Each participant submitted an architecture that could scale to meet EDU's needs and work with its existing setup. The vendors use application or content servers that can scale or multiply, depending on the number of concurrent users. These systems can distribute processing load and provide failover support. For example, Hummingbird's DM servers work as a unit with failover capabilities. They also can be load balanced using round-robin or CPU-utilization strategies. In addition, each system supports a relational database, such as IBM DB2, MS SQL, Oracle or Sybase, as content repositories. These databases provide replication, caching and transaction monitoring to speed response time, reduce network traffic and provide audits.
All the vendors leverage Active Directory or an LDAP directory to set up secure authentication on the desktop or on the Web using SSL. And all use open APIs so that their setups work with other apps. Entopia's stood out with a J2EE architecture that makes it easy to fit into an IBM WebSphere or BEA WebLogic shop. It also came with a plethora of connectors to meet up with file systems, Web servers and more. Stellent gets kudos for supporting WebDAV (Web-based Distributed Authoring and Versioning) and API integration with Web services, J2EE and EJB (Enterprise Java Beans).
Vendor solutions to include DM as part of an overall SOX-compliance strategy were consistent across the board. For the most part, financial reports (Sec. 302), documents detailing internal controls (Sec. 404) and reports on material changes in financial conditions (Sec. 409) can be stored, secured and managed in a DM system. Once in the system, collaboration tools let you edit documents and set up workflows for publication approval. Audit trails show the actions taken. Finally, DM security features ensure that only users with the proper authentication can access and take actions to modify or delete a document or record (Sec. 802).
In the end, Hummingbird's Enterprise was our Editor's Choice, thanks to its mature RM component. It can include Outlook messages and attachments as records. It can manage physical documents and objects that aren't in the document repository, and it includes a strong publishing component via its partner, RedDot Solutions.
Our pricing includes the cost of the system per user per year for 5,000 EDU employees and/or management of about 25 million documents plus basic support. Most vendors offer upgrades as well as optional training.
Enterprise comes with a rich set of collaboration and image-capturing tools. With RedDot, it includes an integrated component to publish Web content. Hummingbird came up short of LibertyNet's output management and security, but Enterprise edged out opponents with strong features to manage e-mail as records and handle both digital and nondigital assets, all at a moderate price.
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