How modernising your enterprise content management platform unlocks AI readiness, operational excellence, and measurable ROI
Are Legacy Content Platforms Holding Your Business Back?
If you’re running an older version of OpenText Documentum, you’re not alone. Many organisations find themselves in a familiar position: their content management platform still works, but it’s increasingly clear they’re falling behind.
The symptoms are recognisable. End users are frustrated with outdated interfaces and metadata quality issues. IT teams struggle with the mounting effort required to keep legacy systems running. Operations suffer from inefficiencies, errors, and manual interventions that divert resources from innovation. And perhaps most critically, you’re missing opportunities to embrace transformative technologies like Generative AI that could fundamentally change your business performance.
The question isn’t whether your Documentum platform is broken. It’s whether it’s capable of delivering what your business needs today, and tomorrow.
The Modernisation Imperative: Three Critical Drivers
Through conversations with enterprise clients across South Africa and beyond, we’ve identified three universal challenges that make Documentum modernisation not just beneficial, but essential:
- Modernise: Reduce Complexity, Increase Capability
Legacy Documentum environments often carry years of customisations built to address gaps in older versions. Today’s platform offers advanced, out-of-the-box functionality that can replace much of this custom code, dramatically reducing maintenance costs and complexity.
Modern Documentum includes rules-based retention and records management that automates compliance, standardised functionality that eliminates the need for bespoke development, and simplified administration across containerised, cloud-ready architectures.
- Transform: Unlock Innovation and AI Readiness
Generative AI is poised to unleash the next wave of productivity. According to McKinsey research, AI tools can substantially streamline content generation, classification, editing, summarisation, and question-answering. But the value you extract from AI depends entirely on the quality and accessibility of your content.
Documentum modernisation positions you to deliver innovation aligned with new business requirements, gain greater insights through AI-powered content analytics, use cloud technologies for operational efficiency, and prepare your content repository for AI integration with OpenText Content Aviator and Knowledge Discovery.
- Accelerate: Give Users What They Need, Embed Content Everywhere
Your content management platform should accelerate business outcomes, not slow them down. Modern Documentum delivers contemporary, responsive user interfaces (Documentum Smart View) that users actually enjoy, out-of-the-box integrations with critical business applications (Microsoft 365, SAP, Salesforce), mobile access with biometric authentication for secure productivity anywhere, and centralised content management that reduces application sprawl.
Introducing “One Documentum”: A Unified Vision for Enterprise Content
OpenText has consolidated the Documentum ecosystem into a single, strategic platform vision called “One Documentum.” This approach delivers unified client and admin experiences with consistent interfaces across all deployment models, simplified deployment through Helm charts and click deployment for containerised environments, clear roadmaps with quarterly innovation releases and transparent certification matrices, and bundled licensing through the new X-Plans model.
The X-Plans Approach: Right-Sized Solutions for Common Use Cases
Rather than forcing organisations to navigate dozens of individual product SKUs, OpenText now offers three bundled plans that address the most common enterprise content management scenarios:
X1: Boost Compliant Productivity
The foundational tier includes a best-in-class content services platform with ready-to-use business processes, Microsoft Teams integration, intelligent viewing and automated security/governance, and the Documentum Smart View modern interface.
Ideal for: Organisations seeking to modernise core content management with contemporary user experiences and embedded compliance.
X2: Achieve Cross-Functional Operational Excellence
Everything in X1, plus OpenText InfoArchive for secure, compliant archiving, Trusted Content Services for specialised content types, certified records management capabilities, and ready-to-use integrations for SAP S/4HANA and Salesforce (Cloud only).
Ideal for: Enterprises requiring deep business process integration, regulatory compliance, and information lifecycle management.
X3: Bridge Enterprise Boundaries
Everything in X2, plus Core Capture with Intelligent Filing for automated content ingestion, Core Share for seamless, secure content exchange with external parties, and Core Signature Service to digitise business transactions.
Ideal for: Organisations that need to extend content management beyond internal boundaries to customers, partners, and suppliers.
This tiered approach simplifies licensing, reduces administrative overhead, and provides a clear upgrade path as your requirements evolve.
Every Version You Miss Is Value You Lose
OpenText Documentum has evolved dramatically over the past decade. Each release has introduced capabilities designed to improve performance, strengthen security, enhance user experience, and prepare organisations for emerging technologies.
From native 64-bit architecture and Kubernetes support to AI-driven workflow insights and mobile biometrics, the cumulative value of these innovations is substantial. Staying on legacy versions isn’t just about missing new features. It’s about performance degradation (older versions lack optimisations for modern infrastructure), security vulnerabilities (legacy systems miss critical hardening and encryption improvements), integration limitations (modern business applications expect contemporary APIs and authentication methods), and talent challenges (skilled professionals expect to work with current technology).
Modernising isn’t about catching up. It’s about unlocking what’s next.
Optimise with AI-Powered Intelligence
Modern Documentum integrates seamlessly with OpenText Content Aviator, bringing Generative AI capabilities directly into your content workflows. It extracts key data points and presents pre-defined insights at every workflow step, enables reviewers to ask questions and receive immediate, context-aware responses, automatically generates summaries, reports, and draft communications, and maintains robust security standards across all AI operations.
This isn’t AI as a future promise. It’s AI working in your Documentum environment today.
Beyond the Platform: What Else Modernisation Unlocks
Documentum modernisation extends well beyond the core repository:
Mobile Access
Your team gets full-featured mobile apps for iOS and Android – offline access, document scanning, biometric authentication, seamless synchronisation with the central repository. Everything they need to stay productive from anywhere.
External Collaboration
Securely share content with customers, suppliers, and partners through Core Share. Create shareable links with optional passwords and expiration dates. External parties don’t need Documentum accounts, yet all interactions remain auditable and controlled.
Cloud Sandbox
For organisations requiring customisation, the Cloud Sandbox provides a safe, isolated environment for development and testing. Experiment with extensions, validate configurations, and promote changes to production with confidence—all fully managed by OpenText.
Industry Solutions
Accelerate deployment with pre-configured solutions for regulated industries. Life Sciences gets Quality and Manufacturing, Regulatory, and eTMF modules. Engineering gets asset management, project control, and vendor management.
Native Information Archive
InfoArchive enables policy-driven archiving of business-complete data, consolidating information from legacy systems into a unified, searchable archive. Reduce primary storage costs, accelerate application performance, and maintain legal defensibility.
Planning Your Modernisation Journey
Successful Documentum modernisation requires thoughtful planning across twelve key dimensions:
- current environment assessment (inventory, usage analysis, identification of EOL components),
- clear objectives (alignment with business goals, prioritised outcomes), technology evaluation (version selection, deployment model),
- data management (cleanup, integrity verification, migration tools),
- customisation review (identify opportunities to replace custom code with standard functionality),
- infrastructure planning (cloud readiness, performance requirements, high availability),
- security and compliance (use stronger security features, ensure regulatory alignment),
- user experience (involve users early,
- plan training and change management),
- project governance (stakeholder engagement, clear milestones, managing risks),
- cost and licensing (budget planning, licence optimisation),
- post-modernisation support (monitoring, maintenance, vendor support),
- and future-ready strategy (ensure scalability and flexibility for ongoing innovation).
Addressing Common Concerns
“We pay maintenance. Why should we invest in modernisation?”
This isn’t a simple upgrade. It’s a complete re-platforming to a modern, containerised architecture with substantial incremental functionality—at a fraction of the cost of purchasing the platform new.
“Do we need to purchase a new UI while still running the old one?”
No. The modernisation entitlement includes new UI components (Smart View), advanced AI technologies, and numerous add-on solutions. You can run dual entitlement during transition to minimise disruption.
“How can we minimise complexity?”
Faranani DocTec provides comprehensive assessments and packaged services to help you modernise while using standard functionality, reducing the custom code that creates ongoing maintenance burden.
“When is the right time to modernise?”
Now. The gap between legacy and modern Documentum grows with each quarterly release. The longer you wait, the more complex and costly the transition becomes.
Let Faranani DocTec Guide Your Modernisation
As an OpenText Platinum Partner, Faranani DocTec brings deep Documentum expertise and proven methodologies to your modernisation programme:
Business Value Assessment
We start with understanding your current state, business objectives, and desired outcomes. Through targeted questionnaires, user satisfaction surveys, and technical assessments, we develop a comprehensive view of your environment and a prioritised roadmap for modernisation.
Documentum Readiness Assessment
Our FastTrak programme includes diagnostic analysis and workload assessment, high-level analysis of customisation alternatives, detailed customisation review (for WebTop to D2 migrations), technical debugging and optimisation recommendations, and a clear “improve and move” plan.
Implementation Services
Whether you’re upgrading on-premises infrastructure or migrating to OpenText Managed Cloud, our team provides end-to-end implementation services: repository upgrade and optimisation, migration to X-Plans licensing, custom code remediation and standardisation, integration development and testing, and user training and change management.
The Future is Now
Generative AI won’t replace jobs, but it will fundamentally change them. Workers will have more time to focus on meaningful tasks, make better decisions, and drive creative innovation. But only if their content management platforms are ready.
Your Documentum investment represents years of content, processes, and institutional knowledge. Modernisation ensures that investment continues to deliver value, preparing your organisation not just for today’s requirements, but for what’s next.
Next Steps
Ready to explore how Documentum modernisation can transform your organisation?
Contact Faranani DocTec to schedule a complimentary consultation:
Business Value Workshop: Understand your current challenges and future opportunities
Documentum Readiness Assessment: Technical analysis and migration planning
Executive Briefing: Present findings and recommendations to stakeholders
Visit www.farananidoctec.com or contact our team directly to begin your modernisation journey.
The organisations modernising now will lead their industries in three years. The ones waiting will be explaining to boards why competitors are faster and smarter.
Which one will you be?
Faranani DocTec is an OpenText Platinum Partner specialising in Enterprise Content Management, Business Process Management, and Information Governance solutions for organisations across Africa and beyond.
