Overview:

               

                                                                                                        

Presented to: AIIM Harrisburg Users Group

Assembling Your ECM Solution: XML for ECM Application Development

You have Committed to XML for Data: Why not XML for Applications?

“The Next Big Thing for XML is Representing Entire Applications”

Dr. Charles F. Goldfarb, Father of XML Technology

Led the team that invented GML Originally Coined the Phrase “Markup Language” Inventor of SGML, the Standard Generalized markup Language

on which the Web’s HTML and XML are based. In recognition of his work, The Society for Technical

Communication gave joint fellowships to Charles Goldfarb and Tim Berners-Lee the founder of the World Wide Web

The Definition of XML

Extensible Markup Language (XML) is a general-purpose specification for creating custom markup languages.[1] It is classified as an extensible language because it allows its users to define their own elements. Its primary purpose is to facilitate the sharing of structured data across different information systems, particularly via the Internet,[2] and it is used both to encode documents and to serialize data.

 

The Definition of ECM

Enterprise Content Management is:

The technologies used to Capture, Manage, Store, Preserve, and Deliver content and documents related to organizational processes. ECM tools and strategies allow the management of an organization's unstructured information, wherever that information exists.

Common Goals of ECM & XML

If you look closely at the two definitions you will see what they have in common:

Extensibility

Reuse

Easily Accessed and Shared Information

 

Why ECM?

80% of enterprise content is unstructured Most of this content in sitting in file cabinets and

unmanaged file servers.

QUESTION: Try to think of an application in your business or agency that does not deal with

unstructured content.

Challenges of ECM

The EASY Part Creating, Populating and providing simple (direct) access to

the repository. Creating Content and Process applications with OOTB

components which are barely usable.

The HARD Part Creating COMPLETE Content and Process Applications. Making existing applications ECM awared.

Challenges of ECM - Approaches

OOTB Applications – Don’t really exist since most ECM products are more infrastructure than applications.

Custom Developed Applications Internally Developed or with the assistance of an SI Expensive to develop, Long time to market, and Expensive to

maintain

Frameworks Every SI has one Horizontally constrained Eventually lead to Custom Development

Choosing Your ECM Strategy or Product

You use XML for Data because It is the most open and accessible standard available It is proven It is reliable It is easily assembled

It is extensible, reusable and can easily share information

You choose an ECM Strategy or Product because It is proven It is reliable It can easily be assembled

It is extensible, reusable and can easily share information

You have made good choices - Why add risk to your process by writing code on top of your XML and ECM Infrastructure??

 

The Problem

If you Hard Code Solutions on top of your XML & ECM infrastructureyou have defeated the purpose of carefully choosing your XML & ECM products and strategy

If you are hard coding on top of your XML and ECM infrastructure In order to be Extensible, you need more code In order to Reuse you need more code In order to Share you need more code

In short, in order to implement your strategy you will be introducing huge risks

 

The Solution

XML Assembly – True Assembly, no coding at the

application layer (Composite Application Player) Manufacturing – True Manufacturing, from known

components and products (Software Factory)

You can now use XML for your software solutions and gain all of the same cost and time savings as when you standardized on XML for Data

The Solution

ECM is useless without applicationsECM is a Productivity Tool – Configure (Assemble) all the way not 60% of the solution. Learn options for Assembling (not coding) a front end (specific solution) on top of your ECM infrastructure Rapidly create Vertical Solutions A goal is to try and use ECM products out of the box. If you can’t achieve this objective, assembly and configuration instead of coding should be your best option.

Incremental Business Challenges Solved with XML

Home users driving change and change demands to Corporate IT decision making:

We did not know what capabilities were out there, now information in private life is on demand and we expect those features & benefits need to be there in our business applications

Business users are comfortable with and expect look & feel that they have at home

Google, MapQuest, Yahoo, MySpace, FaceBook, Quicken etc... have offered users a look & feel that they have liked and adopted. They now expect this in all of their apps.

Ajax - not just quick refresh of data but seeing underlying data without clicking = less clicks, increased efficiency & more rapid info for decision making = perceived ease of use

Capability (tool) for creating your own customized views / dashboards to see what is most important to you, when it is most important to you.

ECM Overview - Gartner

Gartner Says Worldwide Enterprise Content Management Software Market Will Reach $4.2 Billon in 2010

Due to the increasing need for companies to manage content at the enterprise level, the worldwide enterprise content management (ECM) software market is expected to grow more than 12 percent per year through 2010, from $2.6 billion in 2006 to more than $4.2 billion in 2010, according to Gartner, Inc. In 2007, worldwide ECM revenue is projected to total $2.9 billion, a 12.8 percent increase from 2006 (see Table 1).The vast majority of the information a company has is unstructured data residing in word processing documents, presentations, rich media files, spreadsheets and other file formats. Companies must make this content available to workers, business partner’s customers, and applications across the organization to automate business processes, increase efficiency, reduce costs and repetitiveness, make employees more effective and gain competitive advantages.“For many organizations, unstructured content is fundamentally out of control,” said Tom Eid, research vice president for Gartner. “Employees are creating all types of content for internal and external use with delivery through both formal and informal channels (such as wikis and blogs). While some of this business-specific content is now being managed through insurance claims processing, loan origination, case management and Web content management, the vast majority of this content is not being managed as an enterprise asset.”

What Others are Saying

Kurt Cagle – XML.com Editor – The Tao of XML

XML flows. It moves from data store to process to feed to

transformation to binding in a continuous stream, shifting its form

in response to the needs of the time, merging and splitting from

other streams, never really stopping. At times it may not even look

like XML, but at its heart, it still is.  XML is a seed. Plant it in a system, and over time it will

become the system.

ECM and SOA

• Represent Presentation and Business Process Layer entirely in XML (Goal!)

• End Point Agnostic• Technology Agnostic• Interoperability, never rewrite

business applications again

• VBOM are well defined Contracts between SOA and Applications

• VBOM make New and Legacy Infrastructure appear as a Service

• Well defined, loosely coupled applications

• Highly flexible, maintainable and adaptable solutions

• Easily migrate to new technology

Presentation

Business Process Choreography

Services

Enterprise Components

Operational Systems

Front End Applications

CIC S/COBOL

CRMERP

Business Intelligence

Mainframe IBM AS/400

End Points(Players)

Application XML Documents

VBOM XML Documents

Thin Rich Thick Flash PDA Disconnected

Project Case Study

6 Month Project 700 pages

4 Month Specification 2 Month Construction

30 business scenarios 50 screens 15 reports 100 step workflow Integrated with FileNet Workflow and Imaging, Microsoft

Biztalk, VSAM, ISAM, Microsoft SQL Server, and Oracle

Project Case Study

5 Week Project 100 pages

3 Week Specification 2 Week Construction

10 business scenarios 3 screens, 16 panels 5 reports 50 step workflow

Project Case Study

4 Day Project

2 Day Specification from existing Use Cases

2 Day Construction

18 Use Cases 15 screens/ panels 10 step workflow

Contact Information

Ric Eschenwald

ObjectBuilders3275 Verdant Grove

Lancaster, PA 17601

Joe Brophy

ObjectBuilders20134 Valley Forge Circle

King of Prussia, PA 19406

717.200.2530

REschenwald@ObjectBuilders.com

www.objectbuilders.com

610.783.7748

jbrophy@objectbuilders.com

The Presenter – Ric Eschenwald

Ric has been at the forefront of the ECM movement since it’s inception. Currently leading the ECM Center of Excellence for one of the 10 largest Banks in North America, Ric has also been the Senior Architect for Government Solutions at IBM FileNet and was involved in every major new product roll-out.

Ric has been a speaker at conferences featuring leading edge ECM products and solutions and in his current role is aligned with The Software Factory at ObjectBuilders, The LiveApp Player, ObjectBuilders Composite Application Builder Productivity Tool and Dr Charles Goldfarb, The Father of XML. As a Senior IBM FileNet Architect, IBM FileNet Consultant and having led an IBM FileNet Consulting Practice, Ric has been able to deliver world class solutions to Global 2000 organizations and governments.

Ric has been involved with and led teams in all phase of ECM initiatives; from an infrastructure, architecture, capture, product development, solution development and thought leadership perspective. Many high-profile and risky ECM initiatives initiated by large corporate and government entities begin with their request for Ric’s time.  As an example, The Commonwealth of Virginia recently standardized on an ECM Product and is creating a first of it’s kind, high-profile ECM initiative from infrastructure through specific point solutions. Ric was requested by all teams involved.