Heterogeneous ETL Platform Capability as a Content Consolidation Enabler

Extract Transform and Load (ETL) operations can be homogeneous or heterogeneous. Homogeneous operations involve extract from a repository and load into a repository of the same technology. As an example, one can synchronize the content in a North American Documentum repository with the content in a European Documentum repository via a homogeneous extract and load (i.e., from Documentum and to Documentum). Two or more technologies are involved in a heterogeneous operation. As an example, one can migrate from FileNet to Documentum, by extracting from FileNet and loading into Documentum.

The challenge with content consolidation is that there are several, if not numerous, repository technologies to be addressed. For example, if content in SharePoint, FileNet, Lotus Notes, and ApplicationXtender are content sources to be consolidated into a Documentum target infrastructure, then extract must be performed on four different technologies and load into one technology. Each of the technologies involved implies a need for knowledge of the technology, technical infrastructure (e.g., test environment), and existing functionality to connect to each repository technology. A heterogeneous ETL platform capability addresses each of these needs:

• Knowledge of each technology is required to inform consolidation strategy from an enterprise taxonomy point of view. Knowing each source technology is required to understand how the content in each source will map to a taxonomy for the enterprise. Knowledge of each source technology is also important for consolidation efficiency. Consolidation efficiency can be improved by best leveraging technical capabilities in the source, such as indexes and application programming interfaces.
  
• Technical infrastructure (for the several or numerous technologies involved) to test and execute consolidations can be costly and time consuming to establish, but is required for an effective consolidation program. In most consolidation programs, the technical infrastructure is required for a finite period of time, and obtaining required infrastructure via outsourcing is an economically attractive idea. Aside from traditional outsourcing or hosting, large consolidation programs can also leverage infrastructure of solution providers or software vendors.
  
• Constructing extract connections to each source repository technology is the most technically risky portion of a consolidation effort. Using pre-existing extract connections for the source repositories or proven models for constructing them greatly reduces the risk.
  

If you are like 69% of companies in a recent Gartner survey (see my April 19, 2009 post), you have more than 6 content repository technologies in use. Crown’s Professional Services and Crown’s Buldoser Center Product represent a heterogeneous ELT platform that reduces the risk and cost of consolidations. Cost and risk are the two main obstacles to consolidation, and with those obstacles addressed, what’s stopping you from consolidating?

Answers on EMC CenterStage and eRoom-to-CenterStage Conversion

EMC’s CenterStage is the next chapter in the evolution of EMC’s collaboration products. CenterStage has origins dating back to the 1980s. At that time, VAX Notes was a commercial product that provided threaded discussion for Digital Equipment Corporation’s peak 130,000 employees, including me, and their customers’ employees. VAX Notes had been influenced by earlier work at University of Illinois’ Computer-based Education Research Laboratory (CERL). VAX Notes provided the inspiration for the blockbuster Lotus Notes product, released in 1989, which enabled solutions for many of my clients. Later, key Lotus Notes employees left to start Instinctive Technologies which shipped the eRoom product in 1997. Based on the success of the product, they changed the name of the company to eRoom. eRoom is the collaboration product offered by EMC today via EMC’s acquisition of Documentum in 2003 and Documentum’s prior acquisition of eRoom in 2002. With EMC’s new CenterStage, now there is a product that combines the best of eRoom, Web 2.0 functionality, and the enterprise content management capabilities of EMC’s Content Server

We at Crown have been anticipating CenterStage since our first conversations with EMC regarding the next stage in collaboration in August 2006. As a result of these conversations, Crown has been selected by EMC to be the sole provider of eRoom to CenterStage conversion software. Crown has incorporated its proven Buldoser technology into the RedCarpet and Buldoser Center products, which convert eRooms directly to CenterStage.

Since EMC’s CenterStage product has become available in beta version in September 2008, Crown has presented at many webinars and user groups about CenterStage. Some of the questions and answers from those sessions follow in this post.

Crown’s Buldoser technology, which has been continuously accredited since 2004, and extensive Extract Transform and Load experience make Crown the ideal party to help eRoom customers convert to CenterStage. If you have a question not answered below, please contact Crown at info@crownpartners.com.

Q1: Does CenterStage have the same concepts of access control, both by membership (groups/roles) and by item or folder-level access control (restricted access, hidden items)?
A1: Yes, all the eRoom features in this area come through
Q2: Can you use the Document Storage product component of CenterStage without the other new Web 2.0 components?
A2: The CenterStage Essentials version is a "limited" release of CenterStage. It does include storing documents in folder and attachment boxes like in eRoom, plus a few other features. There is no charge for this version.
Q3: I saw the term "data tables" in CenterStage features. Is that the same as the database function in eRoom?
A3: Yes. The feature is renamed in CS as "Data Tables" (much to the delight of database purists J ).

Q4: Is there a move from EMC to focus more heavily on new technologies (such as web 2.0) and move away from the more recognized features that eRoom has now?
A4: No. CenterStage has been built to leverage all the great features that eRoomers love in it today. Virtually all eRoom items (like Polls, Databases, etc.) will be made available in CenterStage within the current product roadmap. It also strives to "marry" the current eRoom features with newer Web 2.0 technologies that are now flourishing (Blogs, RSS, Wikis, etc.).

Q5: Can eRoom be converted (upgraded) to CenterStage Essentials (CSE)?
A5: Yes, if you are using eRoom today and want to replace it with CSE, you can convert your data accordingly. But not all eRoom features are available in CSE, so you would lose them. If you are using eRoom primarily for document storage, then you may be fine.

Q6: Is it possible to use eRoom and CenterStage Essentials (CSE) at the same time?
A6: Yes. An organization could have both applications running in their environment, but there would be no direct connection between them (like eRoom enterprise with Content Server).

Q7: Will the updates to the RedCarpet utility for migration go hand in hand with CenterStage changes?
A7: Yes. RedCarpet and Buldoser Center are "in synch" with CenterStage. Just note that with each new release of CenterStage, there could be delay of several weeks of the RedCarpet and Buldoser Center releases to ensure that it has been fully tested with the very latest release of CS.

Q8: In an eroom to content server migration using Buldoser Center, how are eRoom databases dealt with (things like field names, drop-down lists etc)?
A8: It is the intention with every feature in eRoom to have it move into CenterStage with the same data. So an eRoom database will convert to a "data table" in CenterStage, including all fields, records, access control, discussion areas, change logs, attachments, etc. If there is anything that cannot be converted it will be clearly documented.

Q9: How will it be addressed if certain objects throw an error when converting? Will there be developer support available to support such incidents?
A9: A report is generated after every data conversion pass from eRoom to CenterStage. It shows what has been copied successfully and what has not. There is then an opportunity to address the specific objects which failed the conversion. Then, with RedCarpet, you re-run the entire data conversion batch. With Buldoser Center, you only need to select the "exceptions" or "failed objects" and re-run those. Yes, blocks of Developer Support hours may be purchased and used to troubleshoot errors.

Q10: How will eRoom indexes be migrated? Do we have to re-index all content post migration?
A10: You will need to re-run those indexes in CenterStage.

Q11: Does RedCarpet or Buldoser Center also work with Documentum Content Server (not just CenterStage)?
A11: Yes, Buldoser Center was built in large part for migrations to Documentum Content Server.

Q12: In the case of eRoom approval databases, will RedCarpet be able to handle the different stages of approval--in other words, will it bring over all approval steps, even those that are "in progress"?
A12: Yes, RedCarpet is planned to process the different types of eRoom databases, including Issues(approval process) data bases. As long as CenterStage has a corresponding, consistent location or feature where the data can be moved, even details such as approval steps will convert as needed.

Q13: Do you support the migration of a Community Member List? Does CenterStage have an equivalent "community"?
A13: Yes, there is the concept of "local members" in CenterStage (in addition to the LDAP directory), and members from eRoom will be imported accordingly. Group and community member lists will be transferred. “External” eRoom users will be transferred into Documentum as “inline” Documentum users.

CMIS is Showing Promise

Standards development is slow and standards implementation is slower. Proposed standards are reviewed and revised to make a first generation standard. Even the participants in the standards process make implementation investment cautiously, if at all. Competing standards vie for prominence and succeeding generations of the standard emerge, but implementation investments remain scarce. In rare cases a version of a particular standard wins confidence across a community of stakeholders, the implementation investments begin to flow, and the investment in the standard begins to pay off. While JSR 170 and JSR 238 have failed to gain momentum, the next generation standard, CMIS shows promise of paying off.

The JSR 170 and JSR 283 standards have been in development since 2002 and 2005 respectively. They are designed to make application functionality portable across content repositories from different vendors, protect investment in content management applications, to foster an increase in commercially available content management applications, and encourage increasingly lower prices for content management repositories. JSR 170 and JSR 283 were unduly influenced by smaller players and did not protect significant investments of major stakeholders. The required support did not emerge for these standards, the investment never materialized, and there’s been no impact on the marketplace.

The experiences from JSR 170 and JSR 283 are reflected in a next generation standard, Content Management Interoperability Services Specification (CMIS). CMIS shows promise because:
- CMIS reflects the interests of the EMC, IBM, and Microsoft customer bases, and shows promise of winning support from across the community of stakeholders.
- CMIS is planned to protect existing vendor and user organization investments. CMIS will not require major product changes or significant data model changes.
- Aggressive standard approval timelines have been set with an objective of initial standard approval by OASIS in 2009.
- Even though the standard is not yet approved, expectations for product implementations are already being set. For example, IBM has identified CMIS as its plan for integrating its Lotus and enterprise content management products.

Archiving and electronic legal discovery are applications of increasing importance to Crown customers who are making investments in these areas to reduce operating costs, increase efficiency, and reduce risk. The CMIS standard is particularly suited for enabling further automation of archiving and legal discovery when the standard is leveraged using an Extract Transform and Load (ETL) utility such as Crown’s Buldoser Center. Crown is already adapting the design of Buldoser Center to take advantage of CMIS when EMC, IBM, and Microsoft implementations become available. (Some early CMIS functionality is already available and Crown is using it.) CMIS, in conjunction with Buldoser Center will make it easier to expand the sources that can be addressed with Buldoser Center and expand the advantage that Crown provides to its customers. CMIS is showing promise, and Crown is ready to leverage it.

Enabling Product and Installed Base Consolidation

Organizations consolidate diverging and rogue infrastructures to reduce cost and improve efficiency. Infrastructure consolidation is increasingly popular among users of software, and Crown enables those consolidations (see “Enabling Consolidation with Universal ETL”). Software vendors also need to undertake consolidations. They need to consolidate products and the installed bases of customers for those products.

An example of vendor consolidation from the automotive industry is Ford’s acquisition of Jaguar. When Ford acquired Jaguar, it maintained the Jaguar brand and distribution channel, but supplied Jaguar manufacturing with many of the same components that were used across other Ford models, especially Taurus. The idea was to keep serving the same customers, but reduce costs by consolidating the manufacturing.

Like the Ford-Jaguar example, software vendors also need to consolidate products. When Oracle acquired Stellent, it planned to consolidate the Stellent product with its own Oracle Content Data Base. When Open Text acquired Ixos and Humingbird, it planned to consolidate those products into its own Livelink product. FatWire acquired OpenMarket product from Divine with the plan to consolidate with its own products.

In the case of software product consolidations, one product of the two consolidated products is typically considered the strategic product. Customers using the non-strategic product will be required to undergo a conversion to adapt their information to fit the design of the strategic product. To keep customer loyalty and sustain maintenance revenues, vendors need to make that conversion as easy as possible.

Crown’s Buldoser technology is commonly used to enable conversions, and can be adapted to perform conversions on a mass scale to convert an installed base of customers. Most recently, Crown has adapted its Buldoser technology to converting the world-wide installed base of EMC’s eRoom customers to EMC’s strategic product, CenterStage. Crown’s technology is the only technology endorsed by EMC for the eRoom to CenterStage conversion. To make the conversion from eRoom to CenterStage as easy as possible, Crown has not only adapted the Buldoser technology, but has also created specialized branding, marketing, product support, professional services and distribution capabilities.

Crown’s hybrid software and professional services capabilities are well suited for migration, archiving, and upgrade of individual businesses. The same hybrid software and professional services capabilities wrapped into an integrated program, are well suited to conversion of a large installed base of customers. While Crown possesses unique capabilities for migration, archiving, upgrade, and installed base conversion, Crown is not resting on its laurels. Crown continues to make investments in software technology, professional services, marketing, and support capabilities to allow fluid consolidations on individual-business or installed-base scales. On behalf of the Crown leadership team, we are eager to assist with your conversion needs, large or small.

What Did They Say at the Crown Forum?

The summary report on the Crown Forum in November 2008 in Prague, Czech Republic is complete. At the forum, 30 business and technology leaders provided input on their priorities for content management and especially for Extract Transform and Load (ETL). As a sequel to last week’s post, the report reinforces the trend toward consolidation of content and the need for universal ETL.

From the input gathered at the Forum, 23 perspectives have been distilled and are included in the summary report. Those 23 perspectives support these five strategic trends:

• Information technology organizations are moving toward a centralized, scalable content management backbone as a foundation for content management across the enterprise.
  
• There is a strong and growing need to move and transform content via a standard process and technology to increase flexibility and reduce cost.
  
• Large scale adoption of collaborative content management products, such as eRoom, Lotus Notes, and SharePoint, has given rise to greater need for administration and control capabilities.
  
• Regardless of the content management and collaboration technology employed, the trend is toward globalized business process and workflow and away from departmental business process and workflow.
  
• Businesses have growing needs, both strategic and tactical, to move and adapt content fluidly according to changing business and technology contexts.

Crown uses results from its Forums to guide its investments in products and solutions. Results from the November 2008 forum have reinforced and guided us in bringing Buldoser Center to market sooner, in December 2008, rather than sliding the release date into 2009. The November 2008 Forum has guided us in considering features for future releases -- we will prioritize support for a wider range of departmental content sources such as eRoom, Lotus Notes Data Base, SharePoint, and Application Xtender. At the same time, these results have steered us to narrow the field of targets to enterprise-capable repositories.

Crown plans additional Forums for 2009. If you’re interested in future Crown Forums or reports from past Crown Forums, please e-mail info@crownpartners.com or call +1-937-723-2300.

Enabling Consolidation with Universal ETL

How to do more with less? That’s a popular question, and “consolidation” is a popular answer. In recent years, consolidation initiatives have often been deferred. They’ve been passed-over in favor of business expansion initiatives. This year, there are fewer promising expansion initiatives, and the cost-saving possibilities of consolidation look more attractive.

Crown’s Budoser, Buldoser Center, and RedCarpet products support consolidation efforts by moving unstructured information. If you have unstructured information in distributed or far-flung repositories, these products can help you move the information into centralized repositories. Buldoser has been moving content since 2003. Buldoser Center and RedCarpet are more recent additions to Crown’s Extract-Transform-and-Load (ETL) family of products.

Crown’s ETL family of products is part of Crown’s continuing investment to enable Universal ETL for unstructured information. Universal ETL is a vision for free flow of unstructured information from one repository to another. Doing more with less by consolidating requires a flow of information from a larger number of repositories to a smaller number of repositories. Crown’s ETL products and the vision for Universal ETL are in direct response to this requirement.

Consolidation is an immediate need. Crown’s ETL products provide immediate value, and pave the way toward the vision for Universal ETL. Let me or my colleagues at Crown know if you’ve been thinking about consolidating unstructured information or if you want to know more about our vision for Universal ETL.

Keep Bucking Bearish Economics in 2009

We at Crown Partners have been fortunate in 2008. Our customers’ confidence and ability to invest in our offerings not only allowed us to continue operating profitably as we have done since inception in 2001, but also drove growth in our software business.

In 2009, our commitment to providing value through market-focused initiatives will continue to overcome bearish economics. Customers have responded favorably to our investments, and we will continue to broaden and deepen market-focused initiatives in:
· Web-and-Marketing
· Extract-Transform-and-Load
· Enterprise Performance Management
· Standalone Software Products
· Strategic Account Operations

Crown leverages scale economics of enterprise software from EMC, Oracle, and Microsoft to produce measurable gains for our customers. Crown unlocks value from enterprise software by focusing professional services and developing complementary software products through the market-focused initiatives. We are already at work doing more of the same in 2009 so that we can help our customers thrive in the New Year.

Visit this space for news and opinion about Crown’s investments, market and technology trends, and in-the-trenches experience creating value through Crown products and services.