TSG has recently been working with a multiple clients that are deciding on whether to deploy their Content Management platform in the Azure cloud from Microsoft or on premise. The discussion typically boils down to "how much would it cost for me to deploy this in the cloud vs procuring hardware and software licenses for an on premise deployment?" This post will provide a reference architecture and sizing estimate to help understand the various components and their relative costs to procure, ... [Continue Reading]
ECM 2.0 – Can you build it yourself?
Recently Gartner Analyst and long-time ECM evangelist Marko Sillapaa posted an interesting article titled “Why Build a Content Services Platform from Scratch?” . In the article Marko correctly points out that "build your own" isn’t easy and it's better to avoid home grown solutions where support could be required for 20 years. An alternative viewpoint comes from another long-time ECM evangelist Jeff Pots, “ECM, You Ain’t Gonna Need it” where Jeff points out how his firm has built light-weight ... [Continue Reading]
NIRMA 2018 – TSG Booth 105 August 5th-7th
TSG is a proud sponsor of the 2018 Nuclear Information Records Management Association Conference on August 5th - 7th in Summerlin, Nevada. Stop by Booth 105 to see OpenContent Management Suite in action. We will also be presenting two sessions: A Series of RM Case Studies - Monday, August 6th at 9am Attendees will learn how clients selected, implemented, and managed records management projects and solutions. Attendees will gain increased awareness of records management requirements ... [Continue Reading]
ECM Dinner Party
It is something that everyone can relate to, being at a dinner party and having to explain just what it is you do to someone you have just met. This can be rather difficult for consultants using the broadest of strokes, but also somehow can get even more convoluted when doing a deep dive into field of ECM. Even though ECM is something that almost nobody has heard of unless they are directly in the field, it is definitely something most people experience every day at their job. ... [Continue Reading]
ECM Migrations – Top Ten Planning Tips For a Successful Migration
Start planning early. Clients often underestimate the amount of planning required for any type of migration. Migration often involves more than just moving content from one place to another. Many migrations also have to account for mapping metadata, folder structure, security, and other related objects from the source system to the target system. A typical migration timeline is depicted below. Note the duration of the planning phase. Take inventory of all objects in the source system ... [Continue Reading]
Enterprise Content Management: Watch for These Disruptors – Document Strategy Guest Contributor
Dave Giordano, President and Founder of TSG, was invited to be a guest contributor for the Document Strategy blog. The following is a re-publish of his first article covering disruption in the ECM space. Read the original post here. ... [Continue Reading]
When Should I Start Planning my ECM Project?
With the changes in the ECM marketplace over the past year, clients have asked us to recommend timing to plan system upgrades, data consolidations, and development of new features. When to start an ECM project entirely depends on the objective of the project. Delaying a project may be innocuous, or it may lead to issues in getting a product to market or meeting a compliance deadline. The most important time to plan an ECM project is when there is a defined problem the ECM project will ... [Continue Reading]
What makes migrating from a Legacy ECM systems so difficult?
While many of our clients are embracing modern interfaces for new ECM systems, migrating the content from a legacy ECM can often be a difficult effort due to the complexity and cost of a migration. Over the last 21 years, TSG has migrated applications and content for clients from a variety of legacy ECM envrionments (even homegrown solutions). This post will address some of the more common migration complexities and our best practices to reduce the cost and effort for legacy ECM ... [Continue Reading]
Why Can’t I Change My Object Model?
Can you first just tell me what an object model is? In ECM, your object model is king. An object model is the organization of your digital content into specific types of folders and documents, as well as the attributes that reside on each one. It dictates so much about your system, both in the literal sense (here are the attributes that a type has) and the productivity sense (here is the hierarchy of my types that can make searching easier). That is why it is essential for a business to ... [Continue Reading]
Save Your Sinking Legacy ECM Implementation
Is FUD keeping you locked into a bad ECM Implementation? Fear, uncertainty, and doubt can keep anyone from improving the status quo of a poor, but working, enterprise content management (ECM) system. In addition, a lack of system sponsorship can fail to crystallize the vision for the organization. The business is then stuck with a bad system that is not tied to its goals and objectives. When stuck with a bad system and little budget to change it, it requires a special kind of approach to get ... [Continue Reading]
Why should your company move from a shared drive to Enterprise Content Management (ECM)?
In the past, we have talked about why Box will never be a serious ECM - but when we talk to our clients, almost all of them have one or more "shared" drives that are used to store documents. For this post, let's explore exactly what we mean by a "shared" drive and why your company should look to move away from shared drives and towards a full Enterprise Content Management (ECM) suite to manage documents. ... [Continue Reading]
Can You Create ECM Innovation with Legacy Tools? – Document Strategy Guest Contributor
Dave Giordano, President and Founder of TSG, was invited to be a guest contributor for the Document Strategy blog. The following is a re-publish of his first article covering innovation in the ECM space. Read the original post here. ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum Alfresco Comparison Whitepaper – January 2017 Update
TSG has updated their whitepaper detailing key differences between Documentum and Alfresco. This post will present the executive summary with a link to obtain the entire paper. As an infrastructure component, Enterprise Content Management (ECM) assists customers with keeping consistent control of the storage and management of their content assets across a variety of industries and applications. The ECM market has evolved over the last 25 years to a point where many vendors have similar ... [Continue Reading]
Documentum and Alfresco – Versioning, Security and Relationship Differences
One of the more common requirements we see from our manufacturing and operation clients is tight control around document versioning. In some cases, for example Pharmaceuticals, these systems are tightly regulated (and possibly audited) by a government agency such as the FDA. As we see more and more clients choosing Alfresco over Documentum, this post will share our thoughts on compliance requirements as well as how each product handles requirements around versioning and security. ... [Continue Reading]
Document Management – What It Is and Why You Need It
Many people in the world live and breathe document management and they may not even know it. The tools are built into their every day life and ideally make their jobs easier. Unfortunately, a majority of people in enterprises are sometimes leveraging tools that are not true document management solutions. A basic understanding of what true Enterprise Content Management solutions are will help you identify if you are using the right tools for the right job. This is the first in a series of blog ... [Continue Reading]
Avoiding Alfresco Performance Problems from Day 1 – Keeping My ECM Healthy
One of the great things about Alfresco is that it offers all-in-one installation packages to make installation simple on both Windows and Linux servers. With a few clicks, you can have an Alfresco repository deployed and running in a matter of a few minutes. This is especially useful when setting up development environments. When using the all-in-one installer, some of the repository configuration is determined based on how you answer questions in the installation wizard, like whether or not ... [Continue Reading]
How Do I know if my Enterprise Content Management (ECM) System is Healthy?
How do you know if your Enterprise Content Management (ECM) system is healthy? You take its pulse and ask a few questions! Checking a document management system can be likened to a trip to the doctor. There are a few low cost steps that will tell you everything is all right, or just like a high cholesterol score, a test result may indicate some preventive measures are in order. ... [Continue Reading]
Microsoft Azure HDInsight for ECM on Hadoop
As we have posted in the past, Amazon's Web Services (AWS) cloud infrastructure offering has been a very attractive option for companies looking to outsource some, or all, of their infrastructure. Microsoft, while a little late to the market, has put together a comparable suite of tools to Amazon's AWS offerings, including a very robust Hadoop as a managed service. This post is going to outline how cloud providers like Azure's HDInsight service have matured into an offering that should be ... [Continue Reading]
