Dashboard: IBM Eyes FileNetDashboard: IBM Eyes FileNet

Previously published online in a different form

Despite IBM's insistence that its planned acquisition of FileNet is about broadening its portfolio and driving growth, the deal, announced Aug. 10, looks like a defensive play. After all, the enterprise content management (ECM) mainstay for both companies is in document imaging.

Asked what technology IBM gains through the deal that it does not already own, Jon Prial, vice president of content management and discovery, focused more on applications and solutions. "FileNet brings hundreds of applications from [partner] ISVs that we can now take to market," he says. "They bring e-mail integration into business process, and we can integrate WebSphere Process Server with their content-centric business process management."

Unique technologies are, indeed, rare in the mature ECM market, but more than one observer remarked on the overlaps between the two portfolios. Meanwhile, mainstream media outlets such as The New York Times speculated that IBM is "preparing for broader competition with its biggest software rivals, Microsoft and Oracle."

IBM's announcement came less than a week after Open Text declared victory in its bid to acquire Hummingbird, and the two deals will leave fewer than a dozen credible vendors in ECM. That includes Microsoft and Oracle, which are stepping up competition with low-cost platforms aimed at every-seat ECM.

The IBM-FileNet deal also comes as EMC is crowning itself the new market leader, having more than doubled its ECM revenues through aggressive acquisitions. Last year's purchase of imaging capture vendor Captiva brought EMC into more direct competition with IBM and FileNet. --Doug Henschen