FileNet set to become ECM market leader in SA in 2004

FileNet Corporation, provider of enterprise content management (ECM) solutions to the international market, is moving aggressively in 2004 to entrench its market leadership position in SA through local partner Ovations, the sole southern African distributor of the FileNet P8 offering.

"As a technology innovator and proven market leader in the ECM space, we need partners who fully understand the uniqueness of FileNet`s architecture and can develop customised solutions to industry- or company-specific business problems aimed at improving the business decision-making process, increasing overall productivity, customer satisfaction, and profitability," says Carlo Stellati, FileNet regional vice-president for Southern Europe, Middle East and Africa.

"Ovations has clearly proven itself in this regard. Consequently, to eliminate conflict and confusion among our partners and customers, we have simplified our channel strategy by doing away with the multiple distributor approach and appointing Ovations as the single point of contact."

Stellati says FileNet`s primary focus in 2004 will be the consolidation of the South African market, and will eventually be followed by the establishment of a local presence within the country.

"Recent developments in SA clearly show that the country`s economy is set to grow. This can be seen in its excellent GNP compared to other countries, steadily strengthening currency and declining inflation rate. These factors bode well for our continued investment in the country, and will make the cost and implementation of our software significantly more affordable."

"History also shows SA to be an early adapter of technology," he adds. "The fact that the country is English-speaking is another important advantage, as it eliminates the need to localise the product."

The FileNet P8 architecture is the ECM industry`s first integrated framework that combines best-of-breed content, process and connectivity capabilities in a single unified solution. Its ECM application development framework and tools are specifically designed to promote ease of use, rapid application development and lower total cost of ownership.

FileNet`s P8 architecture is designed to provide enterprise-level scalability and flexibility to handle the most demanding and complex content, business process and application integration challenges. It combines the capabilities of FileNet`s popular Panagon platform, Acenza application framework and its Brightspire eBusiness framework and Business Process Management technology into a unified ECM platform. Additionally, the FileNet P8 architecture utilises a single repository, single user experience, and a single application programming interface (API) set for developers.

"As other technology companies have slowed or stalled product development, FileNet continues to invest in new products to respond to emerging customer requirements," says Stellati. "With research and development (R&D) spending in excess of $70 million in 2002 and with $176 million in cash reserves with no debt, the company is well positioned to pursue continued leadership of the ECM market, which has an estimated annual growth rate of 24% and is expected to top $8.3 billion by 2006, according to IDC."

"FileNet is the market share leader in the ECM market today," Stellati declares. "The true value of an ECM solution is realised only when it is optimised to solve customers` most complex business problems. To this end, we will continue to leverage our relationships with our customers and our specific industry expertise in the areas of government, financial services, insurance and manufacturing to help our customers solve their unique business problems."