186 IBM Content Manager OnDemand Guide
8.1  Choosing the correct client for your implementation
Customers are faced with challenges in choosing the interface to Content Manager 
OnDemand that makes the most sense for their implementation. Content Manager 
OnDemand has many different user interfaces. Many aspects come into play when you 
consider the best design for access to Content Manager OnDemand to meet all of your 
requirements in the most cost-effective manner. Licensing costs, hardware costs, 
performance, and maintainability are just a few considerations, but the most important 
requirement is meeting the business needs for many different user types.
The Content Manager OnDemand Client choices enable the product to meet the 
ever-changing world of information technology and the way content is delivered. For example, 
delivering documents that are stored in Content Manager OnDemand to a mobile device was 
not relevant a few years ago. However, it is an important consideration for enterprise content 
delivery today. Technology drives change with current Content Manager OnDemand 
customers, and IBM delivers options to meet current and future business requirements. A 
customer’s goal is to use a single user interface for access to all of its Enterprise Content 
Management content. IBM met that goal with the IBM Content Navigator user interface, but 
IBM continues to retain multiple Content Manager OnDemand Client interfaces to meet the 
various needs of its customers. 
When you choose the correct client for your implementation of Content Manager OnDemand, 
two primary considerations are the client functionality and the client architecture.
Concerning the client functionality, the most powerful client is the Microsoft Windows client. 
All other clients contain only a subset of the features of the Windows client. The most 
prominent difference is the viewer capability. 
Determine whether your users require functionality that is specific to the Windows client only. 
If not, see the range of viewer options that are described in 8.1.1, “Viewer options” on 
page 186, which compares the different viewers across the various client options.
8.1.1  Viewer options
Different viewer options for the data that is stored within a Content Manager OnDemand 
system exist. The following general types of viewers are available: 
/SM590000The viewing capabilities that are provided by the Windows client.
/SM590000The web viewers that are shipped with ODWEK.
/SM590000Generic web viewers that are available in Content Navigator or other third-party web 
viewers. The built-in viewers of Content Navigator are described in 8.2.1, “IBM Content 
Navigator” on page 193.
/SM590000Conversion and transformation services that are started by ODWEK.
/SM590000External applications that are opened according to their associated document types (for 
example, Microsoft Word for .doc or .docx files).
/SM590000Special client applications, such as the CICS client, the Structured APIs, or Java API 
access.
The content that is displayed by certain viewers can be changed by either transforms 
(ODWEK) or exits. For more information about exits, see Chapter 11, “Exits” on page 241.