IBM Snaps Up FileNet
IBM Snaps Up FileNet
August 11th, 2006: The acquisition season continues apace as IBM announces an all-cash, US$1.6-billion deal to bring FileNet Corporation into its 'Information On Demand' initiative.
Following on from OpenText's share-deal to take over Hummingbird this week, the Enterprise Content Management space has been further consolidated with the news that IBM has agreed a US$1.6-billion purchase of high-profile ECM vendor, FileNet Corporation.
As we go online with this story, we are awaiting comment from local IBM representatives. Sydney-based, FileNet Managing Director, James Rea was not available for comment.
IBM has stated that FileNet's operations will be folded into its 'Information on Demand' strategy launched in February this year. FileNet will become bring the number of acquisitions to IOD to 20.
The purchase of a pure ECM vendor gives IBM an active user-base and a slice of what it is predicting to grow to a US$69 billion in value by 2009. It also raises a very definite standard to EMC Corporation in terms of just who does own control of the massive amounts of information residing on storage platforms world wide.
In terms of hardcore strategy - and as a heads-up to FileNet users - IBM has released the following information, saying that it will:
- Combine FileNet's operations with IBM's Content Management business in the Information Management unit led by General Manager Ambuj Goyal.
- Preserve and enhance customer investments in both FileNet and IBM Content Management platforms, leveraging IBM's market-leading Information Integration technology to develop broader ECM solutions.
- Integrate IBM's BPM and Service Oriented Architecture technologies with the FileNet platform.
- Train IBM and FileNet partner and services teams on both IBM and FileNet technology.
It fleshed out these largely ambiguous statements, stating that it, "Plans to build upon the advanced Content Management technologies of both companies to provide customers and partners with industry-focused, high value solutions that are able to proactively capture and deliver content as part of a business process. These technologies can be integrated into IBM's service oriented architecture (SOA)-based capabilities, including business process management and information lifecycle management."
Where exactly this leaves FileNet users in terms of SLAs, maintenance contracts and other details is, at this early stage, still unclear. Equally vague is how exactly IBM will incorporate FileNet's technologies into an overall ECM system.