The days of big, expensive Enterprise Content Management solutions are over. These were the golden days in the late 90's and 2000's. Now, we are all aware that information and content are interchangeable: scanned images need index values, general ledgers sometimes need invoice images, EMRs need links to images, process automation needs it all. Facebook shows us one way to mash all of this together, but it doesn't have the industry focus, legal regulations, or corporate learned behaviors. Every application has content and information management. ECM might still be on the bottom system layer, filling in the cracks, but it's purpose has changed. It is either focused on specific industry solutions, or acting as a change agent to sweep up the final paper processes. Whether it will be used in the long term doesn't really matter. What matters is that it still has an important role in IT.
We all content manage
We all move information
Our end goal is efficiency
Helping communication along the way
Yet truth struggles with greed
1 comment:
I guess it also depends on your definition of ECM John. For many organisations the perception of ECM as a "big, expensive" beast is largely an issue because they have bought ECM but implemented only the Document Management functionality - so naturally it appears out of scale to some organisations.
I would be wary of encouraging multiple 'focused' solutions; I've seen too many examples of organisations doing this and ending up in a higher cost, higher risk, reduced efficiency environment.
Yes we need to evolve ECM and look for alternative consumption and procurement models but going back to multiple 'ecm-esque' solutions fills me with dread :)
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