Introduction to Enterprise Content Management
There are many interpretations as to what ECM (Enterprise Content Management) is, or is not. To some it is a set of technologies, to others it is more a discipline to manage large volumes of documents and information. The industry association AIIM provides one of the better formal definitions:
Enterprise Content Management is the technologies, tools, and methods used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content across an enterprise.
At CMS Watch we would say that:
ECM is the process (and associated tools) of managing content throughout its lifecycle from creation to destruction.
There are many other definitions to pick and chose from, but what binds most of them together is that the ever-increasing volumes of electronic documents in the form of Office files, scanned images, emails and rich media (video and audio) in conjunction with ever more regulated operating environments, has meant that management of content has become mission critical. ECM, both as a technology set and as a broader management discipline is designed to meet this business need.
What is ECM Content?
So at heart then ECM is about managing information, particularly what is often referred to as unstructured information. This in itself can be a confusing term, often employed by technical staff but not necessarily used in a consistent manner. A basic and solid definition of unstructured information would be:Electronic files that have attached meta-data, as opposed to data that sits neatly in rows and columns in a database.
What this means in practical terms is that electronic information such as emails, Word documents, video files etc. is in actuality a bundle of complex information that can only be read and understand by opening a specific software application. In these particular cases, it could mean Microsoft Exchange and Office, or Microsoft Media Player. However, if we had to open these applications every time we needed to do anything to organize large volumes of information, we would be heavily constrained. Therefore these types of electronic files have a small subset of data (metadata) attached to them as standard. In ECM circles these are often referred to as attributes. Typical attributes would be things like: Title, Author, Date of Creation, etc. In actuality it is by using these attributes (metadata) that ECM systems identify pieces of content, and apply lifecycles and management protocols to them.
So "content" in the context of ECM means unstructured data files, the lifeblood of most organizations: the electronic forms, files and communications that drive business.
ECM as a Technology Toolset
ECM is the latest incarnation of the document management and workflow solutions of the 80s and 90s - but now with much more breadth and reach. Typical ECM solutions today can manage everything from video and audio files, to large volumes of emails to millions of scanned documents.
As we can see here there are many pieces of technology that make up an ECM Suite, and no single vendor can be great at all these things, nor are all the components of equal value.
If we look at how ECM is deployed in practice, we see that historically only a couple of these components at any one time are generally deployed. There are in fact very few deployments that utilize all of these components, and even those that arguably do usually do so in a fragmented way. For example one module might be used by one department and another module by another division within the same company.
In other words, ECM Suites are really a collection of different modules that are more or less integrated to work together. Yet as stated above not all modules are equal, by far the most important module in an ECM Suite is the one labeled Document Management. This is the ability to manage the attached metadata to the electronic files, providing the ability to securely check files out and back in again, and to provide security to ensure that only approved people can access, read or amend managed documents. The second most important element is workflow, for without the ability to distribute and manage the flow of information throughout the enterprise, an ECM Suite is little more than a very expensive repository/archive.
Typical ECM Environments
Probably the best way to truly understand what ECM is and what it is not is to consider it in action. We can very roughly divide ECM deployments into one of number of broad camps:1) To help manage regulated environments
With so many regulations now being imposed on both public and private organizations demanding that there is transparency in their operations, managing information is an important element of remaining compliant. There is some cross over here in the work of Electronic Record Management (one of the modules in ECM), but ECMs remit is broader than that ensuring the full lifecycle of business content is managed in an traceable, secure and compliant fashion through both active and inactive stages.
2) Support collaboration efforts and file sharing
Around 10 years ago many ECM vendors of today attempted to brand themselves as Knowledge Management providers. And though the term is not used so much at present, the need to collaborate in a secure and manageable fashion remains. Much of the time collaboration means little more than the ability to share files across complex networks in an auditable fashion nevertheless this is one of the more common reasons for deploying an ECM system.
3) For Middleware and Application Development
The ability to store and manage electronic files and forms along with the power to configure and run workflows means that ECM has long been used to build bespoke business applications. There are many examples of this in the management of electronic forms in government and claims processing in insurance for example. In fact few ECM systems are used out of the box, and most require (in some cases very substantial) configuration and associated application development work. As infrastructure vendors such as Microsoft, IBM and Oracle move more heavily into this space we are seeing ECM as middleware in the guise of a set of repository, web service and business process management layers being offered. In this same manner ECM as middleware has often been as a toolset for BPR (business process re-engineering).
4) As an Electronic Publishing System
If the volume of electronic information received by enterprises has risen astronomically, so too has the need to publish out information in many different forms. Typical needs include publishing information to websites and intranets, providing readable formats for large documents (Adobe pdf files for example) and indeed out to hard copy print versions. In many ECM deployments the ability to manage a single source of information (single master file) yet publish it out dynamically in differing forms is essential.
In practice many ECM deployments bridge a number of these areas, but this kind of division nevertheless helps us to make sense of this broad and confusing topic.