Autonomy and Xerox in Tie Up
January 20, 2009
Big news in the world of content processing and search: Xerox and Autonomy have struck a deal. According to this news story on Forbes.com “Xerox DocuShare Enters into OEM Agreement with Autonomy”, “The new license will allow Xerox to integrate Autonomy’s Intelligent Data Operating Layer (IDOL) technology into its DocuShare enterprise content management (ECM) platform.” Docushare is a content management system. The IDOL server will be integrated into the existing Docushare accounts worldwide.
David Smith, Xerox VP, said:
Content management technologies and services that help organizations save money, better manage content and improve efficiencies are essential in today’s business climate… The integration of Autonomy’s IDOL Server takes DocuShare’s ability to meet the needs of our global customer base to the next level.
Information about Docushare is here. Information about Autonomy IDOL is here. The content management sector has been hit by Microsoft’s SharePoint push. Other CMS vendors have beefed up their search and content processing services to withstand the “good enough” system available at competitive rates from Microsoft and its resellers. For example, Interwoven has a deal with Vivisimo.
The challenge for Xerox will be to hold on to its existing customers. The opportunity for Autonomy is to make upsells for other Autonomy functionality. If this deal works, perhaps Xerox will step forward and acquire Autonomy. The vendor has more than 16,000 licensees and a number of lucrative deals. Xerox has dabbled in search and content processing for many years. In fact, Microsoft licensed some of the Xerox search and content processing technology as part of Microsoft’s purchase of Powerset in 2008.
My question is, “What does Xerox know about Xerox PARC technology that prevents Xerox from using its own technology in the Docushare product?” This begs another question, “Does Microsoft know that Xerox has sidestepped Xerox PARC technology for the Autonomy IDOL system?”
Autonomy has a strong business in litigation support. I wonder if Xerox Litigation Services will avail itself of the Autonomy technology to address some of the shortcomings in the Xerox eDiscovery offerings. I don’t have any color for the financial terms of the deal. If I get some substantive information, I will post it.
Stephen Arnold, January 20, 2009
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3 Responses to “Autonomy and Xerox in Tie Up”
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You asked “What does Xerox know about Xerox PARC technology that prevents Xerox from using its own technology in the Docushare product?”
My guess is that the relevant IP with functionality to match IDOL has been sold off or spun out. InXight, acquired by Business Objects /SAP, was a spin out from PARC; much of the text processing IP from Xerox’ European R&D centre in Grenoble was bought by Temis.
I was wondering if you could elaborate on the shortcomings of Xerox Litigation services. I have started to become more involved with eDiscovery at my firm and enjoy gaining knowledge from different sources.
Thanks
Scott,
I sell an eDiscovery report. I don’t mix my free and for fee information. The key point is that Xerox is not using its own technology in some of its information centric products. I find that most illuminating. Price quotes are available at the address shown on my About page to this Web log.
Stephen Arnold, January 26, 2009