ECM issues

Earlier this year AIIM released its annual State of the ECM Industry 2009 report which found that overall, electronic content at an organizational level is in a mess.Revisiting the report in the cold light of day AIIM President John Mancini summed up the findings of the report on the Digital Landfill blog recently.Hardly a day goes by that we don't find ourselves covering some of the eight facts about document management that he raises. Three of these in particular, strike a chord with us, as we are sure they do with you.Email ExposureLegal DiscoverySharePoint Deployments

Recent trends in business and government indicate ECM is becoming a core investment of organizations of all sizes. Traditional ECM values of paperless offices are expanding, especially with the new compliance related initiatives, as digital and paper make up the fastest growing parts of most businesses. Bob Fresneda, ceo of Readsoft, shares his views on understanding and addresses the issues that affect the ECM Industry.

That was the challenge issued by Intelligent Enterprise magazine. You can judge the results for yourself. To quote: "The cost-effective portal and easily deployed record- and document-management module are among the platform's best features, but Vignette must smooth over disparate infrastructure requirements and stabilize its complex environment."

I sat in on the keynote panel at LegalTech in New York yesterday. As an old cynic I tend to think that I have heard it all before (and I probably have), but yesterday I was jolted awake by some quotes that left me musing for a long time afterwards, not that they told me about new issues or problems, rather the clarity in which they stated them. Let me share some with you. "What it says in the back-up policy is seldom what is actually happening""It can be near impossible to purge data once it is past retention"

In the latest issue of Intelligent Enterprise magazine, I took a look at Stellent's "Universal Content Management" suite by way of two horizontal applications it sells, Multi-Site Management and Sarbanes Oxley. In the article, I ask, "Do enterprises require an ECM platform on which to build custom content applications, or simply a manageable collection of functional products?" Stellent seems to be betting on the latter.

One conference that continues to exude a lot of commercial and intellectual energy is the annual AIIM gathering. AIIM styles itself as "the enterprise content management association" -- but they can't call themselves ECMA because that acronym is already taken. Anyway, they've just issued their call for speakers for the Spring, 2004 gathering in New York City. Getting to the speakers' dais at AIIM will be very competitive, so if you have an itch to present, start sharpening your proposal now (they're due July 28)...Read the Call for Speakers and Apply

AIIM ExpoApril 16 - 19, 2007Boston Convention & Exhibition CenterBoston, MAThe AIIM Conference & Expo is the largest and most important annual gatheringof enterprise content and information management professionals, featuringan educational program covering the breadth of information management issues,as well as an exhibition providing face-to-face access to over 250 leading solutionproviders in the space.This pass entitles you to a FREE expo hall pass, compliments of ECM Connection!Visit us at booth #3245. When registering for your FREE expo pass, use source code: 472F

Enterprise content management (ECM) has been among the fastest growing sectors intechnology for more than five years. The drivers continue to be on the rise in this complianceand regulatory environment, and return on investment (ROI) can easily be demonstrated. Whythen is it still so difficult to gain buyin and board approvals for ECM initiatives? According to theAIIM ECM Industry Watch in 2007, 29% of respondents indicated justifying the investment andgaining board approval was the biggest challenge; 28% said planning/managing theimplementation and change management were the biggest challenge. Let's explore why that isand the best way to address these issues. Submitted by Daybreak

Corporate executives and government officials are searching for new ways to manage text documents, photos and other images, audio and video files, e-mails, faxes, blogs and other forms of content. As a result, several trends have emerged."The big issue for many companies is to break down content management silos," says Doug Armstrong, leader of Internet service practices for West Monroe Partners. "Many companies have been using point solutions."By deploying enterprise solutions, a firm, for example, can get new hires up to speed more quickly with the knowledge contained in different parts of the organization, Armstrong explains.

Enterprise content management (ECM) is an increasingly complex sector of knowledge management, with new options and issues arising steadily.SharePoint edges into enterprise useSharePoint, Microsoft’s product for storing and sharing information on a Web site, is increasingly being used for enterprise content management. Its relative ease of deployment, integration with Microsoft Office and Web 2.0 features such as wikis have made it appealing to a wide range of users. The number of licenses is approaching 100 million, and total revenues are approaching $1 billion.

Part One of a Four-Part SeriesBy Mike Ball, Clearview SoftwareIn today's challenging business environment, organizations of every size have either internal or external concerns about their information control and management. This can range from simply being concerned about losing information or information leaking outside of the organization; to who has access to sensitive or controlled information; to extensive and sophisticated regulatory requirements governing the way an organization must manage, protect, use, and track their critical business information. These have all been traditional benefits associated with ECM and the value it offers to an organization.One very specific and increasingly alarming issue that I hear from my customers is that they are highly concerned about what they don't know that might be contained in their vast corporate network shared drives. This particular issue is now being referred to as "file share-itis."

Enterprise content management (ECM) solutions offer a number of highly complementary technologies to assist in resolving e-discovery issues. The core components of some ECM products have been in use for more than 20 years and are currently supporting hundreds of thousands of users in enterprise organizations. Submitted by TOWER Software