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MARKET NOTEAlfresco: Driving Transformation with Integrated Content,Process, and Governance SolutionsHolly MuscolinoTerry FrazierEXECUTIVE SNAPSHOTFIGURE 1Executive Snapshot: Alfresco — Driving Transformation with Integrated Content,Process, and Governance SolutionsSource: IDC, 2017March 2017, IDC #US42341017
IN THIS MARKET NOTEAlfresco Software invited partners, customers, and industry analysts to two events in New York City onFebruary 7 and 8, 2017, to provide an update on the company's activities and present its strategygoing forward. On February 28, 2017, Alfresco launched the Alfresco Digital Business Platform — byrebranding and repackaging its core offerings — and the Application Development Framework (ADF),which provides new tools to help developers build targeted horizontal and vertical business solutions.Key Themes — Digital Flow and New Ways of ThinkingJohn Newton, Alfresco's founder and CTO, opened the New York City events with a discussion of"digital flow," defined as "an evolution toward optimized productivity in which people, processes, andinformation are connected quickly, seamlessly, intuitively, and effortlessly with digital technology."Customer-centric design and the integration of process and content were the unifying themes over thetwo days of presentations.Newton and his colleagues also discussed the "three forces" of digital flow: Design thinking. Start with the customer's desired outcome. Platform thinking. Position capabilities as a platform that can scale and deliver new solutionsto customers. Open thinking. Leverage open source technology and open standards.Fiscal Year 2017 HighlightsAlfresco continued to gain a foothold in large enterprise accounts in 2016, with an increasing numberof deals exceeding an annual run rate of 100,000. The company has also garnered customer loyalty,with a renewal rate over 90%. Alfresco has won Omega Management Group's NorthFace ScoreBoardAward for excellence in customer satisfaction and loyalty for three consecutive years.Product milestones included the releases of Alfresco One 5.1, Alfresco Activiti 1.5/1.6, and AlfrescoRecords Management (RM) 2.4/2.5. Alfresco also added to its leadership team. Bernadette Nixon hasassumed the role of chief revenue officer and Merten Slominski of vice president, EMEA EnterpriseSales.Alfresco continues to develop a number of strategic partnerships, including partnerships with Ephesoftand Amazon Web Services (AWS). Ephesoft provides enterprise capture, including automatic contentclassification. Though Alfresco solutions can run on any cloud platform, AWS is a priority for thecompany, which is part of the AWS partner network. Alfresco offers AWS-optimized deployment,including Alfresco Quick Start, which helps reduce the time and effort of deploying Alfresco. Alfresco isalso piloting managed services hosted on AWS.Alfresco Digital Business Platform and ApplicationDevelopment FrameworkAt the end of February, Alfresco launched the Alfresco Digital Business Platform and the ApplicationDevelopment Framework (see Figure 2). 2017 IDC#US423410172
FIGURE 2Alfresco Digital Business PlatformSource: Alfresco, 2017The Alfresco Digital Business Platform brings together the company's three core solutions, along withenhancements to each, offering integrated content, process, and governance services and access viaopen APIs and open standards: Alfresco Process Services (formerly Alfresco Activiti). Enhancements include an applicationmanager and dashboard, a new mobile app, and enhanced security and single sign-on (SSO)capabilities. Alfresco Content Services (formerly Alfresco One). Enhancements include enhanced searchservices and data visualization and enhanced security and SSO capabilities. The companyalso released a new version of the Alfresco Salesforce Connector, which includes support forSalesforce Lightning Experience, to allow Alfresco users and partners to seamlessly embedAlfresco functionality into a Salesforce app. A new Desktop Sync for Windows capability is thefirst in a series of products the company says is designed to not merely share files but ensurethe full capability of process and content services is available both online and offline, across allthe devices today's business user requires. Alfresco Governance Services (formerly Alfresco Records Management). This underlies bothProcess Services and Content Services.Process, content, and governance services are exposed via open RESTful APIs to enableorganizations to build collaboration, case management, and compliance solutions. Alfresco also 2017 IDC#US423410173
announced a number of enhancements to improve usability and access across mobile devices. BothContent and Process Services now have dedicated apps available for common mobile platforms.Foundational layers will provide intelligence and analytics facilities and support for on-premise, cloud,and hybrid implementations.Alfresco's Application Development Framework is intended to help developers build focused digitalbusiness solutions (e.g., patient admissions, contract approval, claims processing). The frameworkprovides reusable components to reduce time from development to deployment. (Alfresco calls this"time to value.")Alfresco ADF is built on Angular JS and includes a number of common components out of the box,including user log-in, user data, data tables, forms, task list, case list, document list, preview, andsearch. Alfresco users and partners can assemble and arrange these components using what Alfrescoterms "soft wiring" to create processes and user experiences customized for a variety of business usecases.All user interface (UI) components are based on Google Material Design, providing a consistent andresponsive user experience across all tasks as well as presenting UI layouts and tools that are alreadyfamiliar to many users.IDC'S POINT OF VIEWIDC agrees with Alfresco's perspective that the transformation of content-centric workflows should be acornerstone of an organization's overall digital transformation strategy and that content managementand business process management are core technologies in this regard. In fact, a process engine and"content in motion" are at the heart of automated content-centric workflows; so we believe that Alfrescois on track in further integrating these technologies.On the other hand, it is also critical to enable partners and customers to create bespoke, purpose-builtsolutions to meet specific business needs; so we also believe that Alfresco's strategy of offeringtechnologies as services in the context of a platform based on open source software and open APIspositions the company well for meeting this requirement.The use of widely adopted user interface tools and support for low-code application development in theAlfresco ADF is also critical to reducing the user anxiety that is often associated with implementingnew ECM solutions and reducing the barriers to widespread adoption.Enhanced integration with widely used business platforms such as Salesforce, and increasedfunctionality and synchronization between desktop and mobile devices, also positions the companywell as a provider of flexible solutions for rapidly changing enterprise needs.Though ECM revenue from cloud offerings is relatively small today, IDC believes that public clouddeployment will grow strongly over the next five years. This will be driven, in part, by increasingmainstream adoption of cloud solutions and the mitigation of security concerns, but also by themigration of enterprise applications to the cloud — many of which will need to integrate with ECMand/or BPM solutions. Once again, the cloud-first architecture of Alfresco positions it well. 2017 IDC#US423410174
Finally, the ongoing consolidation of on-premise legacy systems presents a growing opportunity forAlfresco (as well as other newer entrants) as it forces organizations to reevaluate and modernizeexisting ECM and BPM deployments.LEARN MORERelated Research How to Achieve Digital Flow in the Enterprise, Alfresco, 2016 Market Analysis Perspective: Worldwide Content Management Software, 2016 (IDC#US41813816, September 2016) Worldwide Content Management Software Forecast, 2016–2020 (IDC #US40811616, August2016) Worldwide Content Management Software Market Shares, 2015: Uneven Performance (IDC#US40811416, July 2016)SynopsisThis IDC Market Note presents highlights of Alfresco's recent events for partners, customers, andindustry analysts held on February 7 and 8, 2017, in New York City. It also reviews Alfresco's recentproduct announcements and provides IDC's perspective. 2017 IDC#US423410175
About IDCInternational Data Corporation (IDC) is the premier global provider of market intelligence, advisoryservices, and events for the information technology, telecommunications and consumer technologymarkets. IDC helps IT professionals, business executives, and the investment community make factbased decisions on technology purchases and business strategy. More than 1,100 IDC analystsprovide global, regional, and local expertise on technology and industry opportunities and trends inover 110 countries worldwide. For 50 years, IDC has provided strategic insights to help our clientsachieve their key business objectives. IDC is a subsidiary of IDG, the world's leading technologymedia, research, and events company.Global Headquarters5 Speen StreetFramingham, MA 01701USA508.872.8200Twitter: @IDCidc-community.comwww.idc.comCopyright NoticeThis IDC research document was published as part of an IDC continuous intelligence service, providing writtenresearch, analyst interactions, telebriefings, and conferences. Visit www.idc.com to learn more about IDCsubscription and consulting services. To view a list of IDC offices worldwide, visit www.idc.com/offices. Pleasecontact the IDC Hotline at 800.343.4952, ext. 7988 (or 1.508.988.7988) or sales@idc.com for information onapplying the price of this document toward the purchase of an IDC service or for information on additional copiesor web rights.Copyright 2017 IDC. Reproduction is forbidden unless authorized. All rights reserved.
Open thinking.Leverage open source technology and open standards. Fiscal Year 2017 Highlights Alfresco continuedto gain a foothold in large enterprise accounts in 2016, with an increasing number of deals exceeding an annual run rate of 100,000. The company has also garnered customer loyalty, with a renewal rate over 90%.
