[Sigia-l] RE: DMS vs CMS

[Johnvey Hwang]

As with all software that falls under the aegis of "enterprise
software", definitions of CMS and DMS vary widely between vendors --
often an exclusive by-product of market positioning meetings. 
Nonetheless, I've worked with both Hummingbird DMS (v5) and Teamsite
CMS (v5.5), and found that there are definite distinctions between the
two core products.

The Hummingbird DMS offers a centralized repository for any and all
documents generated within an organization.  In fact, a standard
implementation uses a custom "File Save..." component that replaces
the standard "Save" dialog box in all desktop applications.  Anything
that you generate will be stored in this repository, along with added
metadata (username, department, custom attributes, etc.)  When you do
a "File Open...", it allows to you retrieve any document generated by
any other person (provided you have the security clearance), or one of
its previous revisions.  This kind of centralized system allows users
to share documents in a much more efficient manner.  For example, you
can send bookmarks to documents in the DMS instead of constantly
forwarding attachments through email.

At an additional cost, Hummingbird offers a portal product that
extends the repository into an intranet or internet environment,
basically adding a CMS-like publishing component to your DMS.  Based
on your document metadata and security settings, you can publish
certain documents to your employees, and certain docs to the public. 
For instance, the HR department can flag specific documents to be
available to all employees, and the portal publisher will pick those
up and push the latest version out to the intranet.

Interwoven Teamsite CMS operates in a manner that is better suited for
mass deployment of content instead of daily document management.  It
is a self-contained system that uses a web-based interface for all its
functions (it has a fat-client that ties into Word, but it isn't very
polished).  It has a basic content repository with revision control
and workflow routing, along with unix-style security settings
(actually, it draws directly from your unix system login, which can be
limiting at times).  The big addition is the concept of an "Edition",
or a snapshot of the entire repository (or sub-branch) that you
publish to your intranet/internet.  This allows you to create discrete
versions of your website and allow you to preview an edition before
publishing it.  You can always make incremental changes to single
pages at any time though.  Because its roots lie in web publishing, it
also has an XSL transform template system that allows you to directly
output finished HTML.

Interwoven acquired iManage a few months ago, so expect to see
Teamsite become much more adept at DMS-style integration and
management.  iManage used to be a direct competitor in the DMS space
(we were deciding between Hummingbird and iManage during our
requisition process).

Hope this offers some more insight.

- Johnvey




On Fri, 11 Jun 2004 12:15:50 -0400, Dave <dheller at gmail.com> wrote:
> 
> DAM is definitely an interesting twist. I wouldn't call DAM as
> anything oether than a multi-rendering of the same content. this is
> what makes it different, but not the "digital" aspect of it. I can
> take video and render it in many different outputs. Yes I can do the
> same for a docuement (word, pdf, HTML, xml, etc.) but the difference
> is that the renderings themselves can actually be new content
> themselves. Cropping, clipping, splicing, etc.
> 
> As for is everything content ... i have to say, that everything is
> potential content. It isn't content until you publish it. ;) But you
> have manage the potentiality all the same, so the difference is sorta
> moot.
> 
> -- dave