The latest Sword-CTSpace news release concerns an integration between the company’s on-premise FusionEnterprise platform and ECM systems EMC Documentum and Microsoft SharePoint 10 (somewhat confusingly, Sword-CTSpace talks about Engineering Content Management, as opposed to Enterprise Content Management, a term much used by other firms and industry analysts).
I only mention this as the news release mentions Mark Cappell, now listed as Sword CTSpace’s CEO, having previously been operations director in Sword’s AML (anti-money laundering) division. It also quotes Tim Fleet, Sword CTSpace’s Vice President of Product Management, who is one of the few survivors from CTSpace predecessor BuildOnline Cimage’s days. But if you search the Sword-CTSpace website for details of who else runs the business, there are few clues as to who might be involved. A Sword-CTSpace website search gave no results for “Cappell” (despite the publication of last week’s news release); a Google search of the site delivered only that one news release.
Contrast this state of affairs with the profiles given of the key people at various rival collaboration vendors:
- 4Projects (Meet the Team)
- Aconex (The Board)
- Asite (The Board of Directors)
- BIW Technologies (People)
- Cadweb (Management Team)
- ePin (Senior Management)
- Unit4 Collaboration (Meet the Management Team)
In my view, it’s crucial to know exactly who you are doing business with, and to get some idea of their previous experience.
[PS: Almost six months ago, I mentioned an unconfirmed rumour that Sword-CTSpace operations director and former MD EMEA Gert-Jan de Kieviet had left the construction collaboration technology vendor. I did seek clarification about Mr de Kieviet, but heard no more…. Anyone able to confirm anything?]
Update (10 March 2011): I spoke to Lydie Francart, Sword CTSpace’s marketing director this afternoon. She confirmed that Mark Cappell had taken over as the business’s CEO in June 2010, and that Gert-Jan de Kieviet left the company in late 2010. She explained how the company had been recruiting experienced executives with a strong track record in selling ECM solutions – and profiles of these individuals would be added to the Sword CTSpace website shortly.
