Dell EMC Simplifies Enterprise Content Management Services in the Cloud with LEAP Platform

The Dell EMC Enterprise Content Division (ECD) has introduced the Dell EMC LEAP Platform, a content management platform featuring services that allow customers and partners to create their own apps, extend off-the-shelf LEAP apps, and integrate with third-party ISVs. The  announcement was made at  Dell EMC’s Momentum conference in Barcelona this week.

First announced at EMC World in Las Vegas in May, 2016, LEAP is a suite of purpose-built, cloud-native apps that deliver enterprise-grade content management capabilities combined with an intuitive user experience for diverse business use cases. The company said then that the EMC LEAP family will consist of both EMC and third-party content apps, a modular platform and a marketplace, powered by a set of content services, and that the EMC LEAP apps would be interoperable with existing content repositories, but engineered to work “better together” with the Documentum family of content management products.

Dell recently completed the acquisition of EMC, and, following that transaction, it was announced that enterprise information management software provider OpenText Corp. had entered into a definitive agreement to acquire Dell EMC's Enterprise Content Division (ECD), including Documentum. The OpenText acquisition plan was announced in September 2016, and, at the time the companies said they expected the transaction to close within 90 to 120 days.

Following on from the initial LEAP announcement in May, the ECD announced this week the general availability of two content management apps: LEAP Focus, which allows users to read and review content on mobile phones, and LEAP Express, designed to support digital approval workflows. In addition, ECD unveiled the beta program for its LEAP Concert app, which enables the creation of a wide variety of documents in a collaborative but controlled environment.

According to Dell EMC, the LEAP content platform includes the same set of microservices used to build LEAP apps, now available through a beta program to enable customers and partners to easily build their own apps or extend existing LEAP apps. Developers will have access to API documentation and tutorials, along with an intuitively designed developer center within the LEAP platform to quickly create apps that complement the Dell EMC Documentum content server by building apps that leverage content on premises or in the cloud.

The LEAP platform provides a flexible microservice architecture and REST APIs that can integrate with existing systems requiring content services or new content applications, including the LEAP Content Service - allowing customers to build enterprise content applications in the cloud with capabilities that include file uploads/downloads, versioning, folders, metadata attributes, content transformation, workflow processes and enterprise search; the LEAP Capture Service which enables users to embed advanced document and data capture capabilities into custom applications; the LEAP Case Service which powers the integration of the LEAP Courier application with LOB applications, ECM repositories and systems of record; and a Hybrid Layer that connects the LEAP apps and any other apps built on top of the platform to on-premises repositories and applications.

LEAP Applications

According to Dell EMC, LEAP apps address common, collaborative use cases that are better suited to the cloud because of the need to exchange content outside the firewall in a secure way, and that repository independence allows content to still be managed in place – without having to migrate content – unlike other solutions in the market.  

LEAP Focus aims to improve the document consumption experience on mobile devices. Supporting the idea of "better together", Focus works with documents in any repository including, Documentum, Google drive, Box and others.

LEAP Express is a lightweight app designed to allow browsing, access, search and approval of all content, no matter where it lives. Express works "better together" with D2 today and will provide a connection to other repositories in the future.

LEAP Courier and LEAP Snap have been generally available since June 30, 2016. LEAP Focus is generally available as of November 1, 2016. LEAP Express will be generally available before December 31, 2016. LEAP Concert is currently available through the Concert beta program.

The LEAP Platform is currently available through the Platform beta program.