AIIM 2004: Looking Up

摘要

In stark contrast to last year's show, when economic concerns (and terrible weather) kept people away, this year's AIIM On Demand Conference and Expo, held in New York City March 8-10, featured crowded hallways and standing room-only attendance at many vendor presentations. According to the show's organizers, despite morning snow flurries a record 10,000 attendees passed through the turnstiles on the first day, and the show attracted almost 34,000 registered attendees (up more than 6,000 from last year). Yet it's hard to say whether these crowds were merely curious or if they came to buy. It's also unclear if the show's many Enterprise Content Management (ECM) exhibitors offered those customers who did have cash in pocket a clear and compelling reason to spend it. Industry analysts at Outsell don't think that vendors have a clear message for potential customers yet. "Clearly, AIIM and the vendors who exhibit there are still creating this 'space' of enterprise content management- and the positioning and the message have not yet fallen into place," an Outsell AIIM briefing states. However, Allen Weintraub, a former Gartner analyst who is now senior director of business solutions at ECM vendor Hummingbird, sees a business with a lot of potential, with plenty of room for growth. "I've been in this space for over 10 years and it hasn't yet matured to where it should be," Weintraub says.