White Paper

Comparing Core ECM Features

of Documentum and
SharePoint 2010 Which
Platform is Right for You?
Complex, heterogeneous and fragmented Enterprise
Content Management (ECM) landscapes across most
enterprises trigger strong business drivers to converge
to a smaller technology footprint. This needs to be
justified with a compelling business case enumerating
significant Total Cost of Ownership (TCO) reduction and
Return on Investment (ROI). Enterprises with
Documentum as their existing ECM standard and also
considering (or implementing) SharePoint for
collaboration and portal requirements need to
objectively assess whether the latter can also fulfil ECM
needs, potentially allowing convergence to a single
platform for all information needs.
The purpose of this white paper is to provide an
objective comparison between the core ECM
(Document and Records Management) features of
Documentum and SharePoint 2010. This comparison
will help ECM architects in establishing an evaluation
scorecard to decide which of the two platforms would
better suit or suffice an enterprises specific ECM
requirements or if they should co-exist to provide
complementary services.

About the Author

Jaydev Kundurmutt
Jaydev Kundurmutt is a Senior Consultant at Tata Consultancy
Services (TCS) with 20 years of IT experience. He is presently
engaged as SharePoint Architect with the TCS Corporate Microsoft
Technology Center of Excellence Group.

Table of Contents
1. Introduction

2. Evaluation Criteria

3. Comparison Matrix

4. Conclusion

39

5. List of Abbreviations

40

Introduction
The ECM landscape in most organisations is complex, heterogeneous and fragmented. Lack of a unified view
and platform for accessing and managing content leading to overall loss in productivity in information
management and overheads on maintaining the ECM footprint both from an operational and capital
expenditure perspective are few of the challenges associated with it. CIOs and Enterprise Architects are
constantly faced with the need to critically evaluate options towards reducing this diverse footprint to the
optimal extent that can result in reduction of TCO and increase in ROI.
Narrowing this problem statement down to a specific area, organisations with heavy footprint of
Documentum are increasingly challenged with the lack of a unified platform for all-round ECM, in addition
to multiple, complex licensing options and associated costs, less than optimal user experience,
customizability challenges, reduced developer productivity, lack of seamless interoperability and usability
with Desktop productivity applications and weak offerings / roadmap for cloud-based ECM computing
opportunities. Besides, many advanced features of Document and Records Management of Documentum
are seldom used or complex to understand.
It must also be acknowledged that SharePoint has assumed tremendous adoption in general, across most
enterprises today as a platform for collaboration and intranet portals. Those that have not yet adopted
SharePoint are seriously evaluating or planning to implement in the near future. Those that have already
invested in earlier versions of SharePoint are looking to eventually upgrade to SharePoint 2010. These trends
extend as much to organisations that have long standing implementations of Documentum.
ROI calculations to determine the most optimal roadmap from a technology footprint perspective must
critically and objectively evaluate the merits/demerits of maintaining both Documentum and SharePoint (as
standalone or complementary platforms) versus converging to a single platform.
SharePoint 2010, with its significant functional and scalability enhancements over MOSS 2007 in providing
full-fledged ECM (Document and Records Management features) along with providing a capabilities-rich,
unified ECM platform, its relatively simple licensing structure, strong interoperability with Office
productivity suites and a definitive roadmap for cloud based computing, make it, all in all, a fairly strong
contender for the ECM platform convergence road ahead.
However, to make an objective assessment of what ECM roadmap to adopt, a detailed comparison of the
two products namely Documentum and SharePoint is needed.
The purpose of this white paper is therefore, to provide an objective comparison between the core ECM
(Document and Records Management features) of Documentum and SharePoint 2010 that would provide
guidance to ECM architects in establishing an evaluation scorecard to decide which of the two platforms
would better suit or suffice an enterprises specific ECM requirements or in some cases, should co-exist to
provide complementary services.
The emphasis is on the term specific since not all features that either product offers (or lacks in) may be
applicable or critical to an organisations needs. While the article does not claim to be an authoritative
compendium on every granular aspect of Documents and Records Management features offered by either
product, it makes for a reasonable guidance primer.

Documentum version 5.3/6.5 has been predominantly referred to for the comparison.
The white paper first provides a listing of criteria that have been used for the comparison, followed by a
detailed tabular matrix that compares both the products on specific Document and Records functionality
and features under each criterion (head). The paper concludes with guidance on how to best utilize the
comparison matrix to arrive at an evaluation scorecard.

Evaluation Criteria
The comparison of features between SharePoint 2010 and Documentum is based on the following high level
criteria (heads):
n

Core Document Management

Client Integration Capabilities with MS Office Documents and MS Outlook

Versioning

Support for Links, Virtual (Compound Documents)

Common Document Operations

Document Renditions

Security

Navigation

Tagging and Rating

Taxonomy

Content Deletion

Auditing

Core Records Management

Information Rights Management

Managing Document Lifecycles

Document Workflows

Storage

Programmability

Search

Comparison Matrix
Feature

Functionality

Core
Document
Management

Ability to
create, store
and publish
documents
along with
metadata
Ability to edit
metadata
properties of
documents
Ability to
identify
documents
uniquely
using an ID
regardless of
location

Documentum

SharePoint 2010

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Comments (Where relevant or required)

In SharePoint 2010, documents in a Site

Collection can be uniquely identified by
Document IDs and therefore URLs to documents
can be restricted to the site collection followed
by the Document ID (regardless of which sub
site, document library or folder that the
document may be physically stored in). For the
document numbering to be generated by
SharePoint, the Document ID feature needs to be
activated in the Site Collection.
The URL pattern to refer to a document by its
Document ID is as follows:
http://<sitecollectionurl>/_layouts/DocIdRedir.as
px?ID=<Document ID>
Every content item in SharePoint is also identified
by a GUID that changes once a content item is
moved or copied to a different location.
In Documentum, every content object including
documents are identified by a unique object ID
that is generated as per a specific pattern that
includes in it, the repository and object type.

Configurability
of Document
IDs

No

Yes

In SharePoint 2010, it is possible to configure the

Document ID capability (to a limited extent) to
choose the Document ID numbering schema.
This capability allows a unique pattern to be
manually chosen for each site collection where
the feature is enabled. It also ensures that the
Document ID is truly unique even across site
collections. The Document ID is an alphanumeric
string in SharePoint 2010 that comprises 2 parts:

Feature

Functionality

Documentum

SharePoint 2010

Comments (Where relevant or required)

<Document Prefix>-<-X-Y>. The Document Prefix
comprises of 4-12 characters, which can be
manually configured (if required) whereas the
Document Suffix comprises numbers that are
auto-generated by SharePoint.
While it is theoretically possible for the same
Document ID to be generated across site
collections or web applications (in the event that
we do not configure the Document ID prefix), the
probability of that happening is extremely
minimal.
Only documents that inherit from the Document
Content Type are capable of leveraging the
Document ID generation feature.
The Document ID feature is available at the site
collection level and can be used across various
site templates such as Record Centre, Document
Centre, Team / Collaboration Sites and so on.

Email a link
(URL) as
Document ID

Yes

Yes

Support for
Custom
Document
Types

Yes

Yes

In SharePoint 2010, documents can be linked to

Content Types that are logical metadata entities
that can help conveniently classify and
categorize documents based on their business or
functional use as well as apply policies and
workflows against. Content Types and Site
Columns (metadata) themselves are reusable
across SharePoint 2010 sites, site collections and
web applications.
Similarly, in Documentum, documents are
associated with Document Types, which in turn
are comprised of fields (metadata).

Support for
Inheritance
of Document
Types

Yes

Yes

Custom Content Types can be created based on

OOB content types and can hold custom
metadata (site columns). Custom Content Types
can inherit from and extend to another Custom
Content Type.
Documentum has similar inheritance and
customisation capabilities on Document Types.

Feature

Functionality

Documentum

SharePoint 2010

Comments (Where relevant or required)

However, a subtle point of difference: All
documents in Documentum must necessarily
inherit from a document type. In SharePoint, by
contrast, it is possible to associate custom
metadata with a document library where such
metadata may not necessarily be part of a
content type.

Support for
Custom
Document
metadata

Yes

Yes

Support for
various types
of Metadata

Yes

Yes

In addition to those mentioned below, SharePoint

2010 provides additional OOB metadata column
types such as: Person or Group, Hyperlink or
Picture, Calculated and Currency. Documentum
supports a metadata type called as ID, which is a
string field that is usually system generated.
SharePoints equivalent is the GUID which is also
system generated.

Single Line of
Text

Yes

Yes

SharePoint 2010 - Mandatory or Optional

Allows enforcing of unique values
Allows setting of maximum number of
characters
Allows setting of Default Value
Allows a Calculated Value.

Multi Line
Text

Yes

Yes

Mandatory or Optional
Allows for unlimited length in Document
Libraries
Can specify number of lines for editing
Allows specifying Type of text plain, rich,
enhanced
Allows option of appending of changes to
existing text.

Rich Text

Yes

Yes

Date Time

Yes

Yes

Boolean

Yes

Yes

SharePoint 2010 - Yes/No check box

Allows default selection of Yes or No

Feature

Functionality

Documentum

SharePoint 2010

Comments (Where relevant or required)

Choice

Yes

Yes

SharePoint 2010 allows selection through check

boxes (single/multiple values), radio buttons
(single value), drop-down (single value) or list box
(single/multiple values).

Lookup

Yes

Yes

SharePoint stores lookup values either locally in a

list as hard coded set of values or in a userdesignated list.
Documentum represents lookup fields as Value
Assisted fields the domain values of the lookup
are stored in Registration Tables.

Lookup from
a Central
Taxonomy

Yes

Yes

SharePoint 2010 offers a centralized taxonomy

store that can be shared across site collections,
web applications and even farms this central
term store can be linked into metadata columns
(through managed metadata lookup columns)
that provide intuitive as well as type-ahead
features to suggest.
Object types and metadata can be shared across
a repository (docbase) but not across repositories.

Number
(Integer,
Double)

Yes

Yes

SharePoint 2010 - Mandatory or Optional

Allows enforcing unique values
Allows specifying minimum and maximum
values
Allows specifying number of decimal places
(Automatic or Explicit: 0 5)
Allows specifying a default value: specific or
calculated)
Allows showing number as a percentage.

Multi-Value

Yes

Yes

SharePoint 2010 allows selection through check

boxes (single/multiple values), radio buttons
(single value), drop-down (single value) or list box
(single/multiple values).
Documentum allows selection of Multiple or
Repeating values for a meta data field.

Support for
Folders and
Sub Folders

Yes

Yes

Feature

Functionality

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Choice

Yes

Yes

SharePoint 2010 allows selection through check

boxes (single/multiple values), radio buttons
(single value), drop-down (single value) or list box
(single/multiple values).

Support for
Custom
Folders (with
custom
metadata)

Yes

Yes

Implemented in SharePoint 2010 as custom folder

content types.

> 128 chars

128 chars

Documentum has considerably greater limits than

SharePoint in terms of length of file and folder
names.

> 256 chars

256 chars

Documentum has considerably greater limits than

SharePoint in terms of length of file and folder
names.

> 128 chars

128 chars

Documentum has considerably greater limits than

SharePoint in terms of length of file and folder
names.

Support for
inclusion of
special
characters in
naming of
objects.

Yes

Limited

SharePoint does not support special characters in

file and folder names such as
~#%&*{}\:<>?/|". Also, SharePoint has the
following restrictions:
The period character cannot be consecutively
used in the middle of a file name
The period character cannot be present at the
end of a file name
A file name cannot commence with a period
character.

Maximum File
Size that can
be stored

> 2GB

2 GB

Documentum can store files of very large size as

compared to SharePoint 2010. While SharePoint
2010 is configured by default for a maximum file
upload size of 50 MB, this can be increased to a
maximum of 2 GB.

Support for
multiple views
of content
including
personalized
views

Yes

Yes

Both SharePoint and Documentum support

configurability and creation of views of content,
which can be personalized. SharePoint in
addition supports the ability for content owners
to target content to users and groups and the

Maximum
Folder Name
Length
Maximum
URL Length of
any
Document
(including
folders)
File Name
Length

10

Feature

Functionality

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

granularity of content targeting could be as fine as
a list or document item.

Client
Integration
capabilities
with MS
Office
Documents

Integration
with MS
Outlook

Duplicate
Documents in
same Folder

Yes

No

Documentum does not prevent two documents

(files) with the same name from being stored in a
given folder. SharePoint either disallows this
scenario or provides a configurable choice to store
such documents as versions of the same
document.

Edit With

Limited

Yes

Rich OOB, client integration capabilities with MS

Office Clients such as Excel, Word, PowerPoint and
Outlook exist for SharePoint 2010.
Documentum WebTop 6.5 offers exposure to
similar capabilities however, through separate
purchase of client Application Connector Licenses.

Save As

Limited

Yes

Same as Above

Populate
metadata

Limited

Yes

Same as Above

Check In/Out

Limited

Yes

Same as Above

Create
Versions

Limited

Yes

Same as Above

Windows
Explorer View
of Content

Limited

Yes

Same as Above

Bulk Copy,
Paste, Move

Limited

Yes

Same as Above

Limited

Yes

SharePoint 2010 supports rich synchronisation (bidirectional) with MS Outlook clients. Documentum
WebTop 6.5 offers exposure to similar capabilities
however, through the separate purchase of client
Application Connector Licenses.

Limited

Yes

Synchronisation of
Calendars,
Tasks,
Contacts,
Documents
Support for
incoming mail

SharePoint 2010 supports rich synchronisation (bidirectional) with MS Outlook clients. Documentum
WebTop 6.5 offers exposure to similar capabilities
however, through the separate purchase of client
Application Connector Licenses.
11

Feature
Alerts

Versioning

Functionality

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Creating
Alerts

Yes

Yes

SharePoint 2010 allows for users as well as content

owners to configure alerts on content (changes).
Alerts can be configured to notify of any changes
to a document library or list. Alerts may be sent out
to users individually. Alerts can also be sent to
groups if either of the following is true:
The group is an e-mail enabled group
The group is explicitly added to a permission
group in the Site Collection, Site or Document
Library where the alert is required.

Subscribing
to Content
changes

Yes

Yes

Same as above.

Check
In/Out

Yes

Yes

Major
Versions

Yes

Yes

Minor
Versions
(Revisions)

Yes

Yes

Configurabil
ity to create
versions
major only,
major and
minor, none.

Yes

Yes

Delete
minor
versions
while
retaining
the major
(approved)
version

Yes

Yes

Publish /
Unpublish
Versions

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Overwrite a
Version

12

Feature

Support for
Links,
Virtual
(Compound)
Documents

Functionality

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Version
History

Yes

Yes

Version
Labels/Com
ments

Yes

Yes

Documentum allows custom labels to be created

as part of a version, in addition to generated
version/revision numbers. SharePoint does not
have an equivalent feature. Check in comments
however, can be provided on either platform as
part of a version.

Branching

Yes

No

Documentum allows a version (revision) to be

branched. There can be multiple such branches
created in a version tree. This allows independently
working on a specific version without impacting
the current or published version. SharePoint does
not provide such capability.

Restricting
number of
versions

Yes

Yes

Support for
storing most
File Types.

Yes

Yes

Both Documentum and SharePoint support a

wide array of File Types that can be stored

Yes

Limited No

Documentum has a sophisticated and wellevolved framework for creating compound (or
logical sets) of documents called as Virtual
Documents that can be hierarchical in nature as
well. SharePoint 2010 introduces the notion of a
Document Set which is more a physical (rather
than logical) collection of documents that share
common characteristics/behaviour such as
metadata, workflow, versioning, download as a
zip capability, unique Document ID, permissions
and support for content types. The closest
equivalent otherwise, of a Virtual Document in
SharePoint 2010 may be construed as a hierarchy
of folders that in turn contain links to documents
however, sans the ability to collectively version,
download, apply workflows and so on.

13

Feature

Functionality
Link folders
to folders
and in
many-tomany mode

Preserve
referential
integrity in
links on
documents,
cascade
deletes and
so on.

Documentum
Yes

Yes

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

No

No

Documentum can link a folder to multiple folders

(that could be in any hierarchy) and further these
appear on the User Interface as any other normal
or naturally created folder under that folder. There
is no OOB support for such capability in SharePoint
2010.
Links in Documentum can be configured for
referential integrity and cascade deletes as
compared to targets. In other words, documents
can be linked in a way that prevents deleting a
document that is linked to another or conversely
deletes the linked document(s) on deleting the
source. No such capability exists in SharePoint
2010.
At best, SharePoint 2010 introduces the referential
integrity and cascades delete relationships
between two lists (but not document libraries).

Support for
linking to
specific
document
versions
irrespective
of which
version is
"current" or
"published".
Support for
maintaining
links as
copies of
documents
with ability
to reflect
any updates
to originals
on the
copies.
Support for
seamlessly
viewing
linked
folders and
documents
as folders &
documents

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

SharePoint 2010 supports maintaining copies of

documents with the ability to automatically update
any changes to the originals to the copies.

Links in SharePoint appear as distinct icons in their

own right they may almost be considered as
shortcuts or hyperlinks but no further
intelligence beyond that.

14

Feature

Functionality
Support for
creating
shortcuts or
links to
folders or
documents

Documentum
Yes

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Yes

SharePoint 2010 supports a Link Content Type that

allows creation of links (shortcuts) to URLs from
within a document library or folder. The links
however are not bound to the target in that, if the
target is moved or deleted, the links should also
reflect or behave accordingly.
In Documentum, by virtue of the fact that every
object whether folder or document is always
identified by an immutable object ID, links are
essentially object ID references which means that if
an object is deleted, all associated links are also
automatically deleted and if an object is moved,
then the link continues to point to the object.

Support for
logically
grouping
shortcuts
(links) in a
folder
Support for
grouping
documents
to
collectively
apply
metadata,
workflows,
downloads
and versions
Support for
linking
documents
in a masterchild
hierarchy
Support for
multiple
linked
nested
documents

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

In the case of SharePoint 2010, this is implemented

through a Document Set which is a physical (and
not logical) grouping of documents. In the case of
Documentum, these features are available on
logical groupings.

Yes

No

Virtual Documents in Documentum support the

ability for a document to be designated as a master
document that in turn links into child documents.
There is no OOB support for such capability in
SharePoint 2010.

Yes

No

Virtual Documents in Documentum support the

ability to have nested / hierarchical links of
documents/folders. There is no OOB support for
such capability in SharePoint 2010.

15

Feature
Common
Document
Operations

Functionality
Upload
documents
individually
or in bulk
Upload
documents
through
drag-drop
Download
(Export)
documents
in bulk

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Limited

Drag-drop based uploads are provided to OOB on

SharePoint 2010 Document Libraries. On
Documentum Web Top 6.5, this is possible through
purchase of Application Connector licenses.
In SharePoint 2010, bulk download of documents is
only supported for Document Sets (and that too as
a single zip file). Otherwise, a bulk download of
documents in a given folder (or root folder) is
possible through a Copy-Paste operation using the
Explorer View.
Documentum provides bulk Content Export
features to OOB.

Copy
documents
to other
locations

Yes

Limited

Move
documents
to other
locations

Yes

Limited

Documentum allows for bulk copy and paste

through a Clipboard across locations such as
folders and cabinets. SharePoint 2010 can support
this only through Explorer view but not as a native
capability. Otherwise, SharePoint supports a Send
To menu option on a per document basis to copy
or move or copy as a link to a different document
library. SharePoint also supports a Content and
Structure View as a site level administration option
to bulk move or copy content.
Documentum allows for bulk cut and paste (move)
through a Clipboard across locations such as
folders and cabinets, while SharePoint 2010 can
support this only through Explorer view but not as
a native capability. Otherwise, SharePoint
supports a Send To menu option on a per
document basis to copy or move or move with a
link behind to a different document library.

16

Feature

Functionality

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Move
documents
to other
locations
leaving a
link behind

Yes

Associate a
default
document
template

Yes

Yes

Edit
Document
Metadata in
bulk

No

Limited

Delete
documents
individually
and in bulk

Yes

Yes

Checkout
documents
in Bulk

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

Edit
documents
in Bulk

Document
Renditions

Documentum

Ability to
convert
documents
between
common
formats (for
example
Word to PDF
or Word to
HTML)

Limited

Documentum allows for bulk copy as link through

a Clipboard across locations such as folders and
cabinets.
SharePoint 2010 supports a Send To menu option
on a per document basis to copy as a link to a
different document library.
In SharePoint 2010, the default document template
could be, for example, standard MS Office
document templates such as Word, Office and so
on, or a specific document template indicated by a
URL.
In SharePoint 2010 as well as Documentum, there
is no OOB feature to update metadata values in
bulk unless a default value is assigned. However, in
SharePoint 2010, using the datasheet view, it may
be possible to copy-paste column values in bulk
provided all the mandatory columns for multiple
documents have already been entered or included
in the bulk copy-paste operation.

SharePoint 2010 offers Document Conversion

services for common document format
conversions such as XML to HTML, Word to HTML,
InfoPath to HTML. Further, if the Office (2010) Web
Client Access is enabled, Office documents can be
directly viewed in the browser without the need for
the corresponding Office Client application.
SharePoint 2010 also offers Word Automation
Services that allow conversion of the following
source documents to PDF and XPS:

17

Feature

Functionality

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Open XML File Format documents (.docx, .docm,
.dotx, .dotm)
Word 97-2003 documents (.doc, .dot)
Rich Text Format files (.rtf )
Single File Web Pages (.mht, .mhtml)
Word 2003 XML Documents (.xml)
Word XML Document (.xml)
Documentum Content Server provides two formats
for transformation by default namely, PDF and
HTML. All other formats are provided separately by
Documentum Content Transformation Services.
Content Rendition Services can produce PDF
renditions for the following source formats:

Microsoft Word
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Excel
Lotus WordPro
WordPerfect
PostScript

Content Rendition Services can produce HTML

renditions for documents in the following
Microsoft Office formats:
Microsoft Word
Microsoft PowerPoint
Microsoft Excel
Content Rendition Services can produce HTML
renditions for documents in the following
Documentum Media Transformation Services is an
optional product (on top of Documentum Content
Server) that lets one manage rich media such as
jpeg and various audio and video formats.

Ability to
render
documents in
different
formats
Manage links
between the
rendition(s)
and the
original

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

See Above

In Documentum, when a file is versioned, its

renditions, including any thumbnail renditions, are
not carried forward with the new version of the file
automatically. When a new version of the file is
created, the renditions remain with the previous
18

Feature

Functionality

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

version. However, the Documentum
Administrator may automatically cause
generation of new renditions upon check in, and
version a file if it was selected during rendition
creation. When the source document is deleted,
all its renditions are also automatically deleted.
Renditions themselves cannot be checked
out/versioned/updated. All ACLs of the source
object are automatically inherited by renditions.
In SharePoint 2010, a link is preserved between
the source document and the target format.
Different document content types can be
assigned different document conversions. It is
possible to have changes made to the source
document automatically propagate to the target
format this is configurable and optional. It is
possible to directly update and version target
documents independently of the source.

Security

Support for
integrated
Windows
authentication

Support for
authentication
against LDAP
sources

Support for
authentication
against custom
sources like
SQL databases
Support for
Web SSO

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Documentum and SharePoint both essentially

plug into external authentication stores in order
to authenticate users. Both can be
configured/customized to authenticate against
various types of authentication stores such as
Active Directory, LDAP and custom stores.
SharePoint by default is configured to use
Windows Authentication (against AD).
Documentum and SharePoint both essentially
plug into external authentication stores in order
to authenticate users. Both can be
configured/customized to authenticate against
various types of authentication stores such as
Active Directory, LDAP and custom stores.
Documentum and SharePoint both essentially
plug into external authentication stores in order
to authenticate users. Both can be
configured/customized to authenticate against
various types of authentication stores such as
Active Directory, LDAP and custom stores.
Documentum and SharePoint both essentially
plug into external authentication stores in order
to authenticate users. Both can be
configured/customized to authenticate against
various types of authentication stores such as

19

Feature

Functionality

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Active Directory, LDAP and custom stores including
Web SSO providers.

Support for
Claims based
authentication

No

Yes

Control content
access at User
and Group
level

Yes

Yes

Support for
Permission
assignment to
AD Groups

No

Yes

Customisability
of Permission
Levels

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

Permission to
Browse
Document
Metadata
Permission to
Browse
Content
Permission to
Browse
Metadata but
not Content

SharePoint 2010 builds in native support for Claims

based authentication, which means it can plug into
any authentication provider (regardless of
platform/vendor) that supports this protocol.
Documentum may not natively support claims
based authentication yet.
Both platforms have a security model based on
Groups and Users for content access.

SharePoint supports security groups based on

Active Directory groups if using Windows
authentication.

Documentum supports default and customisable

permissions (ACLs) and privileges to users and
groups on content. Documentum implements ACLs
through Permits, Extended Permits, Privileges and
Extended Privileges. SharePoint 2010 also provides
default and customisable permission levels to users
and groups on content. SharePoint has default
Permission Levels such as View, Read, Contribute,
Full Control, and Designer which in turn are
collections of permissions custom permission
levels with different combinations of permissions
are possible.

In SharePoint, it is not possible to assign a

permission that allows just browsing of document
metadata without actually being able to view the
content of the document.

20

Feature

Functionality
Permission to
Relate
Documents/
Objects

Permission to
Version
Documents/Ob
jects but not
Edit
Permission to
Edit
Documents/
Objects

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Yes

NA

Yes

No

Yes

Yes

In Documentum, there is a feature that allows

objects to be related for example linking of folders
and documents there is a specific permission
that allows a user to create such linkages and
without necessarily having the permission to edit
the content. There is no equivalence of such
capability and hence permission in SharePoint.
Documentum allows versioning a document
without necessarily being granted the permission
to edit the document. There is no equivalence of
such a capability and hence permission in
SharePoint.
SharePoint has separate permissions for Add, Edit
and Delete under the Contribute Permission level
custom Permission levels can be created to
allow for any combination of these permissions or
individual permissions.
Similarly Documentum has separate permissions
for creation, modification and deletion of content.

Permission to
Delete
Documents/
Objects

Yes

Yes

SharePoint has separate permissions for Add, Edit

and Delete under the Contribute Permission level
custom Permission levels can be created to
allow for any combination of these permissions or
individual permissions.
Similarly Documentum has separate permissions
for creation, modification and deletion of content.

Permission to
Create Security
Groups

Yes

Yes

Permission to
Create
Metadata
(fields,
document
types)

Yes

Yes

In Documentum, this includes permissions to

create document types and fields. In SharePoint,
this includes permissions to create content types
and site columns.

Permission to
Create
Taxonomy
Container
Structures

Yes

Yes

In Documentum, this includes permissions to

create cabinets, folders and so on, while in
SharePoint, this includes permissions to create
Sites, Sub Sites and Document Libraries.

21

Feature

Functionality

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Permission to
assign
permissions to
groups/users

Yes

Yes

Permission to
Audit content.

Yes

Yes

There is no separate audit-specific permission at

par with other permissions in SharePoint to be
able to Audit content this is more an
administrator privilege. Documentum has explicit
privileges in respect of audits.

Yes

No

Documentum has granular privileges for

configuring, viewing and purging audits.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Granular
permissions to
Users/Groups
to configure,
view and
purge audit
logs
Multiple levels
of permissions
such as at
folders and
documents

Permission
inheritance
across
container
hierarchy
including the
ability to
override at any
level.
Metadata level
security on
documents.

No

Ability to nest
security
groups

Yes

No

No

In Documentum, it is possible for a given user that

is part of a group with an elevated set of
permissions on an object to be explicitly denied
one or more of those permissions. In SharePoint,
there is no means of doing this and the user will
always acquire the union of all permissions he/she
gets through different group memberships.

Documentum supports ACLs at DocBase, Cabinet,

Folder and Document levels. Similarly, SharePoint
supports permissions at Site/Sub Site, Document
Library, Folder and Document Levels.

Both Documentum and SharePoint support

maximum security granularity up to the
Document level. Metadata level security is not
supported OOB.
Documentum allows security groups to be nested
so as to inherit permissions of the parent group(s).
In SharePoint 2010, there is no OOB capability to
nest security groups. At best, it is possible to have
one level of AD group(s) contained in a SharePoint
group.
22

Feature

Functionality
Permissions at
"Everyone"
level.

Navigation Ability to view

and navigate
through
hierarchical
structures
(organisation)
of content

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Documentum has global or default permissions

such as dm_world for example that applies to all
users. Similarly SharePoint 2010 has global or
default permissions for example for all Windows
Authenticated users.
SharePoint 2010 provides content organisation
through Web Applications, Site Collections, Sites,
Document Libraries/Lists and Folders. Navigation
is provided through Global Navigation, Quick
Launch Bar, Tree View, Location (Folder) and
Metadata based Navigation, Summary Links Web
Parts, TOC Web Parts, Site Directory and last but
not least through Managed Metadata models,
Content Types and Tag Clouds.
SharePoint 2010 makes it possible to configure and
display multiple views of content displaying the
desired metadata and apply sorting, grouping and
filters folder or flat views can be displayed.
Views on Document Libraries/Lists can be created
exposing/hiding different columns or metadata (as
desired) and then targeted based on Audiences
through Web Parts such as Content Query Web
Parts or Document Library Web Parts. Granularity
of targeting is possible up to a documents or list
item level.
Users can be given the permission to create
personal views as long as they have at least
contribute rights (or "Manage Personal Views"
permission).
SharePoint allows OOB capability to configure
views in the form of a Spreadsheet (DataSheet)
views, Gantt views and Calendar views.
SharePoint 2010 provides location and metadata
based navigation as part of the Quick Launch
Navigation pane on the left side for a Document
Library. This pane can provide the following
navigational aids, depending on Location Based
Navigation settings chosen:
Navigation by folder trees
Navigation by Content Types as well as by
Metadata
Navigation by Tags and Ratings

23

Feature

Functionality

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Documentum offers a Web Top client as a
browser based User Interface to navigating
content repositories. Content is organized as
Repositories (DocBases), which in turn are
composed of Cabinets, Folders and Sub-Folders.
Content organization is represented typically in a
monolithic view of a file-folder structure.
It is possible to configure views of content in
folders to display metadata of choice and also be
able to sort, filter and page.
It is also possible for users to create personalized
views of content. The ability for content owners
to selectively target content to audiences may
not be possible OOB.
There are no OOB secondary methods of visual
navigability such as metadata driven navigation
and tag clouds.
Documentum provides a Web Development Kit
to enable customization of the User Interface
whereas SharePoint provides designer tool
(SharePoint Designer) based customization
capabilities. The designer is a power-user or
Information Worker oriented tool that does not
really demand core-development capabilities.

Metadata
driven
navigation

Tagging
and
Rating

Folksonomy Ability for end

users to tag
content and
discover/naviga
te through tags

Limited

No

Yes

Yes

SharePoint 2010 provides location and metadata

based navigation as part of the Quick Launch
Navigation pane on the left side for a Document
Library. This pane can provide the following
navigational aids, depending on Location Based
Navigation settings chosen:
Navigation by folder trees
Navigation by Content Types as well as by
Metadata
Navigation by Tags and Ratings
Documentum does not offer meta data or tag
driven navigation capabilities OOB.

SharePoint 2010 offers an OOB Enterprise

Keyword as well as Term Store that allow end
users to tag content with a configurable option
to restrict such capabilities as well. Such
keywords and terms also display as autosuggestions to allow intuitive selection of
24

Feature

Functionality

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

available taxonomy promoting re-use and
consistency in content classification.

Ability to add
comments/no
tes to
documents
and share
notes.

Yes

Yes

In SharePoint 2010, one or more users to a

document similar to Documentum can add
multiple Notes however, this is more like a
collaboration feature and is not a means of
annotating a document like in Documentum.
Notes can be added without the need to check
out a document (even if check out required for
edit option has been configured).
Comments can be added otherwise as part of out
of box or custom text columns created in a
Document Library such comments would
amount to one field per document item.

Taxonomy

Ability to rate
documents
(by content
consumers)

No

Yes

Ability to
annotate
document
content

Yes

No

Ability to
manage and
organize
content in a
hierarchical
system of
folders and
sub-folders.

Yes

Yes

Limited

Yes

Ability to
have a
centralized /
shared
taxonomy
across
content
repositories.

SharePoint 2010 introduces a powerful

folksonomy feature allowing end users (content
consumers) to rate documents (and content) and
then be able to browse/search for documents by
ratings.
SharePoint 2010 does not support Content
annotations OOB. Third Party vendor tools are
typically required to provide for this capability.
Documentum has OOB capabilities for Content
Annotations.

SharePoint 2010 provides the Managed metadata

model, which allows metadata to be reused across
the Enterprise in other words across farms, web
applications and site collections. SharePoint 2010
supports the concept of an Enterprise taxonomy
that allows metadata in document libraries and
lists to be linked into a central Term Store, through
managed metadata columns.

25

Feature

Functionality

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Documentum supports object types that can be
shared across cabinets, folders and documents.
May not be flexible enough to share across
docbases (repositories).

Ability to
import
taxonomies
(csv files for
example)

No

Yes

SharePoint allows creation of Enterprise

Taxonomies called as Term Sets that can be
conveniently imported and generated from a
spreadsheet. SharePoint also allows creation of
content type hubs that can publish content types
across site collections, web applications and
farms essentially allowing for a shared
(reusable) taxonomy.

Inheritance of
content
structures
(document
types, folder
types and so
on)

Yes

Yes

Both Documentum and SharePoint support

inheritance of document or content types.

Intuitive
navigation of
taxonomy
trees to guide
attributing of
documents.

No

Yes

SharePoint 2010 builds a rich taxonomy

visualisation that allows easy and suggestive
attributing of metadata to documents. It is
possible for this taxonomy to be controlled and
restrictive or opened up to user communities to
continuously build and evolve.

Metadata
value lookups

Yes

Yes

Documentum implements metadata value

lookups through Value Assisted Fields and
Registration Tables while SharePoint 2010
implements these through managed metadata
(enterprise level), site column level lookups.

Yes

Yes

Both Documentum and SharePoint allow

mechanisms to enforce the entry of metadata
and also to restrict the domain range of metadata
values.

No

No

Enforce
metadata
values
Defaults for
metadata
Bulk
attributing of
documents

Neither Documentum nor SharePoint offer OOB

features to bulk attribute a collection of
documents with common metadata unless
otherwise default values have been specified.

26

Feature
Content
Deletion

Functionality

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Limited

Yes

Documentum does not really offer an OOB

Recycle Bin feature where deleted documents can
be accessed and then permanently deleted or
restored. This needs to be custom developed.
SharePoint 2010 offers a configurable recycle bin
feature OOB for deleted documents.

Limited

Yes

In general, when a document is deleted in

Documentum, it is only flagged as deleted and
there is no OOB recycle bin feature to view this.
SharePoint offers the ability to soft delete a
document (which means it goes into a recycle
bin) and then permanently delete this either
based on a schedule or on demand.

Limited

Yes

Limited

Yes

Ability to audit
viewing /
downloading
of documents

Yes

Yes

Ability to audit
changes to
documents

Yes

Yes

Ability to audit
deletes of
documents

Yes

Yes

Ability to audit
document
versioning

Yes

Yes

Ability to soft
delete
documents Recycle Bin

Ability to hard
delete
documents

Ability to
restore soft
deleted
documents
(from Recycle
Bin)
Ability to
configure
retention
period in
Recycle Bin

Auditing

Documentum

27

Feature

Functionality

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Declare
documents as
records

Yes

Yes

Declare
unstructured
collaborative
content as
Records

Yes

Yes

Declare
emails as
Records

Yes

Yes

Ability to
audit
creation/upda
te/deletes of
document
types
Ability to
audit changes
to document
permissions

Core
Records
Manage
ment

Documentum

Create,
maintain and
report on
Hierarchical
File Plans

This functionality is available by default in the core

SharePoint 2010 Standard/Enterprise Editions,
whereas Documentum Records Manager and
Documentum Retention Policy Services are
required to avail of this functionality in
Documentum.

SharePoint 2010 allows many types of

collaborative content such as wikis, blogs, and
forums that can also be declared as records apart
from documents.
SharePoint allows the ability to route e-mails from
Outlook/Exchange to document libraries based on
various parameters such as subject line fields.
However, the ability to drag-drop e-mails from
Outlook to SharePoint document libraries is
limited and may require the use of third-party
tools.
Documentum Email Archive Services offers the
ability to route and archive mail messages from
platforms such as MS Outlook.

Put Holds on
Records

Yes

Yes

Holds are a means by which records (documents,

list items and so on) can be prevented from being
edited or deleted. Holds can be applied not only
28

Feature

Functionality

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

within document or record centres but also in

practically any kind of site and in-place. All Held
Items are tracked in what are known as Hold Lists.
Holds can be individually applied at item level
manually or through bulk selection of items in a
document library or list.
Put Holds on
Non-Records

Yes

Yes

Carry out
eDiscovery and
move records to
Hold

Route and
Organize
documents into
Record File
Plans based on
meta data
Ability to
preserve
complete audit
data of a
document
Apply
retention/dispo
sition policies to
Documents and
Records

SharePoint 2010 makes it possible to put holds on

items not declared as records.
It is also possible to do an eDiscovery Search for
items based on search terms within a Site
Collection as a whole or scoped to specific sites
within the site collection and then apply Holds in
bulk on items retrieved as part of Search results.
Again, this method of applying Holds offers two
options the option of applying in-place holds or
copying the items (identified for Holds) over to a
different Records Centre and adding the same to a
Holds List(s) on the target.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Retention policies are part of SharePoint 2010s

Information Management Policy and can be
configured at content type, document library or
folder level. Retention policies can comprise
multiple retention stages. Retention policies can
be applied differently for documents that have
been declared as records and for those that have
not.
A summary of key Retention actions is as follows:
Move to a Recycle Bin
Permanently delete
Transfer to another location
Trigger a workflow

29

Feature

Functionality

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Skip to the next (retention) stage
Declare as record
Delete previous drafts
Delete all previous actions
It is also possible to optionally specify a recurrence
of Retention actions for a given stage till the next
stage is triggered.

Ability to have
multiple
retention
stages on
Documents
and Records

Yes

Yes

In SharePoint 2010, a retention stage allows

defining an event that will trigger an action. The
event can be based on a property of the
document or it could be driven by a custom
retention formula that is installed on the server. An
example of the former is to subject a document to
an action, once its contract date exceeds 3 years.
For example, the action could be for to transfer the
document to a Record Centre by means of Copy,
Move or Move with Link options or to declare the
document as an in-place Record.
A separate retention stage can further specify how
long a document should, for example, be
preserved as a Record before it is either destroyed
automatically or trigger a disposition workflow
that will allow a Records Manager to manually
intervene and decide whether to continue to
retain the document or delete it. We could also
have retention stages where, for example, for the
first 3 years, trigger an approval workflow at a
recurrence of 1 year, 2 years beyond that delete
any versions created on the document at a
monthly frequency for a period of 1 year, after
which declare the document as a Record by
moving to a Record Centre preserving it for two
years, then moved off to a third location for a year
and finally delete the document permanently.
Retention events could be date based (like date
created, modified, date when document was
declared a record or custom formulas based on
metadata).

Ability to
define
Retention
Policy
templates and
apply to

Yes

Yes

Both Documentum and SharePoint allow creation

of retention policies around document types /
content types.

30

Feature

Functionality

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Document
Types and
Folders
Yes

Ability to
define In-place
Records and
Holds

Yes

Yes

It is possible in SharePoint 2010 to declare a

Document as a Record at its existing location
which may be in any document library in any site,
be it a Document Centre or a Collaboration site and
so on.

Central and
Distributed
Records
Management

Yes

Yes

In SharePoint 2010, it is possible to have multiple

Records Centres in a web application depending
on the nature and volume of records content.

Yes

Yes

Physical
Records
Management

Yes

Limited

In case of Documentum, feature is provided

through Documentum Physical Records Services. In
SharePoint, there is limited (pseudo) support for
physical records tracking through Information
Management Policy attributes such as barcodes,
expiration, auditing and labels and workflows.
Physical tracking and management of such records
in conjunction with logical records representing
them on SharePoint must happen manually or by
other means.

Ability to
protect
documents
from being
locally copied,
printed,
mailed, edited,
and so on.

Yes

Yes

Both Documentum and SharePoint require a

separate Rights Management service or add-on to
provide this feature. In case of Documentum, this
is the Documentum Information Rights
Management Services while in the case of
SharePoint; it is the Active Directory Rights
Management Services.

Management
of compound
records

Informatio
n Rights
Managem
ent

Both Documentum and SharePoint allow creation

of retention policies on folders.

Ability to apply
retention
policies to
Folders in a File
Plan

Yes

In SharePoint, a retention policy applied at a

Content Type level can be overridden at document
library or folder levels if required.

In SharePoint 2010, it is possible to have Document

Sets that in turn can be subject to Information
Management Policies as well as Retention Policies.

31

Feature

Functionality

In-built
Support for
Digital
Signatures

Managing
Document
Life Cycles

Documentum

Yes

Yes

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Limited

Limited

In SharePoint, digital signatures implementation is

inherently through client application functionality
(for example, MS Word) rather than a SharePoint
server side feature. Documentum on the other
hand provides a more formal and rigorous
implementation of digital signatures that are
controlled on the server for this; a Documentum
Trusted Content Services license is required.
Documentum has a well-defined notion of a
Document Lifecycle distinct from and a super
layer over document workflows. The Lifecycle
essentially promotes tracks and maintains the
complete state transition of a document from the
time it is create till the time it is disposed or
archived this may include several user-initiated as
well as automated work steps applied on the
document.
In SharePoint, this would be loosely achieved
through a combination of state machine workflows,
event handlers and retention policy/stages but not
as a formal document-centric feature.

Document Support for

Workflows simple single
step workflows
for review and
approval.
Ability to
associate
workflows with
Document
Types
Ability to
obtain
collective
review
feedback on a
document
from multiple
reviewers.

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

OOB support from both platforms

32

Feature

Functionality
Ability to
trigger a
document
workflow
manually or
automatically
(for example
upon upload or
edit).
Support for
configuring
multi-step
workflows
without need
for coding
Support for
recording and
displaying
Workflow
History
Support for
assigning,
viewing tasks
and alerting
users on tasks
Support for
common
workflow
actions such as
sending e-mail
notifications,
copying,
moving
documents,
conditional
branching and
looping of
actions, and so
on.
Support for
automatic
escalation and

Documentum

Yes

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

No

While Documentum workflow allows the ability to

configure automatic rule based delegations and
escalations as well as manual delegations without

33

Feature

Functionality

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

code. SharePoint 2010 requires this ability to be
coded (using a tool like Visual Studio) for example,
developing a Modification Form with escalation
parameters that can be included in the workflow
configuration.

delegation
(without
coding)

Manual configurations for escalation by business

users are not supported OOB by either product.

Support for
visually
composing
state machine
workflows
(without
developer
intervention)

Yes

No

Yes

No

Automatically
trigger
workflows from
office clients
without
configurations

No

Yes

Support for
Work Queues
and task
prioritisations

Yes

No

OOB
configurability
support for
Exceptional
conditions
arising out of
workflows,
including
Suspend and
Resume
capability.

Documentum Business Process Manager allows

Information Workers to compose and configure
reusable state machine workflows visually without
the need to write code whereas SharePoint
requires this to be done through Visual Studio,
which is more a developer, oriented tool. While
SharePoint Designer 2010 is more limited in
capability, it does allow for reusable workflows
including site level workflows.

34

Feature

Storage

Programm
-ability

Functionality

Support for file

system storage
of documents
(separate from
metadata)

Documentum

Yes

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Yes

Support for
storage of
millions to tens
of millions of
documents,
Terabytes of
data

Yes

Yes

Backup and
Restore

Yes

Yes

Support for a
full-fledged
platform
object model /
API that can be
leveraged for
document
management
features.

Yes

Yes

Documentum architecture is inherently based on

storage of content metadata in a database and the
actual content on file storage. While SharePoint
2010 is natively configured to store metadata and
content in the database, it can now be configured
(in conjunction) with SQL Server 2008 to relegate
content storage to Remote Blob Storage (RBS).
This leverages the OOB FileStream provider
feature of SQL Server 2008 however in order for
blob content to be stored on NAS, a third party
storage provider needs to be deployed and for
this, SQL Server 2008 R2 Enterprise Edition is
required. It is possible to move content from
document library (content database) storage to
RBS at a later point of time; however the converse
is not true.
SharePoint 2010 like Documentum can now scale
up to store huge volumes of content, running into
terabytes. Upto 30 million documents per
document library can be supported in SharePoint
2010 without significant performance
degradation depending on average document
size. Up to 5000 items per document library view
can be supported without significant performance
degradation.
SharePoint supports native backup utilities
through its Administration interface as also
through powershell/ stsadm administration
interface. Granularity of backup can be fairly deep
up to an individual list or document library level.
Native SQL Server based backup utilities can also
be leveraged.
Documentum also supports native backup/restore
utilities.
Documentum DFC (Documentum Foundation
Classes) and DFS (Documentum Foundation
Services) (6.0 onwards) provide API as well as web
services for client applications to consume and
operate against Documentum.
Similarly SharePoint 2010 offers client and server
side API, web services, REST full services, WebDav,
FPRPC and JSOM (JavaScript Object Model) based
interfaces for client applications to interface with.
SharePoint also offers limited WSRP and CMIS
support.
35

Feature

Functionality
Support for
native platform
web services
that can be
leveraged by
client
applications to
implement
document
management
features.
Support for
WebDAV
protocol for
document
management
operations

Search

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Yes

Yes

Yes

Yes

SharePoint natively supports WebDAV for features

such being able to open a document library in a
Windows Explorer view and uploading, moving,
deleting content.
Documentum supports WebDAV through WebDAV
Services included as part of Content Server and
this allows desktop applications such as Adobe
Photoshop to directly interface with Documentum.

Support for FPRPC protocol

for document
management
operations

NA

Yes

Support for Full

Text and
keyword
(property)
indexing

Yes

Yes

Support for Full

Text Search of
common and
specific
document
formats.

Limited

Limited

Support for
search on
metadata
(taxonomy)

Yes

Yes

Specific to SharePoint that allows WYSIWYGauthoring tools such as SharePoint Designer to

integrate with SharePoint and create/deploy
artefacts.

Out of box or free downloadable iFilters in

SharePoint for common MS Office formats, XML,
text files as well as for PDFs and Zip files. Third
party iFilters need to be procured for specific or
specialized document / image formats for
example engineering/autocad drawings.
Documentum also full text search capabilities for

36

Feature

Functionality

Documentum

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Ability to
perform
Boolean
searches

Yes

Yes

SharePoint 2010 now supports a query syntax that

can combine full text and property query.

Support for
wild card
search

Limited

Limited

SharePoint 2010 supports wild card searches on

properties and on people.

Ability to
search on
document
types

Yes

Yes

Ability to sort
on Search
results

Yes

Yes

Modulating
size of search
results

Yes

Yes

Ability to page
search results

Yes

Yes

Limited

Yes

Ability to save
search results

Yes

Limited

Ability to
refine search
results based
on facets

No

Yes

Ability to
search based
on social
parameters tags and
ratings

No

Yes

Ability to
customize look
and feel of
search results
without code

SharePoint 2010 Search can OOB sort on

parameters like timestamp (for content) but FAST
Search can sort on many more parameters
including properties (refinements).

SharePoint 2010 offers auto-suggest (type ahead)

capability on search queries as well as ability to
subscribe to search query results (when changed)
but no OOB feature to save search queries on a
personalized basis for purpose of recall.

37

Feature

Functionality

Documentum

Ability to
subscribe to
search results

Limited

Yes

Ability to
deliver search
results as RSS
feeds

No

Yes

Support for
Yes
search on
various content
repositories
natively, third
party
connectors or
federation.

Support for
exposing
search services
through web
services to
consumers

Yes

SharePoint 2010 Comments (Where relevant or required)

Yes

Yes

Documentum may require a separate Web

Publisher add-on to deliver RSS kind of
capabilities.
SharePoint 2010 supports search on file shares,
Exchange folders OOB but requires specific Search
connectors (licensed separately) for other content
sources such as Documentum, Lotus Notes these
connectors could be provided by Microsoft, or the
content source vendor or a third party vendor.
Also, the search connector architecture is
extensible so that custom search connectors can
be developed as well, if desired. SharePoint 2010
can also support federated search with other
search appliances.
Documentum similarly supports native, third party
and federated search capabilities.

Documentum 6.0 onwards introduces

Documentum Foundation Services (DFS) that
expose an SOA framework for consumers of
Documentum features such as content, search and
workflow as well as an SDK to build custom
consumer services.
SharePoint 2010 similarly exposes web services for
consumption by client applications, server side API
and client side API. Client-side API also includes
support for JSOM (JavaScript Object Model). Web
Services include support for SOAP as well as REST.

Ability to
Yes
directly check
out a
document from
search results

No

38

Conclusion
The comparison provided by the white paper, between Documentum and SharePoint 2010 could be helpful
in providing guidance to enterprises, in the following scenarios:
n

Greenfield implementation of Document and Records Management where neither of the products have
been implemented and there is an opportunity to implement one of them.

Either one of the products is already implemented in the organization and there is a need to decide
whether migrating to the other product is a cost-effective option from the perspective of rationalization
and reduction in ECM platform footprint.

Evaluate whether both products will uniquely and best address specific problem spaces for an enterprise
and therefore justifies implementing both platforms in an environment of co-existence.

The best way to take advantage of the feature comparison matrix provided in deciding to choose either
product (or in some cases both products) is to assign a priority or weight to each of the features in terms of
applicability and criticality as compared to a specific enterprises needs and then come up with a raw score
for each product. If some features may not be relevant or critical at all, exclude such features from the
evaluation.
This should be followed by establishing a cut-off or threshold that either product must at a minimum
score to even qualify for consideration. If one of the products clearly does not meet these minimal
qualifications, it is most likely discarded from consideration. For critical or nice-to-have features that are not
met by one or the other product, evaluate the options for implementing a third-party add-on or custom
development of such features and incorporate into the evaluation score card. Finally factor in infrastructure,
license, maintenance and support costs to arrive at a final ROI evaluation.

39

List of Abbreviations
Abbreviation/ Acronym

Expansion

ACL

Access Control List

AD

Active Directory

API

Application Programming Interface

CIO

Chief Information Officer

CMIS

Content Management Interoperability Specification

DFS

Documentum Foundation Services

ECM

Enterprise Content Management

FPRPC

Front Page Remote Procedural Call

JSOM

JavaScript Object Model

LDAP

Lightweight Directory Access Protocol

NAS

Network Access Storage

OOB

Out of Box

RBS

Remote Blob Storage

REST

Representational State Transfer

ROI

Return on Investment

SDK

Software Development Kit

SOA

Service Oriented Architecture

SSO

Single Sign-on

TCO

Total Cost of Ownership

WSRP

Web Services for Remote Portlets

WYSIWYG

What You See Is What You Get

40

Contact
For more information about TCS consulting services, contact
microsoft.practice@tcs.com

Subscribe to TCS White Papers

TCS.com RSS: http://www.tcs.com/rss_feeds/Pages/feed.aspx?f=w
Feedburner: http://feeds2.feedburner.com/tcswhitepapers

About Tata Consultancy Services (TCS)

Tata Consultancy Services is an IT services, consulting and business solutions organization that
delivers real results to global business, ensuring a level of certainty no other firm can match. TCS
offers a consulting-led, integrated portfolio of IT and IT-enabled infrastructure, engineering and
assurance services. This is delivered through its unique Global Network Delivery ModelTM,
recognized as the benchmark of excellence in software development. A part of the Tata Group,
Indias largest industrial conglomerate, TCS has a global footprint and is listed on the National
Stock Exchange and Bombay Stock Exchange in India.

IT Services
Business Solutions
Outsourcing
All content / information present here is the exclusive property of Tata Consultancy Services Limited (TCS). The content / information contained here is
correct at the time of publishing. No material from here may be copied, modified, reproduced, republished, uploaded, transmitted, posted or distributed in
any form without prior written permission from TCS. Unauthorized use of the content / information appearing here may violate copyright, trademark and
other applicable laws, and could result in criminal or civil penalties. Copyright 2011 Tata Consultancy Services Limited

TCS Design Services I M I 11 I 11

For more information, visit us at www.tcs.com