So, as I've been looking at various technologies in this arena, I've come away with the distinct impression that there's a huge gap in the market.
I'd like to see that gap plugged. Maybe even plugged by EMC, in the best-of-all-worlds.
Simply put: today you can by chocolate, and you can buy peanut butter, but no Reese's Peanut Butter Cups are available today.
Social Media Is All About "Social"
The primary criteria we used to evaluate products for our behind-the-firewall deployment was the user experience.
We felt (inuitively at the time, later confirmed by actual experience) that a social media platform wouldn't be used unless it was a "fun" experience.
We prioritized things like integrated UIs across blogs, wikis and forums. We prioritized things like avatars and profiles. We wanted our platform to be a great social experience.
At the same time, we de-prioritized a whole raft of features around IT-related issues, content management, workflow, robust security models, etc.
If I had to sum up why we chose Clearspace from Jive Software, it has to be the user experience. No one had a better one.
What We Found
Look, no one wants to learn to use a new piece of software. And, albeit Clearspace isn't that "new" if you've blogged, wiki-ed or forum-ed before, we're in a situation where the vast majority of our population isn't familiar with any of that stuff.
And, despite the occasional newbie questions, we've found that most of our current users are figuring out things pretty quickly. This accelerates adoption rates, and keeps user support costs very low.
So, good decision on our part -- or was it?
The Challenge With Content
EMC offers perhaps the most robust and successful Enterprise Content Management platform on the planet, Documentum D6.
And, as a result, I have a more-than-passing familiarity with what these platforms do, and why they're important, especially in an enterprise context.
They manage content in all of its glorious aspects. They provide portals, and workflow, and enterprise search, and finely-grained information security, and integration with transactional platforms, and ... and ... and ...
Well, there's no such thing as a "quick overview of Documentum".
Now, Clearspace (nor any other SM platform we know about) provides any of this sort of robust enterprise functionality. Sure, they provide a few simple features, but compared to *any* of the ECM players, it looks like a high-school coding project.
I'm not blaming them. I can't expect a small software company to match hundreds of millions of dollars of software development and a decade to mature the product. That is just not a reasonable expectation.
But, turning things around, none of the ECM platforms (including Documentum) offer the social media experience we wanted. Maybe some day, but that day is most certainly not today.
Documentum, Sharepoint, et. al. use a file-oriented collaboration and repository model. None of them really get what the SM experience is all about.
We want conversations, not content, from our SM platform.
Conversations Lead To Content
So, right now, we're in a bit of a pickle.
The SM conversations are starting. Some great content is being developed. And, as long as it lives in Clearspace, its usefulness to the corporation is severely hampered.
We can't feed it into our enterprise portals. We can't wrap workflow around it. We can't apply finely-grained access controls. We can't integrate SM discussions with non-linear workflows. The list goes on and on.
The Clearspace SM world is a little content bubble, unconnected with other content-related flows and processes.
Now, I am not blaming anyone about this situation.
It just is.
I want a Reese's Peanut Butter Cup, and no one has built one yet.
What I See Happening
Most of the newer SM players are focusing on the mass consumer market. If you're looking to build a portal to create a community about the latest iPhone, there are lots of companies that will sell you a platform, including Jive.
But, in my conversations with Jive, I think they've recognized that there's an enterprise market out there starting to form. A market that's far larger, far more profitable, and far more challenging to reach.
I don't think any SM player can go there alone. It's just too daunting on too many levels. As an industry consultant, I'd offer you need a friend or two.
As a user of both technologies (Clearspace and Documentum), it's inevitable that we will at some point find a way to encourage both parties to make their respective technologies work together in a productive manner.
Architecturally, that's not hard to see how it'd work. Simple in concept, but someone's gonna have to write some code. And, as an enterprise customer, I don't want to be in the code-writing and code-support business at all.
I want off-the-shelf capabilities.
I want the user experience of Clearspace. And I want the back-end ECM capabilities of Documentum. Neither can match what the other can do in any meaningful way.
And I may end up getting it before too long.
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