Don't Miss Datastore's 2nd Annual Fall ECM/SharePoint Seminar

We all know that every size organization is grappling with how to gain control and properly manage their critical business information. From paper files and documents, to network file shares and PC hard drives bursting at the seams with electronic documents and email messages - the shear spectrum and vastness of the information overload dilemma is overwhelming.

Don't let information overload wreck havoc on your business. Datastore's is providing a free educational seminar designed to share how organizations can gain control over their information and and propel their business to new heights by using electronic content management, digital imaging and document management technologies.

In this educational event, Datastore experts are going to review newly emerging ECM, Digital Imaging and Document management systems. Additionally we are going to have a healthy dialogue about Microsoft SharePoint and what role it can (or should) play in your future information management strategies. The Datastore team just returned from the Microsoft SharePoint conference and have great news and insights into the new SharePoint 2010 release coming in the spring.

Sign up today for either the session in Milwaukee or our session in Madison - and please pass this along to your business colleagues and associates. This promises to be a valuable session for all attendees and can be very helpful in planning your
2010 budgets and projects.

>> Register Now by Clicking Here

November 17, 2009 8:30 am
Milwaukee, Wisconsin
Crown Plaza, Airport
-Light Breakfast Served

November 19, 2009 8:30 am
Madison, Wisconsin
Datastore Sun Prairie Office
-Light Breakfast Served

Planned Program
· What is Enterprise Content Management
· What are the expected benefits from ECM
· What cost savings can you expect to gain
· How do you ensure a successful ECM project
· SharePoint Overview
· What role can (or should) SharePoint play in your information Management strategies
· Review of upcoming new SharePoint 2010 release
· Live Demonstrations
· Questions and Answers

Day 2 - From the Bleachers at the SharePoint Conference

Day 2 wrapped up with the same level of enthusiasm, crowds and strong presentations that were presented on Day 1 of the event. Day 2 and Day 3 are all about breakouts focused on specific topics of interest or core
capabilities of SharePoint.

I attended sessions on the deep dive on Document Management, Records Management and other similar topics around ECM and workflow. I'll keep this post short as it is evident that Microsoft is serious about ECM/DM functionality being core attributes of SharePoint 2010 - and the new features and functionality that they are revealing are really quite exciting. I really like the Records Management functionality they have added. From a true "lifecycle" managed approach to retention "stages" as they are called, to the ability to perform in-place records declaration, to the new functionality of the records plan.

Those who have looked at SharePoint previously as an ECM platform will definitely want to take another look. Elements around scalability, governance,auditability, reporting and flexibility around policy management are quite impressive. One element that is still missing is a Microsoft solution for adding document images (scanning) to the SharePoint document libraries. This shows that Microsoft is being true to their prior position that they do not want to be an imaging company.

This conference has been a huge success for Microsoft and for the attendees. Everyone around seems quite pleased and excited about the new functionality.

One topic that I have heard is that the changes between SharePoint 2007 and SharePoint 2010 are substantial - and will require a lot of work for any customization/applications that were written to the 2007 platform and APIs. However - Microsoft has suggested that a lot of work has been put in to make the migration from 2007 to 2010 a much more enjoyable journey than the prior migration from 2003 to 2007. It all sounds very hopeful, but I guess time will tell how well Microsoft did in this particular aspect of the new release.

From the Bleachers: SharePoint Conference - Day 1

It's Monday evening and I've been sitting here reflecting upon the first day of the SharePoint 2009 Conference. I titled this posting "From the Bleachers" as this is the first Microsoft conference I've attended as an attendee and not a vendor. It puts a whole different spin on things - and of course, you come with a different set of objectives.

The crowd was definitely impressive and I believe makes a huge statement given the current state of the economy. The last SharePoint conference, in the spring of 2008 keynoted by Bill Gates, had an attendance of approximately 3800 (sold out). Microsoft promised to make the next event larger to accommodate more attendees and they've delivered on that commitment. Here in Vegas there are over 7400 attendees (sold out again - with a waiting list) and a much larger exhibition area. I also can't remember too many conferences where the crowds in the thousands were already piling in way before breakfast hour - especially here in Vegas.

The day started off with the Keynote from Steve Balmer. This happened to be the first SharePoint conference he has attended or keynoted. He gave a good overview of the direction of SharePoint 2010 (Since that's the focus of this event). The main elements from his session were the high level overview of key elements in the "big items" in SharePoint - and the announcements that the public beta will begin on schedule in November - with anticipated customer product release in the "1st half of 2010". I interpreted that to be May/June - but haven't heard anything to support or counter that. Perhaps the most notable part of Steve's session was the open Q/A from the floor. I have to admit - I thought I could hear an iPhone drop when one attendee asked him if Microsoft was going to have as stronger cross-browser platform support for SharePoint, especially for Safari. Kudo's to Mr. Balmer as I didn't see him flinch - I was looking really hard for one of those iPhone slamming incidents to occur that I've allegedly heard about. But he handled it with grace and actually gave an answer that everyone liked, SharePoint 2010 supports cross-browser platform for many features - but of course, there will be some only supported by IE.

The next presentations were more in-depth. Perhaps the largest news I took away was a continued emphasis on "Content" for SharePoint. This was in stark contrast to one of the pre-event "rumors" I heard that suggested Microsoft was no longer going to focus or position SharePoint as an ECM solution. While Microsoft has refined the SharePoint Pie pictorial representation with new keyword categories, the ECM segment of the pie is entitled "Content". I would also suggest that the afternoon's session presented by Microsoft and entitled "ECM for the Masses" carried some pretty darn strong ECM functionality enhancements (obviously Microsoft has listened to users and ECM veterans as to how to "round-out" the feature set to strengthen SharePoint's ECM attributes. And boy - did they hit a strong triple with the presentation. With an emphasis on much strengthened Records Management, auto-classification and organizational taxonomies for starters - I came away hearing Microsoft continue to throw down the gauntlet to the traditional ECM community of solutions.

Other key elements that came out today is a significantly enhanced user experience based upon the Microsoft Office 2007 Ribbon "fluid" toolbar. A significant number of additional enhancements in the scalability (wow - some big numbers for repository sizings that will dramatically reduce prior nay-sayers when it comes to scalability for enterprise repository requirements. A lot of digital asset management focus (very interesting target) and very strong deployment/development tools sets - including graphical workflow monitoring (ala Skelta/K2) that I only saw for a brief moment - shows me that Microsoft is highly committed to information management and process automation. And let's not forget a new emphasis on Governance/Compliance/eDiscovery - lot's of new features here, at least shown at a high-level in the presentations today.

Oh yeah - did I talk about the incredible content migration from file share's, including auto-classification with remediation built in - that was probably my biggest "wow" moment of the day. More to come on this particular subject as I think there are a couple of vendors out there that tried to make this a niche market that I might suggest "game-0ver" - at least in the Microsoft Office-focused space.

After Day 1 - I have to say I feel that SharePoint 2010 looks to have the potential to be a pretty big hit. It certainly has me continuing to see SharePoint as a center point for Datastore's internal collaboration and content management - as well as a key component of our information management solutions portfolio that we will be bringing to our valued customers and the business community at-large.

Day 2 and 3 have a number of very interesting sessions that I am really looking forward to. A Records management focused session, several Workflow sessions, governance sessions - I hope I can fit them all in. Oh and yes - congrats to Microsoft as all sessions are being video recorded and available to attendees to view after we get home - so those sessions that are concurrent and I have to choose one over the other, I can view all the remainders at my convenience at home. That's a pretty cool feature.

More to come from Day 2 and 3. Thanks for reading and have a great day.

Can you afford not to implement ECM/DMS in 2010?

I just recently attended a seminar held here in Milwaukee on the topic of records retention and document destruction policies. As I sat through the first (and excellent) session by Mark Foley of Von Briessen, I couldn't help but think how so many of the issues and concerns discussed have been cornerstones of the benefit and values we've been preaching within the enterprise content management and document management system communities for years.

As we've been out meeting with customers and prospects over the past few months and exploring their digital information management strategies, we've of course found that many organizations have trouble cost-justifying or building a business case for such a system investment and implementation unless of course there is an executive mandate or regulatory element that's driving the interest in ECM/DMS. As I sat through this eDiscovery-oriented seminar and listened to all the issues and volatility around improper management and usage of electronic content within organizations and the subsequent financial impact - the question quickly came to mind "Can you afford not to implement ECM/DMS in 2010"?

Many of the issues and concerns around improper or lack of ECM/DMS in an organization was quite like my own personal episode of "Back to the Future". As I reflected on all the reasons and needs to better control and manage information, I further admitted to myself that I've taken some of these cornerstone principles for granted, having talked about them in so many venues for so many years.

So in an effort to help our customers and the members of our business community understand all the reasons that they need to have ECM/DMS - I'm going to take a trip "Back to the Future" and introduce a series of discussions here that I will call "The Top 10 Reasons you Need ECM in 2010". We'll spend a few minutes on each item and review the topic in appropriate detail to fully communicate both historic and developing perspectives on the subject.

I hope you'll find these coming discussions as informative as they are intended to be empowering to help you and your colleagues understand why you really can't afford not to implement ECM in 2010. Until then, best regards!

Are you ready for Office 2010/SharePoint 2010?

Last week, at Microsoft's annual partner conference, Office 2010 was unveiled to the attendees, as well as to the first testing audience - the Technical Beta Group. (Datastore has been selected to participate as a Technical Beta for the Office 2010 suite. We will report on our early findings and views on the enhancements in future communications.).

What I think is one of the most interesting elements I've seen after examining high-level information, is that SharePoint 2010 now incorporates the widely accepted and well-liked Office 2007 ribbon toolbar. This was a significant advancement in general User Interface design for Microsoft office applications - and I'm highly pleased to see that this has made its way into the SharePoint user interface.

It's also suggested that Outlook/Exchange 2010 now incorporates "conversation" based email threads. So emails and all associated responses are group logically together in a manner similar to Google's Gmail application. This has already made a number of users happy to hear of such evolution in the Exchange/Outlook environment.

So knowing that Office 2010 is already in technical beta preview - how are you positioned to adopt this new release in early 2010 when it's rumored to be available? I'm going to suspect that many organizations are still running Office XP/2003 along with Exchange 2003, even thought Exchange 2007 has been out for almost 3 years.

Based upon what early previews have suggested, I would think many organizations should be examining their technology and application migration strategies because it seems as though Microsoft is on a "roll-out" roll. If your organization is falling behind already, it could be costing you significant losses of savings you could be enjoying from the streamlined usability of the Office 2007 suite. While initial onboarding can seem daunting, once users adopt to the ribbon UI, their productivity goes up significantly as tasks that used to take a multitude of functions and "clicks" to complete can now be produced with a single, or much smaller number of clicks. From my own personal experience, I can create some amazing powerpoint presentations with highly advanced graphics and effects in a fraction of the time it used to take.

Ask yourself - with these applications coming downstream within a matter of months, how should I prioritize the opportunity to leverage technology to streamline my workforce productivity? In these challenging times, Office 2007 - with Office 2010 right around the corner - can offer you some advanced information worker productivity tools that you should take under serious consideration.

A New Proprietary Platform for Collaboration?

If you follow the ECM (Document/Content Management) industry, you may have recently heard or seen the announcement of EMC's Documentum Center Stage. This is a new product that according to EMC's promotional messages "powers secure, business-to-business collaboration by bringing users together in collaborative team workspaces with wikis, blogs, tagging, and RSS support." Sound familiar? The word "SharePoint" comes immediately to my mind.

I find it quite interesting that EMC (Documentum) during challenging economic times, would attempt to "one-up" what is inarguably the most successful server product released by Microsoft. If you doubt that statistic, simply mention the word SharePoint in any promotional material for a conference or seminar - and you'll have packed audiences and sold out crowds.

So why would EMC (Documentum) be interested in collaboration? Why would they want to go toe-to-toe with SharePoint which is already in final phases of it's fourth lifecycle release? I think it's actually quite simple: Prevent Market Share Erosion.

If you've been watching the evolution of the ECM industry (no - I didn't mean EMC) you've no doubt noticed that SharePoint has rather stoically marched into this rather mature software market and turned it upon its ear. Every single ECM or Document management product (or Imaging System - choose your label) of any worth or substance -or potential for that matter- have announced their integration with SharePoint. The rapid growth and market adoption of this viral collaboration product has the essential platform elements and rich functionality in its core to virtually re-landscape the entire ECM vendor plain.

However, no one perhaps has more to lose than EMC (Documentum) since their legacy was established marketing and selling a rich platform for content management application development.....and of course, at a respectable upscale price point. Enter SharePoint, which contains many of the traditional core elements of an ECM platform product (e.g. repository, content services, security, user interface, etc.) and deliver this at a dramatically reduce price point - tightly integrated with Office and other Microsoft products - and you've got some powerful magic in making.

So undoubtedly EMC conceived and introduced CenterStage in order to reduce the risk of losing existing higher-end Documentum licensed users to SharePoint for collaboration - and the subsequent discovery of the rich pasture of ECM platform functionality harbored by SharePoint. Developing your own collaboration platform that keeps your users in your fenced pasture is actually a brilliantly bold move for EMC - regardless of its potential success or failure.

I believe that the biggest message that comes from this move is an enormous compliment being paid to Microsoft. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery - and Microsoft should be proud. When the #1 ECM provider for many years takes on the enormous success generated by SharePoint to date - you have to know you've created something pretty darn good or threatening in the least.

Well done Microsoft - and here's looking forward to the upcoming SharePoint 2010 release that undoubtedly will continue to change the ECM landscape as we've known it.

Information Management in a Down Economy

The past few months have certainly been some of the most interesting and challenging that I, and most of the business world, have experienced in the duration of our collective career history. The number of job losses are staggering and many friends and colleagues that I have had the pleasure of working with have been directly affected.

Recently, I was engaged in a conversation on the topic of "What are businesses that appear to not be as susceptible to the economic downturn as others?" My response to that question made me think about our business here at Datastore. While we like all businesses are facing challenges, our overall business has remained healthy during times when others around us are faltering. I think the reason for this is quite logical. Companies are forced in today's climate to be disciplined in elements such as compliance, security, and information privacy - and simply can not afford to take short cuts when it comes to responsibly managing key information assets. Additionally, I know many businesses are turning to the services we provide at Datastore to help them actually reduce expenses and offload burdens of trying to process or manage critical information internally.

If we look at some of the core business services and solutions we offer, it is pretty clear where the value is evident to our customers and how we do help them with their current cost-savings initiatives.

In the area of Offsite Records Storage and Management, this is perhaps one of the easiest to see why customers continue to seek our services. Not only do we provide them with the secure storage and management of their physical documents and files, but the cost savings associated with the affordability of modern offsite records storage versus using costly internal office space to store records is quite compelling. Add to the equation the enormous risk reduction by offloading the potential loss, mismanagement or mishandling of information internally, and it's pretty easy to see why offsite records management continues to be a smart business choice even during times like these.

Other elements of information management services continue to be sought by companies. With reasoning being very similar to those I mentioned above around offsite records. On one hand, companies can not afford any longer to take short cuts or half-hearted approaches to the storage, management, protection or even destruction of information assets. The penalties in our business community are too severe and the risk carried by the company entirely too great.

Fold in the value-add components of reducing internal operating costs, enhancing your digital information management and control, streamlining operational processing thus improving productivity - and it is quite clear that with the multi-faceted benefits derived from modern information management services and solutions offered by companies like Datastore, are more attractive and justifiable than ever before.

Welcome to My New Blog

So by now, just about everyone has a blog. Some are very informative and some are perhaps not so much. I have decided that I would like to share my thoughts and views about the information management industry, trends, news and other items that may be of interest to the valued clients and prospective customers of my organization - Datastore.

Over the coming months, I'll be sharing my personal views and perspectives as they relate to my career history and my views on how the information and records management industry is in a rapid state of evolution.

I hope that you will enjoy this blog- as I'll do my best to make the posts relevant, informative and worthy of the time you take to read them.