’t very close in the true functionality, feature set comparisons, and performance…we wouldn’t even be having these conversations :) I think Josh’s statement was meant to be alittle more generalized. When two products are very close to the same functionality and performance, what is best for your customer? Time costing product comparisons at a very detailed level…or looking at their user base to see what the majority of them are use to and will therefore probably adopt easier. I hope the best for both products…if they don’t both stay very close in the running we will just all be stuck with one of them…and then we know we would be more dissatified wouldn’t we.
March 1, 2008 at 5:47 pm |
Speaking of “MS Office products” and “better integration” with them, when oh when will Office fizzle out? Isn’t it high time? With Open Office and what seems like a rash of compatible web applications (e.g. Google’s Office compatible, though feature limited applications), should MS Office [fill in the blank] be linked to any strategic decision on, say, Sharepoint vs, say, Documentum?
August 20, 2008 at 11:21 am |
Interesting, I just tried out some of Google’s Office products and other products. I have been waiting for a true competitor to the Microsoft Office suites to be readily accepted in large corporate enviroments for alone time. I think competition is good. But unfortunately it is not, none of my large customers would even consider using anything other than MS Office. So until that changes, and more companies (not personal home users) are using the other non-Office products, then whether an application like SharePoint, Documentum, eRoom, MediaWiki, etc. is more tightly integrated and offering more functionality with the MS Office products, will always be a HUGE factor in a company choosing SharePoint over another product.
September 3, 2008 at 2:54 pm |
Productivity is an overused word, but productivity is what integrating ecm and other backend systems with MOSS 2007 is all about. It is tough to hold a candle to Documentum when it comes to document and records management, however, enterprise collaboration is about day to day productivity, reducing the cost of employees to do their job. EMC dominates storage and Microsoft dominates the business desktop, simply because they do an exceptional job with the products they provide… and being the owners of Windows doesn’t hurt. Bridging the gap and utilizing both products, to do what “they” do best, is the key.
For John above, you may want to do a quick google on SharePoint and Documentum integration, there are a number of solutions available today. Also, Vorsite provides some out of the box solutions.
October 20, 2008 at 6:00 am |
Recently we have migrated all our eRooms to Sharepoint (WSS) and integrated Documentum with Sharepoint. Please let me know if you need any help or advise: tmannem@gmail.com
January 1, 2009 at 4:07 am |
Interesting blog….
Feel free to visit my blog to know how have we played with both Documentum & SharePoint
http://migratetosharepoint.blogspot.com
Reach me at mail2hemant@gmail.com to know more…
February 23, 2010 at 11:35 am |
Great article, thanks for the share. Blog bookmarked :)
June 10, 2010 at 3:10 pm |
Sometimes it makes sense to use the best of both worlds and integrate Documentum and SharePoint.
Using this approach you can leverage the powerful and robust document management features of Documentum but provide SharePoint’s better interface to users.
Unbounded Solutions has developed a solution to integrate Documentum into SharePoint using a suite of web parts.
This solution allows users from SharePoint to work with documents in Documentum and perform actions such as: edit and upload documents, participate in workflows, lifecycle management, work with virtual documents, request and view renditions, subscribe and view their inbox items.
More information is available at:
http://www.theunbounded.com/products/documentum-sharepoint-integration/documentum-sharepoint-integration.asp