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Documentum Licensing Blues!

November 13th, 2008

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I have been working with Documentum for about a year now and every few months I discover something much more annoying and frustrating than ever before. And its only now that I’m realizing why Documentum experts are so much in demand and hard to find.
As part of my current assignment for a bank, we were evaluating writing a custom web front end for Documentum. We believed we had many reason to do so - a simpler API for customizations and addons, access to complete source and ability fix bugs ourselves, a richer UI and more control over everything. We even started researching possible implementation alternatives and flex did seem like a good choice. Above all, we thought we might just be able to get around Documentum’s per seat licensing model and could use only a single license for all enterprise users.
The whole idea was to use documentum like a database - the way your web application uses a single user to cater multiple user accounts. You dont really create a database user for each new user of your web application. That simply doesnt make sense. We thought of doing something similar with Documentum - a single user proxies for all application users and with some hacks, the entire system still works the way it was meant to.
And mind you, the official license agreement with EMC does not mention anything about such an approach. All it says is that if you create an account in docbase - be it for application users direclty or for other automated systems or webservices, you gotta pay for it. And it aint cheap either. Infact, it is one of the most expensive products out there. No wonder they are loosing ground fast. My last client decided to move away from Documentum and scrapped 2 of their projects almost after 2 years of investments. My current client is also reconsidering their decision to stick with Documentum.
The reasons are obvious. When many open source, free and cheap alternatives, why would any one want to keep a white elephant. And yes, then there is the support which would become and indespensible part of your life when you buy Documentum. My personal experience hasnt been too good. There are things and features that you can not simply do with a support account. EMC forums are much more useful than the bundled documentation and trust me, you cannot live with Documentum without support. The support aint very good either.
After considering all our options, we decided to speak to EMC about licensing and we were not very happy with the response. The guys said it would be a breach of license agreement if we used a proxy user to connect to Documentum and even if we write a complete new web front end, we’d still have to pay “WEB TOP’s” per seat licensing fee. Would you believe that?
That is the most ridiculous licensing policy I’ve ever come across my life. I mean, why the hell would you want me to pay for a webtop license, when we are not using webtop at all? That makes the whole idea of a custom client worthless. First you pay a licensing fee for a product that you dont use, and then you spend more on developing your own stuff.
I’m no legal expert but this definitely sounds like a perfect candidate for an Antitrust lawsuit.
A. you make a buggy product so that users cant do without support.
B. You sell it at a premium price
C. If the business doesnt wanna use the product, they still pay the licensing cost no matter what they use.

Doesnt that sound more like a “Monopolistic” licensing than competitive licensing? Once a business buy Documentum, they’re locked in.
EMC may have enjoyed exclusive status over last few years, but I think the space is heating up rapidly with new vendors like Microsoft catching up. Interestingly, Microsoft adopted a totally new approach with its Sharepoint server. Instead of cashing in on large cows, they commoditized the whole thing with their extremely low cost and awefully simple licensing terms. No wonder business adopted Sharepoint without much hestitation.
I think its high time that EMC rethinks its licencing model if it still wants to maintain its niche position in the market and stay ahead of competition.