On 9/28/06, Bundy, Dean <[log in to unmask]> wrote:
>
> Has anyone been reading the Microsoft RM blog, and if so, are there any
> thoughts on what embedding RM functionality in the 07 releases of Office
> and Outlook will mean for vendors of RM or CM applications? Have I
> missed some details, or an I correct in asking if I launch
> Office/Exchange 07, why would I need an additional tool from Tower or
> MDY or Stellent to do RM? (I know a couple of these tools apply the
> capture/retention for reuse/disposition paradigm to "content", meaning
> the whole of an organization's accumulated information content, not just
> the defined "records", and that may be a significant difference.)
>
> At any rate, I'm curious about what the community may think of
> Microsoft's foray into the RM world.
There was some serious discussion on this a month or so ago here, you may
want to do a search on MS Share Point, or Sharepoint in the archives of the
List to see the various opinions on the subject.
I did my level best to stay out of the discussion at that time, but will
offer a few thoughts on the subject here.
Obviously, M$ has finally realized that there is a cash cow they don't have
their hooks in, and it's known as records management. They haven't been
able to buy someone and break what they had developed and call it their own,
so now they're going to force their way into the market by offering a "tool"
for free, bundled with their Office suite.
Now, those of us who have any experience with M$ KNOW that NOTHING IS FREE,
without a price. It's just like all of the claims that you'll soon be able
to "save as XML" anything generated out of an M$ Office application... but
you can bank on the fact that it won't be "plain vanilla XML", it'll be M$
XML... and it will have tags or other components in it that will make it
different enough that it won't transparently work with other systems without
some fiddling around with it.
Dean's thought that if something is going to be given away that essentially
does the same thing as a mature product, then why should anyone buy
something else on the surface makes great sense. I'm sure that M$ is
banking on many organizations that have no EDMS or ERMS are going to think
the same way. And likely, this product will have some very basic
functionality and you'll be able to do certain things with it... but as soon
as you need the feature rich components that REAL ERMS come equipped with,
or offer as fully functional, integrated modules for... you're going to be
offered more "pay to play" pieces to add to your FREE tool.
And again, those of us with any experience with M$ products that are new
know the growing pains they suffer... and the continual pains they suffer
patching and avoiding security issues with new versions of products. Anyone
running Vista yet? Wasn't that projected for a 2004 release date? Anyone
able to count the number of CRITICAL security patches they've had to
download and install for whatever version of Windows they're running?
Anyone remember the bumper sticker "Apple 89 = Windows 95"???
Personally, I gave up on the elusive free lunch a long time ago. I'd sooner
choose who I'm going to break bread with and pay for a meal and have a clear
conscious that I'm not going to suffer later from making a bad decision.
Larry
--
Larry Medina
Danville, CA
RIM Professional since 1972
List archives at http://lists.ufl.edu/archives/recmgmt-l.html
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