Dear AIIM Web 2.0 Community,

I'd like to introduce myself and a new discussion which is started for the purposes of gathering market and technical feedback on a product my company is developing.

My name is Mike Clarke, CEO of Qtility Content Management and Consulting Ltd. and Qtilty Software Limited. Our team has worked on contracts for enterprises such as Fairchild Semiconductor, BP Canada, University of Calgary, Wyeth Pharmaceuticals and Florida Power and Light. Over the course of the last 4 years we have been developing a content integration software product/SaaS tool, that we have used in part to assist with migration and integration projects, and we are now close to going to market. However, we want to focus our development now on a more narrow path and have come up with 3 different pain points that we think organizations are feeling. We need to hear back from end users and organizations that use document/content/records management systems on these pain points. Feel free to add others we may have missed.

We have been given permission to share these pain points with the group and seek feedback (we are sincerely looking for feedback, good or bad, and will not try to sell anything) from you on:

1. Seamlessly moving content from one repository or system to another.

   We have talked to a lot of customers and see that it is difficult for them to seamlessly move content and data describing the content files (metadata) from one system to another without expensive Web Services customizations and or dedicated integration add-on products. I'm not just referring to large scale bulk“migration” but also to file a more transactional one-file-at-a-time transfer tool.

   2. Exchanging files (upload/download) with external parties such as government departments, partners, vendors and customer.

What we have been hearing from customers is that the alternative solutions for passing files through firewalls and between systems cost at least $200,000 per project, when time and resources are considered, without considering software licensing. The common workaround is to bypass these solutions, with the exception of high volume or long standing requirements, by using email attachments and manual interaction with systems. Those solutions place strain on resources such as email storage systems and staffing requirements.

3. Automating the flow of content, documents and records between repositories and systems to support a business process.

When departments have set up their own internal processes and the larger organization's or intra-organizational process view has not been taken into consideration you have a mish-mash of systems, workflows, data structures which cannot, without expensive and one-off integrations, have documents, records and content files flow through the various systems and departments smoothly and seamlessly. This prevents information from being delivered on a “just-in-time” basis and increases the change management, skills and training requirements for information workers in support of processes. It is very expensive to perform integrations that integrate content to workflows and business processes.

Which of the 3 do you think addresses a bigger pain issue for users of Content Management systems? Why?

Do you see any of the 3 as being a valuable product/service, either for your company or others, or do you think there are other ways (or products) of satisfactorily solving the pain?

Any other comments or further questions are welcome.

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