MIS TERM PAPER

ENTERPRISE CONTENT MANAGEMENT (ECM )

Submitted By:

Name : Kanika Garg

Roll No : 10BM60035
Course: Management Information Systems
Instructor : Dr. Prithwis Mukerjee
Vinod Gupta School of Management

1
Abstract

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is a way of organizing and storing an organization's

documents that relate to the organization's processes. Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
includes the strategies and tools used to capture, manage, store, preserve, and deliver content
related to organizational processes. ECM is actually an umbrella term. Partial solutions such as
document management, web content management, search , collaboration, records management ,
work-flow management, capture and scanning all belong to ECM. ECM aims at managing the life-
cycle of information from initial publication or creation all the way through archival and eventually
disposal. As enterprises deal with increasing amounts of content, they’ll need to find more ways for
information workers to collaborate on that content, and for lower-cost ways to store less critical
content. This research paper discusses how expanding content needs will define ECM growth. The
research paper also discusses what ECM areas will drive the most productivity for their organizations
and various other aspects of Enterprise Content Management. Fifty-eight percent of ECM decision-
makers chose WCM. Forty-seven percent of respondents selected records management as a
productivity driver. Forty percent of ECM decision-makers cited digital asset management as an ECM
technology expected to drive productivity.

Introduction

Enterprise Content Management (ECM) is a way of organizing and storing an organization's

documents that relate to the organization's processes. Enterprise Content Management (ECM)
includes the strategies and tools used to capture, manage, store, and deliver content related to
organizational processes. ECM encompasses the management of information within the entire scope
of an enterprise whether that information is in the form of a paper document, an electronic file or even
an email.

ECM includes areas that have traditionally been handled by records management and document
management systems. ECM is actually an umbrella term. Partial solutions or components such as
document management, web content management, collaboration, records management, work-flow
management, capture and scanning all belong to ECM. ECM manages the life-cycle of information
from initial publication or creation all the way through archival and eventually disposal. Delivery of
ECM applications is done in three ways: on-premise software (on the organization’s own network),
Software as a Service (SaaS) (web access to information that is stored on the software
manufacturer’s system), or a hybrid solution composed of both on-premise and SaaS components.

ECM makes the management of corporate information easier by simplifying storage, security, version
control, process routing, and retention. Example : many banks store copies of old checks within ECM
systems instead of keeping physical checks in massive paper warehouses. Earlier when the customer
requested for a copy of a check, it sometimes used to take even weeks, as the bank employees had
to contact the warehouse to have someone locate the right box, pull the check, make a copy and then
mail it to the bank who would eventually send it to the customer. With an ECM system in place, the
bank employee would simply search the system for the customer’s account number and the number
of the requested check. When the image of the check appears on screen, they are able to
immediately mail it to the customer—usually while the customer is still on the phone

There are numerous factors driving businesses to adopt an ECM solution, such as
• Reduction of paper handling and storage
• Reduction of lost documents
• Faster access to information
• Online access to information
• Improved control over documents
• Document security and audit tracking
• Metrics to help measure productivity and identify efficiency.
• Streamlining access to records through keyword and full-text search allowing employees to
get to the information they need directly from their desktops in seconds rather than searching
multiple applications or digging through paper records.

2
 • Enhancing record control to help businesses to comply with government and industry
regulations such as HIPAA, PCI DSS, and the Federal Rules of Civil Procedure. Security
functions including user-level, function-level and even record specific security options protect
your most sensitive data.

In fact, even information contained on a specific document can be masked using redaction features,
so the rest of the document can be shared without compromising individual identity or key data. All of
these factors reduce the overhead costs of managing information.

Characteristics
Enterprise content management is not a closed-system solution or a distinct product category.
Therefore, along with Document Related Technologies or Document Lifecycle Management, ECM is
just one possible catch-all term for a wide range of technologies and vendors.

Three key ideas of ECM are :

1. Enterprise content management as integrative middleware

ECM is used to overcome the restrictions of former vertical applications and island architectures. The
user is basically unaware of using an ECM solution. ECM offers the requisite infrastructure for the
new world of web-based IT, which is establishing itself as a kind of third platform alongside
conventional host and client/ server systems. Therefore, EAI (enterprise application integration) and
SOA (service-oriented architecture) will play an important role in the implementation and use of ECM.

2. Enterprise content management components as independent services

ECM is used to manage information without regard to the source or the required use. The functionality
is provided as a service that can be used from all kinds of applications. The advantage of a service
concept is that for any given functionality only one general service is available, thus avoiding
redundant, expensive and difficult to maintain parallel functions. Therefore, standards for interfaces
connecting different services will play an important role in the implementation of ECM.

3. Enterprise content management as a uniform repository for all types of information

ECM is used as a content warehouse (both data warehouse and document warehouse) that combines
company information in a repository with a uniform structure. Expensive redundancies and associated
problems with information consistency are eliminated. All applications deliver their content to a single
repository, which in turn provides needed information to all applications. Therefore, content integration
and ILM (Information Lifecycle Management) will play an important role in the implementation and use
of ECM.

Components
ECM combines components which can be used as stand-alone systems without being incorporated
into an enterprise-wide system. The five ECM components and technologies are:

1. Capture: Capture converts information from paper documents into an electronic format
through scanning. Capture is also used to collect electronic files into a consistent structure for
management. Capture technologies also create metadata (index values) that describe
characteristics of a document for easy location through search technology.

2. Manage: The Manage category includes five application areas:

• Document management (DM)

• Collaboration (or collaborative software, a.k.a. groupware)
• Web content management (including web portals)
• Records management
• Workflow and business process management (BPM)

The Manage category connects the other components, which can be used in combination or
separately. Document management, web content management, workflow and business process
management address the dynamic part of the information's lifecycle. Records management focuses

3
on managing finalized documents in accordance with the organization's document retention policy,
which in turn must comply with government mandates and industry practices. All Manage components
incorporate databases and access authorization systems.

3. Store: Store components store information that isn't required, desired, or ready for long-term
storage or preservation. That is it stores information temporarily. Even if the Store component
uses media that are suitable for long-term archiving, "Store" is different from "Preserve."

4. Preserve: Preserve involves the long-term, safe storage and backup of static, unchanging
information. Preservation is typically accomplished by the records management features of an
ECM system and many are designed to help companies comply with government and
industry regulations.The Preserve components of ECM handle the long-term storage and
backup of static information, as well as the temporary storage of information that does not
need to be archived. Electronic archiving, a related concept, has substantially broader
functionality than ECM Preserve components.

5. Deliver: The Deliver components contains functions used to enter information into other
systems (like transferring information to portable media, or generating formatted output files);
or for readying information, such as by converting its format or compressing it, for the Store
and Preserve components.

Delivery Methods

On-premise ECM: It was developed as a traditional software application that companies implemented
on their own corporate networks. In this scenario, each individual company manages and maintains
both the ECM application, and the network storage devices that store the data. Many on-premise
ECM systems are highly customized for individual organizational needs.

Software as a Service (SaaS ) : SaaS ECM means that rather than deploying software on an in-
house network, users access the application and their data online. It is also known as cloud
computing, hosted, and on demand. As SaaS distribution technologies mature, businesses can count
on receiving the same features and customization capabilities they have come to expect from on-
premise ECM applications. SaaS delivery allows companies to more quickly begin using ECM, since
they do not have to purchase hardware or configure the applications, databases, or servers. In
addition, organizations trade the capital costs associated with a hardware and software purchase for a
monthly operating expense and storage capabilities that grow automatically to accommodate
company growth.

Hybrid: In some scenarios, companies find a hybrid composed of both SaaS and on-premise
software work best for their situation. For example, hybrid ECM systems are being used to bridge the
gap during company moves or to simplify information exchange following an acquisition. Hybrid is also
being used when companies want to manage their own ECM on-premise, but also provide easy web
access to certain information for business partners or customers using a SaaS model. Hybrid makes
the most sense when the two technologies are provided by the same manufacturer, so that features
and interfaces are an exact match.

4
Collaboration, Search, And Compliance: ECM Investments

1. Even In Difficult Times , ECM Use and investment INCREASES

Despite a tough economy , enterprises continue to invest in ECM and consider it as a core element of
their information strategies. In a recent survey of 170 ECM decision-makers, 72% of respondents
indicated that their organizations plan to increase ECM use or the number of ECM deployments in the
next 12 months ( Figure 1). Only 4% of organizations plan to scale back ECM use or number of
deployments.

2. Of those companies planning to increase ECM use, 61% cited content sharing as the most
important driver for investment in ECM. Other top drivers include compliance (51%), improved
search (45%), and cost-effective automation (44%)

5
 3. Enterprises expect WCM and RM for Productivity Gains

The ECM area that will drive the most productivity for their organizations, ECM decision makers
agreed to :

· Web content management (WCM). Fifty-eight percent of ECM users chose WCM. Companies still
using first-generation WCM systems rely heavily on IT intervention for creating and publishing content
and they want to move toward business user-friendly — and process friendly — second-generation
systems.

· Records management (RM). Forty-seven percent of respondents selected records management as

a productivity driver. By making it easier to declare and organize records or automating classification,
ECM decision-makers hope to take advantage of ever-improving RM capabilities.

· Digital asset management (DAM). Forty percent of ECM decision-makers cited digital asset
management as an ECM technology expected to drive productivity. Richer media at the enterprise
level remains unmanaged. As companies increase their use of rich media, moving beyond just images
and into audio and video, organizations with unmanaged assets have difficulty with locating and
managing asset renditions. This can lead to costly re-creation of
assets, mistakenly using assets designed for one channel in another channel, or even accidentally
using an asset in a channel for which the company does not hold the rights to distribute it.

4. The end -to -end ECM Suite : more myth than reality
Most enterprises source ECM technology from large vendors such as Microsoft (63%), EMC (35%),
and Open Text (29%) (see Figure 3) Fifty-nine percent of ECM decision-makers say they want to
standardize on an ECM suite rather than allow tactical point products for business process needs. Yet
51% of enterprises actually have three or more ECM solutions in place (see Figure 4). Given that
integration of the various ECM suite components from even the larger vendors remains a work in
progress, the idea of a single ECM suite serving all content needs is not a reality at most enterprises.

6
 5. Some ECM Expectations Go Unmet
Satisfaction with ECM solutions proves to be a mixed bag. While 37% of respondents are satisfied or
very satisfied with ECM solutions, 36% are neutral, and 27% are unsatisfied or very unsatisfied. Of
those who express dissatisfaction, almost half blame the vendors, citing an ECM product that didn’t
live up to expectations (see Figure 5). But more than 60% would source from the same vendors
again, only 11% said they would not, and 28% are unsure. The high barriers to exit ECM products
likely account for this difference. Also, many turn the blame for ECM dissatisfaction internally: 30%
cite a poor content strategy, and an additional 30% cite lack of IT and business alignment.

6. Let Someone Else Host IT? SaaS Interest Exceeds Open Source

Alternatives to traditional on-premise solutions also exist. Forty percent of respondents are interested
in open source WCM, while 32% show interest in open source DAM (see Figure 6). WCM often

7
requires customization, a strength of open source products. Some enterprises are early in the DAM
adoption curve, so decision-makers tend to have less appetite for upfront licensing costs. Interest in
software-as-a-service (SaaS) ECM products is even higher than open source alternatives, with 43%
expressing interest in SaaS WCM, and 39% showing interest in SaaS DAM. Enterprises opting for
Open source solutions are less concerned with sharing their content beyond the firewall. Conversely,
interest in SaaS records management (30%) and message archiving (29%) is considerably lower
because of the sensitivity of the information stored in those systems (see Figure 7).

7. Enterprises Struggle To Prove ECM ROI

Forty-eight percent of ECM users cite that the cost and implementation of ECM systems are their
biggest problems today. ECM system is a bit complicated technology as Integration of all parts of a

8
solution takes time, money, and the right strategy. (see Figure 8). Not surprisingly, of those
organizations that have no plans to invest in ECM in the coming year, 34% said economic uncertainty
has constrained spending, and another 36% say that other enterprise projects have a higher priority.
Clearly, inability to demonstrate ROI has budgetary impact. Those respondents who can estimate ROI
recognize process automation (67%) and paper-associated costs (48%) as the top two areas where
they can recognize a return on their ECM investments.

How expanding content needs will define ECM growth

As the information to be stored and managed is increasing and increasing ,the need to find more
ways for organisations to collaborate on that content, and for lower-cost ways to store less critical
content.

• The content explosion force even more ECM investment. As the information to be
managed keeps on increasing and it even includes diverse content types such as rich media ,
ECM use is strongly expected to expand as well. But these content needs will not result solely
in further investment in large ECM packages; point solutions would still be required and stay
in continuous demand as the larger ECM packages also struggle to be all things to all people.
Greater amounts of content increase the need for better and one solution products and
companies are forced to adopt newer strategies and advanced products.

• ECM integrations compensate for the lack of end-to-end ECM suites. Although the
traditional ECM vendors continue to work on integration plans for their proprietary ECM
components, the reality is that most enterprises don’t have the luxury of scrapping the
significant investments they’ve made in their heterogeneous ECM environments. So they’ll
seek better integrations between products from different vendors — or they’ll create those
integrations themselves.

• Collaborations increasingly become a requirement, thanks to SharePoint. SharePoint’s

hybrid functionality, which includes both content management and collaboration, will continue
to impact the ECM market by raising expectations that content management includes
collaboration functionality. Watch for ECM vendors to increasingly include more of these
features — such as team or project sites — in their products and/or add more integration with
SharePoint itself. These same vendors may have to revisit licensing models as well to better
compete with Microsoft.

9
 • Lower IP business content find a home in the cloud. Some enterprises, particularly those
in regulated industries, still have serious reservations about moving confidential documents or
high-level intellectual property into the cloud. Transactional technologies such as imaging and
persuasive technologies such as WCM and document output may not make the best fit either,
as both can require a good deal of customization and integration with other enterprise
applications. However, lower-level business content — such as technical documentation,
training materials, and project collateral — can be a good fit for cloud based content
management. Watch for enterprises to increasingly turn to the cloud — rather than expensive,
slower-to-implement on-premise solutions — to handle this type of content.

Vendors :

In Forrester’s 70-criteria evaluation of eight enterprise content management (ECM) suite vendors, we
found that IBM, Oracle, EMC, and Open Text lead due to breadth and depth of functionality and a
continued focus on end-to-end ECM needs. Strong Performer Microsoft lacks depth in certain areas of
ECM, with a focus on business content rather than transactional or persuasive, but its lighter footprint
and collaboration functionality continue to give it market momentum. Other Strong Performers include
Hyland Software — traditionally focused on imaging and archiving but expanding into records
management and workflow — and HP, which has leveraged its 2008 TOWER Software acquisition
and offers document management, imaging, and records. Finally, Contender Alfresco Software, with
an open source offering, lacks overall ECM suite breadth, but it’s gained traction with enterprises
looking for an ECM alternative with a lower-cost entry point.

A wide array of players populate the ECM market

The ECM market partly consists of well-known vendors that offer full-fledged end-to-end ECM suites.
However, the perception that every piece of functionality within these suites is relevant for all
enterprises, or that every module must come from a single vendor, is not in line with reality. A number
of smaller — but growing — vendors don’t compete with the larger players on all the ECM capabilities
but still provide strong value to customers in certain areas.

Traditional ECM suites. Vendors such as EMC, IBM, Open Text, and Oracle provide end-to end
ECM offerings that manage all three categories of enterprise content: business, transactional, and
persuasive. These vendors provide breadth and depth for a wide array of content, including
documents, scanned images, rich media, Web content, corporate records, and email. These
packages generally have a large IT footprint and significant implementation times but offer the benefit
of a single package with which to manage content and mitigate content-related risks. Further, they
offer a single platform around which to build IT skills.

Process-focused. Imaging suppliers Hyland Software, Laserfiche, Objective, and Perceptive

Software provide packaged and easy-to-install solutions that support document-centric business
processes such as invoice processing, customer onboarding, medical records, accounts payable,
contract management, and human resources.4 Hyland has ECM breadth but focuses on key business
processes including the very hot medical records area. In addition, Hyland recently acquired Valco
Data Systems, whose software works with MEDITECH’s EMR offering. Perceptive may have the
fastest-growing ECM business in the industry, with a strong focus on unifying and processing
documents (via scanning, printing, importing, and email) and bringing them under content
management. Australia-based Objective takes a vertical-market focus in the public sector in
Asia/Pacific and Europe.

Reduced footprint. Some ECM buyers, disillusioned with the heavy footprint and long
implementation times of traditional ECM products, look for lighter, lower-cost solutions. Microsoft has
seen a great deal of success by positioning Office SharePoint Server 2007 as “ECM for the masses.”
While it doesn’t have the depth of capabilities of a traditional ECM suite, it does offer a breadth of
functionality for business and persuasive content. Meanwhile, open
source vendors like Alfresco Software and Nuxeo offer a lower-cost entry point with a focus on
business content. SpringCM, the best-known SaaS ECM provider, supports business and
transactional content, with a core value based on price and reduced implementation time.

10
Archiving and infrastructure. Both IT and the business find great comfort with scalable, reliable
central repositories, which partially explains the continued presence of several solutions that have
fallen behind the latest ECM features. Mobius Management Systems, a traditional leader in the COLD
market, has released improved records management (RM), workflow, and integration capabilities in
2009, and its offerings can leverage Allen Systems Group system management tools. IBM Content
Manager is still a strong offering, and while IBM FileNet’s business process
management (BPM) and records management — evaluated in this Forrester Wave — are clearly the
future, Content Manager continues to serve customers with highly scalable repository services. EMC
also plays in this segment of the market. SAP, the premier packaged applications provider, delivers
content management as part of its offering through the NetWeaver integration platform. Yet SAP is
content to leave the heavy lifting to others, depending on a strong partner ecosystem — including
EMC and Open Text — to extend ECM capabilities.

SMB. Midmarket providers like Xerox, and Xythos Software continue to do solid business by focusing
on manual, paper-based processes. And why not? There are still millions of file cabinets in the world.
Forrester estimates that there are more than 30 providers of content management systems for
departmental solutions, but a few standouts seem to fit particularly well. Laserfiche — which lists an
impressive 26,000 customers — continues to grow its business each year. Growing closer to rounding
out a full ECM suite, Laserfiche now supports SharePoint-based workflows, a records management
module, and scalability improvements. Xythos, a Java-based alternative to SharePoint that has found
traction in the public and higher education sectors, provides both on-premise and SaaS basic content
management offerings. Xerox DocuShare CPX — now part of Xerox’s services arm — is growing
rapidly and adding capability for document processing services, as well as solutions for eDiscovery
and mortgage loan origination.

European. Mostly North American players have dominated ECM market since the early 1990s, yet
there are several strong providers outside North America that have been in the market for years.
These include EVER TEAM — a vendor traditionally strong in France, Spain, and the Middle East —
which has recently expanded internationally by engaging more with SIs. It recently released a
metadata-based document object model and a protocol handler for SharePoint Enterprise Search
2008 to improve search for composite documents — key functionality for case management. And
Berlin-based SAPERION has a full ECM suite that includes archiving, document management,
capture, COLD, e-signature, email, and records management.

In 2006, Microsoft (with its SharePoint product family) and Oracle Corporation (with Oracle Content
Management) joined established leaders such as EMC Documentum and entered the entry level
"value" market segment of ECM. Open source ECM products are also available, including WebGUI,
Alfresco, Sensenet, eZ Publish, KnowledgeTree, Jumper 2.0, Nuxeo, and Plone. Government
standards, including HIPAA, SAS 70, BS 7799 and ISO/IEC 27001, are factors in developing and

11
deploying ECM. Standards compliance may make outsourcing to certified service providers a viable
alternative to an internal ECM deployment.

ECM Suites Evaluation

To assess the state of the ECM suites market and to see how the vendors stack up against each
other, Forrester evaluated the strengths and weaknesses of top ECM suites vendors.

Evaluation Criteria:

Current offering. Focused on ECM tool breadth and extended capabilities for putting content to work
in business processes, employee collaboration, and customer experiences.

Strategy. ECM suite vendors need strong strategies supporting an enterprise’s broader information
management needs and must have broad ecosystems of systems integrators and ISVs to help ease
implementations. Investigated vendors’ product road maps, corporate strategy, and partnership
activity.

Market presence. Evaluated vendors’ current installed bases and the size of the ECM product
revenue. Also looked at each vendor’s overall revenue and geographic presence.

Vendors Selected For ECM Breadth, Leadership, And Enterprise Interest

Forrester included eight vendors in the assessment: Alfresco Software, EMC, Hyland Software, HP,
IBM, Microsoft, Open Text, and Oracle. Each of these vendors has a combination of any two of the
following (see Figure 2):

Core ECM functionality breadth. The suite offers most or all of the following: document
management (DM), document imaging, records management (RM), Web content management
(WCM), digital asset management (DAM), and document output management (DOM).
Leadership in information management. The vendor is a leading provider of information
management technology including RDBMS, business intelligence (BI), portal, and collaboration, and it
has a road map — that has been shared with Forrester — addressing investments in core ECM
functionality.

Enterprise interest. Finally, we selected vendors that were frequently mentioned or inquired about by
enterprises in the context of ECM.

12
The four horsemen of ECM ride again, but competitors remain relevant

Forrester’s assessment below represents a summary of the results of this analysis. The overall ECM
evaluation uncovered a market in which (see Figure 3):

• EMC, IBM, Oracle, and Open Text lead with breadth and depth. The four Leaders not only
have breadth in ECM, they also offer a wide range of tools that enable I&KM pros to manage,
secure, and retain content. Their offerings include a mix of data management, business
intelligence, content integration support, and content-centric application support. All four offer
the promise of end-to-end ECM functionality from a single vendor.
• Microsoft makes inroads and gains momentum but has several functionality holes.
Microsoft has relevant ECM support, but it lacks the depth and breadth of the four Leaders.
• Hyland and HP provide competitive offerings for business and transactional content.
Hyland and HP offer competitive alternatives to both EMC and IBM for I&KM pros that want
document management, imaging and capture, and records management. However, both lack
strong support for persuasive content in areas such as Web content management, document
output management, and digital asset management.
• Open-source-based Alfresco challenges the proprietary players. Alfresco has
traditionally focused more on document management, imaging, and WCM rather than full
ECM suite capabilities. However, its ability to provide a low-cost alternative to the larger
vendors — as well as a recent investment in records management functionality — makes it
relevant for some enterprises.

13
14
Summary

ECM ( Enterprise Content management ) is a product of the future. Adopting ECM is the need of the
hour. It is a great technology which is available in various levels and versions and forms : being as
simple as required or as complex as required by the organisations. A great variety of vendors offer a
great variety of ECM products , though open source solutions are available. Enterprise content
management is not a closed-system solution or a distinct product category. ECM is actually an
umbrella term. Partial solutions or components such as document management, web content
management, collaboration, records management, work-flow management, capture and scanning all
belong to ECM. ECM manages the life-cycle of information from initial publication or creation all the
way through archival and eventually disposal.

15
References :

1. http://www.forrester.com/rb/Research

2. http://www.forrester.com/rb/Research/wave&trade

3. http://blogs.forrester.com/information_management

4. http://www.wikipedia.org/

16