What Does Further Consolidation Mean For FileNet?

A CIBC analyst chimed in last week on the Open Text / Hummingbird deal saying he didn't think the two companies would compete any better against larger rivals.

"Although Hummingbird will add scale to Open Text, we believe it will not meaningfully enhance Open Text's competitive positioning versus large ECM (enterprise content management) providers such as Microsoft, IBM and EMC."

And conspicuously no mention of FileNet as one of the larger rivals. Several folks around the web are speculating what the folks in Costa Mesa might be thinking. There doesn't seem to be many viable merger candidates left for FileNet. At least none that would increase their competitive chances against the usual foes. And if you look at other software sectors, (business intelligence, security, ERP, BPM) most of the companies that would be a good FileNet fit have been snapped up. I still think the most likely scenario is HP or Oracle. With so many imaging systems in place, HP has the wherewithal to develop new applications on top of that infrastructure along with the systems integration capabilities to provide connectivity to legacy systems. Throw in the HP partner channel for icing on the cake. And why Oracle? Maybe customers and analysts would take their ECM aspirations seriously if they bought FileNet. And there's plenty of FileNet customers that have backend Oracle ERP modules that could easily be connected to imaging and content pieces from FileNet P8. What do you think?

Technorati Tags : ecm, ecm+vendors, filenet, hummingbird, open+text, emc+documentum, IBM, microsoft, ecm+strategy

 

Cross-posted on George Dearing's FileNet Blog

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