With the upgrade to D6.5, many of our clients are reconsidering their annotation choices. This blog post will address some of the annotation product choices based on our experience, as well as our internal development efforts on our Free Viewer Tool that is based on a thin client with Adobe Flex and support for viewing and basic annotation capabilities. Definition –this entry is referring to “annotation” as a mark-up “layer” on top of the document. Redline changes (like Word track changes) ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Upgrade to 6.5 – Client experience with Migration versus a Database Clone and In-Place Upgrade
I had an interesting discussion today with a large hospital client that is currently upgrading to Documentum 6.5. Like most of our Documentum customers, the client has chosen to refresh hardware, database, and disaster recovery tools as well as upgrade the operating system (from Solaris 9 to Solaris 10). Initially the client was targeting a database clone approach with an upgrade in place for roughly 1.4 million documents. As referenced in a previous blog post, the client found the clone ... [Continue Reading]
TSG OpenMigrate Supports Qumas
I’ve been working with a client who needs to consolidate two Qumas content repositories into a single system. Qumas is an Irish company that has a content management solution that runs standalone as well as on top of Documentum. My client was running both Qumas applications on top of Documentum. In working with client, we had determined to use OpenMigrate for the migration. This was similar to another pharmaceutical client that was using FCG FirstDocs, which OpenMigrate also supports. In ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Upgrade – Inplace or Migration
For many Documentum customers, deciding how to upgrade a Documentum system often boils down to whether or not to upgrade in-place with a clone or just leave the environment alone and upgrade it in-place on the existing hardware. This year, I worked with a client on a project to explore the differences between upgrading several Documentum systems in place versus migrating the documents straight to a new 6.5 installation. Many of the in-place upgrade complexities were due to the older database and ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Web Services – Documentum DFS and TSG OpenContent
“Why don’t I just use DFS from Documentum instead?” We get his question often from clients. TSG recently had a discussion with a client on this topic. They eventually chose OpenContent over DFS based on the following points: Documentum Support It might seem that a large company would be better positioned to enhance and support any software product compared with support from a small company. As we walked through this concern with the client, we discussed how Documentum had supported ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Upgrade – High Volume Server – A Basic Understanding
Documentum High Volume Server (HVS) is a new product designed to cut database space usage in Documentum 6.5 by a third or even up to one half depending on the type of content. Given the significantly reduced database size, overall performance should increase. This year TSG evaluated HVS for a client as part of a Documentum Upgrade. (See other thoughts in our Documentum Upgrade Planning Guide ) HVS – When to use it Basically, HVS was developed to efficiently store non-changing static or ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Migration – Buldoser and OpenMigrate – Folders versus Nodes
In working with a client, I had the opportunity to evaluate Buldoser from Crown Partners versus OpenMigrate from TSG. Buldozer was used to change OS platforms for a Documentum 5.2 Repository while upgrading it to Documentum 5.3. Buldozer failed to migrate a second Repository due to object level complexities. OpenMigrate was then tested in the migration/upgrade of the complex Repository from Documentum 5.2.5 to new OS hardware and to Documentum 6.5. While both products were designed to assist ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Upgrade – Planning Guide for Documentum Upgrade to 6.5
TSG is announcing the release on our web site of a Documentum Upgrade Planning Guide. The planning guide is a series of questions and tips to help guide your D6 upgrade activities. By filling out the guide, you will receive an email with a custom upgrade guide based on your answers as well as the complete Documentum D6 Upgrade whitepaper to share with your team. The planning guide is available at https://www.tsgrp.com/services_solutions/D6.jsp In building the guide, our team incorporated ... [Continue Reading]
Active Wizard 3.9 Released!
The Active Wizard latest release is available on the TSG downloads page! This latest release contains functionality added to the product by a number of our clients. The 3.9 release adds the following new features: Form Email Module - The new email module allows an administrator to configure email rules for each form. When the form is emailed, the form PDF and any supporting documents are attached. Administrators can configure the From, TO and CC email fields - either by configuring an ... [Continue Reading]
TSG HPI Search Alfresco Webinar
TSG and Alfresco co-hosted another successful webinar discussing the simplication of search on ECM platforms using our HPI Search Interface. HPI Search is a great way for consumers to find content quickly in a streamlined search interface that is easy to use and configurable. HPI Search Interface on Alfresco utilizes our OpenContent web services using CMIS to interface w/ Alfresco. To review the recording of the webinar click here. For more information, access our datasheet or visit our ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Consulting and Open Source
I had a good meeting last week with a potential new partner of TSG in regards to how to work together to offer Open Source solutions across our joint customer base. While we have had many firms download our Open Source software (Crown Partners, CSC/FCG, IBM, PWC, Cognizant and EMC themselves to name a few), most don’t understand how Open Source can improve their consulting offerings. In our last discussion with EMC, we are the only certified partner offering all of our solutions as Open ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Migration – OpenMigrate for both large migrations and ongoing capture
I was recently at a client struggling with an ECM decision (Alfresco or Documentum) based on connectivity to a scanning data capture solution. Normally the ECM requirement will drive the scanning solution. For this client, capture of data from the image was the driving business justification. After all data was extracted, the client wanted to save the image into an ECM solution with links to payroll and billing. One of our technical architects just released a great paper on how to leverage ... [Continue Reading]
TSG HPI Alfresco Webinar Registration
"How to Gain High Performance from a Simplified ECM Search Interface" On September 1, 2009, we will be co-hosting a webinar with Alfresco. We will be discussing our approach to address common search interface issues and how our simplified search solution, HPI, will help better realize the value of your Alfresco system. Sign up for the webinar today! ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Open Source Software
In talking with a new client last week, the client asked “Why do you do Open Source software for Documentum, a commercial software package?” As the only long-term Documentum partner to offer all of our software as Open Source, we get that question often. I thought I would use this entry to explain our strategy and how our clients affect our software development efforts. Form and Workflow Extensions – the beginning of our Open Source Efforts In 2001, we began creating what eventually ... [Continue Reading]
TSG Labs – Customizing Documentum's CenterStage Pro
TSG recently had the privilege of test driving and customizing Documentum’s new collaboration solution, CenterStage Pro. CenterStage Pro is a next-generation collaboration tool and features a sleek new interface that does away with Documentum’s traditional WDK front ends. To become familiar with the inner workings of CenterStage, we experimented with customizing the application to allow users to access our Active Wizard routing and approval tool. This is a common customization we see with many ... [Continue Reading]
TSG Wins 101 Best & Brightest Companies in Chicago to work for
On Monday, we were proud to accept an award from the National Association for Business Resources (NABR) for being one of the 101 Best & Brightest Companies in Chicago to work for. While we all love working at TSG, it was nice to validate that the work environment we foster is recognized as a leader in today’s workforce. Being a smaller firm, we were honored to be in the presence of other winners such as Verizon, Earnest & Young, Astellas, Morningstar and KPMG. Despite the current state ... [Continue Reading]
Active Wizard 3.9 Preview – Form Security
In previous releases of the Active Wizard, if you wanted to change the security settings on the form, you needed to customize the application, either by changing the lifecycle settings, or changing the ACLs. The problem with this is that those changes are system wide. There’s no way to have different security settings per form type. Take the following scenario: what if we wanted to have one form locked down during the approval route (say, a Change Request), and another form allow edits during ... [Continue Reading]
HPI Search for Alfresco
To go along with the release of High Performance Interface (HPI) 1.1.5, TSG is pleased to announce HPI Search for the upcoming Alfresco 3.2 release. Most ECM users are consumers of the information stored in the repository, and consumers need a quick and efficient way to retrieve the documents they are searching for. One complaint heard far too often from consumers is that searching within most ECM systems can be complicated and inefficient. HPI for Alfresco's simple, yet highly intuitive ... [Continue Reading]
HPI 1.1.5 Released; Spotlight on Related Folders
The Related Folders feature on the HPI Desktop allow folders that are somehow “related” to the current folder to be displayed on the Desktop screen (in addition to the documents that the current folder already contains). An example of this could be: I’m viewing an insurance claim folder for Sally. As I’m processing Sally’s claim, I might need to view her employer’s current insurance policy. Using HPI’s Related Folders, I can have a relationship set up from company policy folders to individual ... [Continue Reading]
HPI Administrator Released
HPI Admin Configuring Made Easy Available Now Coinciding with the latest release of HPI 1.1.5, TSG is pleased to announce the release of an Administrator tool to aid in configuring HPI, our streamline Documentum and Alfresco interface. This tool, aptly named HPI Administrator, allows an administrator to configure the XML that drives the operation of HPI using a visual interface. This allows both expert level HPI users as well as beginners to easily configure HPI instances without worrying about ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum 6.5 LightWeight SysObjects, Captiva and OpenMigrate
One of our clients is upgrading this fall to 6.5 and was disappointed that EMC Documentum Captiva has yet to support LightWeight SysObjects (LWSO) and how that is affecting his plans. In our discussions, the client has considerable content stored as images and documents that he would like to leverage LWSO to reduce the database size as well as improve performance. As we brainstormed his solution, the client determined that it was probably not necessary to be concerned about Captiva plans ... [Continue Reading]
TSG Open Source Product Plans
We just finished up our 3rd Quarter planning in regards to our product solutions. Some highlights: OpenMigrate continues to be our top downloaded product. Most of our effort in the 2nd quarter involved taking this enterprise class solution and make it easier to install and configure. From discussions with users, our efforts have been a success. Users continued to be impressed with the speed and capabilities. We are anticipating a surge this fall as users leverage OpenMigrate as part of ... [Continue Reading]
Common Questions about 6.5 Upgrade
As we mentioned in previous posts, we know upgrades are on a lot of people’s minds as of late. From the Documentum user community, we hear similar questions/statements so we thought it would be helpful to jot down our thoughts in response to these questions: Do I need to reindex all my content with FAST? Depends. You’ll find the details needed to answer that buried on page 27 in the Content Server 6.5 Release Notes; as part of the explanation for support note 144876. The takeaway is that 5.3.x ... [Continue Reading]
Preparing for the Documentum Software Audit – quick tips and thoughts
Based on articles at CMS Watch as well as discussions with users, it has become pretty common within the Documentum user base to see software audits within the last year. Every client has different applications, license agreements and usage. We think it would be useful for all readers to get some quick tips from our experience with different clients on software audits. Tip 1 – Get an understanding, better yet, an agreement with the vendor about what you own now before the audit. Having been ... [Continue Reading]
Webtop Search Query Customization
Customized webtop searches don't always return what you expect. The actual SQL that is running the search behind the scenes by webtop often differs across databases. To check the generated SQL on Webtop 6 or Webtop 6.5, hold down the "control" key while you click on the edit search button on the search results page. A popup window will open showing you helpful information about the QueryBuilder object. We came across an issue at a client that had FAST full-text searches producing case ... [Continue Reading]
