To succeed in software these days, you need really tight alliances and Idiom's "go it alone" approach over the years has cost it dearly. The latest warning flag came in the form of a press release from Idiom issued today. Here is the lead sentence:

Globalization Management Systems (GMS) leader, Idiom Technologies, Inc. today announced WorldServer(TM) support for Documentum 5, the latest version of Documentum's leading enterprise content management platform.

The reason this is such an odd release is because on this very same day Documentum also issued a press release, a release that appears almost at odds with Idiom's press release. Here's the lead from the Documentum press release:

Documentum (Nasdaq: DCTM - News), the leader in enterprise content management (ECM), today announced a new joint offering with TRADOS, the global leader in language technology, and Lionbridge (Nasdaq: LIOX - News), a leading provider of globalization and testing services. Extending existing partnerships, the three companies have worked together to integrate the TRADOS Language Server(TM) with Documentum 5, the latest version of the company's ECM platform. With this announcement, Documentum becomes the first and only content management vendor to integrate key language technology directly into its content management platform.

So here is Documentum announcing a "first" and Idiom announcing what appears to be pretty much the same thing. Very mysterious. The interesting thing about the Idiom press release is that there is no boilerplate quote from Documentum in it. In fact, I doubt Documentum had anything to do with that release.

I hate to be so cynical, but I just don't believe Idiom will be around this time next year, at least not as a standalone company. After all, even Documentum is no longer a standalone company. EMC Software recently acquired them.