This blog is all about ECM (Enterprise Content Management). I got into this domain accidently about 12 years back and stuck with it almost forever. Like any other technology vertical, ECM also has far too many facets. My comfort zones are content and process management, records management, and digital assets management.
AIIM, the premier ECM industry association, defines Enterprise Content Management (ECM) as the technologies used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content and documents related to organizational processes. ECM tools and strategies allow the management of an organization’s unstructured information, wherever that information exists.
ECM, according to me, is all about managing unstructured information and making it available to business transactions. Structured information is data that is defined with attributes and are kept in transactional information systems. Plainly, all the data you can put into database tables and search for is structured information. Anything else could fall into the unstructured category. This could include paper documents, office documents, emails, faxes, images, audio, video etc. Statistically, about 20% of all information that an organization deals with fall into the structured category. This means that a huge load of information lies in unstructured format and it is always difficult to search for and retrieve. ECM fits right there.
ECM is a matured industry with thousands of players present across market bands. While the small and medium segments are crowded with plenty of product vendors, the enterprise segment saw major consolidations in the past couple of years. The discussions in this forum is aimed primarily at the enterprise segment which is dominated by IBM FileNet, EMC Documentum, OpenText, Oracle, Interwoven, Vignette and of course Microsoft SharePoint. Other interesting options would be Alfresco and SpringCM.
ECM technologies and products are always complemented by Capture, DW & BI, and DRM. It would be interesting to hear from experts on how these technology solutions can co-exist with ECM.
If you are interested in contributing to these discussions, please post a comment and will be more than glad to invite you as an author.
April 23, 2008 at 9:43 pm |
Hi Susan (?)
Your name is not apparent on the blog! I’ve been in ECM for more years that I care to admit. I worked at Documentum for seven years before it was taken over by EMC. My company specializes in delivering ECM solutions using Open Text, Documentum, Alfresco and others. I’m starting my own blog focused on ECM in local government (in the UK), but if you would like me to contribute please let me know I’d be more than happy to participate.
June 30, 2009 at 5:07 pm |
I have worked as an ECM technical architect for a number of years using FileNET mainly but others too. I have since moved on and started my own company that delivers an ECM platform. I am always interested in talking to other professionals