Cynthia Theriault Essay -- Design and Technology

Cynthia TheriaultDocumentum, Inc.Documentum, a Silicon Valley startup, is the first to market with anenterprise-scale document management solution built from standardrelational database technologies in combination with object-orientedmethodologies. The packet enables people to collaboratively create,manage, deliver, and collect the content that drives businessoperations. The Company is at the crossroads of marketing strategies. Jeff Miller, the new CEO of Documentation, is faced with the questionwhether to abridge an innovative, but unproven, market selectionprocess presented by Geoffrey Moore, a well-known Silicon Valleymarketing pundit.Boeing (aerospace market) and Syntex (pharmaceutical market) were thefirst two customers of Documentum. During a prospect brush withBoeing, Documentum realized that their new fruit did not havereference material for the customer. Additionally, during themeeting, presenters spoke of the products technical architectureinstead of telling Boeing wha t the product would do for theircompany. Documentum was not meeting the customers expectationsbecause they were not communicating on the customers level. During ameeting with Syntex, Documentum realized that their core software wasnot universal. The core technology had to be customized for eachindustry. It was a good product, which validated their concept thatcompanies needed an easy and accurate way to share and archivedocuments.In t...