While it seems logical that having a single repository for the whole enterprise is desirable, the post “Engineering Content is Different” clearly shows that a system that is purpose built for engineering data is necessary for the engineering team and larger organization to gain benefit.
While providers of third party tools that overlay on top of EDMS products claim that leveraging the existing repository is best, there are clear pitfalls to that approach:
- Third party tools can be version specific in terms of the EDMS versions they support, making upgrades to the enterprise system problematic
- Third party tools normally lag in their support of the basic CAD tool versions they support, not to mention that they generally lack any integration with engineering applications that sit on top of the CAD platform
- Adoption of third party tools frequently require changes to the corporate EDMS repository
Finally, in many large organizations, there is typically more than one repository or database for a given EDMS even when third party tools are not in place.