AIIM 2004 Show Wrap

or one editor’s idiosyncratic view of the recently concluded ECM event by Bryant Duhon.

In his presentation to the recent NCC AIIM meeting, Byrant Duhon described AIIM 2004 Expo as everything better, faster, cheaper, and now it works; no big new technology. He began with a review of the best in show awards and then described some of the trends that caught his eye.

More vendors are offering Section 508 compliant technology. This is great news, and TechnoFlak is pleased to learn that vendors are creating products that are accessible to all.

Bell & Howell offered a scanner they advertised as being able to read doctor’s handwriting. TechnoFlak salutes their marketing operation.

The Application Service Provider business model is making a come back with offerings from Hyland Software and Atomz.

XML technology is not as big as some might expect, but IXIASoft had a XML data base and search engine product.

Duhon spoke about the continuing consolidation of the industry, listing all the recent mergers and acquisitions. (TechnoFlak heard this predicted at the first NCC AIIM meeting in 2002.)

The biggest trend may have been compliance, (HIPPA, Sarabanes-Oxley, etc.) with vendors offering products that would make the user compliant, magically delicious, as Duhon put it. Almost every vendor was compliant with DOD 5015.2 .

There was an increased emphasis on the small to medium business market.

Microsoft had a relatively small booth, but remains the 800 pound gorilla that everyone is watching.

Search (well, finding) information is beginning to be a trend.

After four years we still call it Enterprise Content Management or ECM because, as Duhon put it, we gotta call this industry something, but I would not lead with that with your customers. Wise words from Mr. Duhon, heed them.

Web services were not so prevalent as two years ago. (This surprises TechnoFlak, as I would have thought that web services offers the greatest flexibility to vendors wishing to offer customers incremental functionality.)

The show was well attended, even on the third day. While booths in the front always do the best, even the back wall had good traffic. The last conference session on Wednesday was full. Exhibitors said they had more leads and less tire kickers.

During the question period Duhon said that the Document Imaging and Records Management had the best attended sessions and described Business Process Management as Workflow on steroids.