ECM What does consolidation mean for customers?

Consolidation has been happening in the ECM marketplace for some time now. In a previous post I looked at the Gartner Magic Quadrant for ECM over a period of years to see how things had progressed and who was still on and who was off the radar.

If you are interested in this post called Quadrants, consolidation and sausages. Following on from this previous blog entry, I have been wondering what consolidation means for customers? Well here are a couple of thoughts on the situation.

On the positive side vendor consolidation creates a greater opportunity for software to broaden out for the customer, that is, if the vendor is an innovation focused company. Acquisition of smaller companies by a larger one allow the acquiring company to rapidly assimilate innovation and deliver new value through synergy with their existing technology. This creates a 1+1=3 offering for customers, and provides some longevity to the company that has acquired the innovation. Alas this perfection is not always reality.

On the negative side acquisition can also stifle innovation as the big fish gobble up smaller more innovative players, possibly as a blocking play to consolidate their position. Maintenance revenues for these vendors are a large and certain thing, especially when you have a massive target to make, you need to fill up the yearly quota with consistent and repeatable revenue. Often the mantra of management is "no disruption", "no bugs"so that customers are happy and pay out the cheques.

Hopefully there are not too many companies that take this attitude, but have a more balanced outlook and acquire for the betterment of the customer base, to increase their competitive advantage and to drive greater value of product functionality and ease of use for the customer.

After all it is for the customers benefit that we are building all this stuff anyway? Which camp is your vendor in, ask some questions and find out. Be sure not to ask too close to an end of quarter cycle!