IBM and Documentum Deal for Knowledge Management

IBM (Armonk, NY) and Documentum (Pleasanton, CA) have agreed to work together to offer targeted knowledge management solutions to key global vertical markets. The companies announced a remarketing agreement and expanded solution marketing alliance, which enables IBM to remarket Documentum's Enterprise Document Management System (EDMS) on a global basis. IBM will also introduce industry-specific knowledge management solutions, IBM EDMSolutions, from the Documentum platform.

"The agreement continues to deliver our solutions message of value to the customer," said Larry Warnock, VP of marketing at Documentum. Solutions will be focused on key vertical markets including oil and gas, chemical, utilities, pharmaceutical, telecommunications, automotive, aerospace and financial services. "The business benefits we are able to deliver with Documentum and EDMSolutions are at the heart of the issues that keep corporate management awake at night," said Douglas Neary, IBM EDM Solutions and Services Worldwide Executive. IBM EDMSolutions will apply knowledge and document management tools to address key business issues. These new solutions will be designed to enable customers to integrate IBM and Documentum offerings based around the Web, enterprise resource planning (ERP) implementations and innovations in knowledge management.

The deal "indicates IBM's appreciation for Documentum's product," said Hadley Reynolds, director of research at the Delphi Group (Boston). "For some time IBM has been talking about being ecumenical, and now with announcements like this we say that happening."

David Yockelson, director of the Meta Group (Stamford, CT) said that the solution solves a document management dilemma for IBM. "IBM needed a stronger, more comprehensive compound document management offering, both for its solutions and ultimately for its EDM Suite initiative," he said. "This will ultimately deliver both, although EDM suite integration is still, we believe, a ways off."

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