One question we have been getting from clients has been a perceived tie between the evaluation/purchase of D2 and EMC Professional services. This post will share some client feedback as well give our thoughts based on our own evaluation of D2.
D2 Evaluation and Object Model
One client is currently requesting access to evaluate D2. In discussions with the sales rep, the sales rep stated that the client would probably need EMC professional services due to something about the object model requiring modification to support D2. Something was also mentioned that clients were not “going to be allowed” to do the object modification on their own.
This discussion doesn’t make much sense to us (TSG) as we would think any evaluation would focus on a new installation and would not need to involve the migration of old content. We would surmise that this might be a sales rep working to position professional services as a “must have” to get a sale, rather than any limitation in the product. As an alternative, clients might consider just purchasing a couple of seats of D2 as part of the evaluation.
During our initial review of D2, there was nothing different about setting up an object model for D2 versus any other Documentum application. Document type configuration is still done using Composer or Application builder. Once the types have been created, D2 can be configured to use those types.
Complexities may arise in the configuration, however. D2 has its own implementation of the data dictionary, so any value assistance, search configurations, display configurations, etc. that have already been configured in Composer or Applications building will NOT port to D2. These configurations must be redone using the D2 admin interface. Lifecycle is also implemented differently in D2. If you’re currently using Documentum lifecycles (dm_policy) with your object model, some sort of migration effort would be required to get the documents working with the D2 configurable lifecycle.
D2 Extensions and a “configuration only” model
Another client is very focused on email integration to replace existing drag and drop functionality in Webtop. We posted about some of this client’s struggles back in January.
During discussions with EMC, the client requested email integration and asked if it was part of the D2 product roadmap. The sales rep responded that it was “not currently included but the client could work with professional services”.
Of the two EMC Professional Services discussions, this last one should be a bigger concern for Documentum clients. As we mentioned in previous posts, the DSF (Documentum SharePoint Framework) is a customizable approach for the MyDocumentum for SharePoint product. Similar to D2, MyDocumentum for SharePoint was to be a “configured only” product but the DSF allows EMC Professional services to solely customize it. To our knowledge, DSF has not been released as a product yet, despite EMC World quote that it has been deployed to 80 plus clients.
Pricing
While clients often share pricing, we generally don’t allow it in the forum as it can quickly be out of date and is often confidential. In regards to D2, we are hearing that it will remain a separate product for the forseeable future (per EMC World and the licenising arragement with C6). Pricing seems to be similar to Webtop with additional licensing for the watermarking and other add-on products.
We would expect that, for clients that have purchased a large number of webtop seats, some type of discount/consideration for those seats might be in the future, depending on the account.
Summary
The big concern in regards to D2 is a configuration-only approach that can only be worked on or customized by EMC professional services. Clients evaluating D2 should determine if their application needs can truly be met by D2 “out of the box” and push Documentum for customizing capabilities to be included as part of the software product if they would like to avoid professional services purchases.
Look for more information here as we wrap up our evaluation of D2 4.0 in the next couple of weeks.
Agreed, D2 seems to add more work on already running applications. Other day , I noticed that if you have office integration via Application connectors and if document is opened via D2 you don’t have way to checkin via office. Not sure if this is available in D2 via other mechanism.
Would be more than happy to discuss what you idemtified with D2 as more work.
D2 has own set of workflows and lifecycle which differs from that developed in composer. Also how about the migration of the custom webtop components to D2.