What we know now…
Last week, OpenText officially announced their purchase of Dell EMC Documentum and its related products. This comes after an announcement in September of their intent to purchase Documentum. We had written a blog after that announcement with our own speculation and analysis of the situation. In that blog we said that this acquisition could go one of two ways. One option being that OpenText could purchase and leave Documentum as it was, while incorporating it’s features into their other product lines, thus pushing those who use the ECM system to a new one. The other option being that OpenText uses their position in the marketplace to help support and improve on what Documentum already is. We also discussed the different ways Documentum users could react, whether it be to jump ship, or stick along for the ride and find out what’s going to happen.
Fortunately for the 5,000 Documentum users, 2,000 employees, and 300 partners of its related products, OpenText in a recent interview stated that they were committed to the innovation and growth of Documentum. While they could not share much as far as plans, they did stress their belief that Documentum and their products “address different use cases,” said OpenText CMO Adam Howatson. This news is calming for customers and we do expect to see a more concrete plan in the next couple months. So if you are a Documentum user, and you are planning to hang along for the ride, you might see some positive change in the next year or so.
OpenText has faced some challenges regarding people speaking out against them through this process, but they are disputing any claims that their purchase was intended to swallow up Documentum’s maintenance revenue. To read CMSWire’s full interview with OpenText CMO Adam Howatson click here.
As a technology partner who supports Documentum as well as other OpenText products we’ll be evaluating the changes and placing potentially needed updates to our software on our roadmap. If you’d like to discuss this matter further please contact us at sales@seeunity.com.