Enterprise Content Management 2007
Five Key Requirements that Impact a Content Managment Strategy
Research analyst firm Forrester recently releases its latest "Wave" report on ECM Suites in 2007. In it they discuss key requirements for ECM solutions.
You think you need an enterprise content management system (ECM). You don't know what to buy or how to implement it, but you do know that there are some things going on in your company today that will affect the decisions you make. This is what Forrester, a research analyst firm has discovered. Earlier this month, they released their report entitled, "Forrester Wave: Enterprise Content Management Suites Q4, 2007. In their report, the outline 5 key items that companies look for when evaluating which enterprise content management suite to buy.
A Single Vendor that Provides ECM Breath
You need web content management, document management, digital imaging, records management or some combination of these capabilities. Do you want to go and buy a separate product for each requirement? No way! Even if you had an unlimited purchasing budget, you would still be crazy. The process of integrating these separate technologies together would be a nightmare. And you will want them integrated. Best thing to do? Buy an ECM who does all the things you want.
An ECM Platform They Can Build IT Skillset around
It's likely you have an IT shop in-house. They may be Microsoft, Java or Open Source focused. You also may have already invested much time and effort into developing your overall enterprise architecture (these technologies, these standards, these development tools). Any ECM you select must be able to work with the current environment and tool set. You don't want to retrain your team or disrupt your IT infrastructure for one product.
A Low-Cost Way to Provide Content Management to Everyone in the Company
Content management is probably one of the most popular technologies in use in companies today. From the smallest department requirement to the largest website in the world, lots of people need a way to manage their information. To make it available to the smaller groups, you need a product that can be leveraged by everyone without costing you a fortune in training, implementation and hardware/software costs.
One Place to Go to Mitigate Content-Related Risks
Often, you have information located in different repositories within your company. You want a way to centralize the manage of all this information (or content), but you don't want the expense or effort of having to get rid of existing repositories. So you need an ECM that can help you manage content that is located in more than just the new content management system you will buy.
A Way to Put Content into Context for People
So you finally know all the content you need to maintain. But more importantly you need a way to distribute it to the right people at the right time in the right format. This is context. If the ECM you are reviewing doesn't discuss this, don't buy it. It's all about context.
Selecting the right enterprise content management system to buy is a tough process. You know you probably need one, but several factors influence your decision like cost, context, capabilities and integration with your existing IT environment. To see how many of the top ECM providers faired in the evaluation (like Microsoft,Oracle, Open Text, and IBM) go purchase the report from Forrester and get all the details on each product evaluated. The report costs $995.00 US but provides a wealth of detail on a number of vendors (including one Open Source). It will save you a lot of time and effort going through a research and analysis exercise on your own.
