Enterprise Content Management is not a technology in itself, but rather a blend of strategies used by businesses to systematically collect, store, organize and deliver information that supports important organizational processes. Usually big businesses use ECM as a tool because of its costly implementation.
However, recently there has been a huge improvement on the scalability and affordability of ECM systems. According to a MarketsandMarkets report, ECM solution grew to a rate of $28 billion in 2016 with an anticipated growth of up to $66 billion by 2021. This has opened up an opportunity for small and mid-sized businesses to also utilize it as a business tool.
Even though ECM systems seem like a strong investment, they to tend to be a bit more complex. It consists of a file management system to store content assets and a relational database to store the metadata associated with those assets. Both systems tend to disconnect content management from data management, which causes a problem when integrating business systems centered on data and ECM systems. Such a problem that a reported 61% of organizations said they lacked a connection between their ECM and ERP systems.
So as a company that offers ECM solutions our main challenge is to get the business to get the most out of ECM. For organizations in bigger markets like Miami, New York or Los Angeles, ECM can really provide them with improved control over business processes. As well as improve their access and visibility to key information.
Through accurate integration organizations can use ECM Systems to make more informed decisions and in turn add value to their business. With cloud technology leading the digitization trend most leading ECM systems will be cloud friendly. Adding to its value and efficiency, especially in terms of regulation and compliance.
Sadly, businesses are balancing costs against benefits when choosing to implement an ECM system. But the issue is most companies don’t seek out the full value of their ECM installations. Not many companies are actually looking for ways to leverage their ECM system as way to cut costs and generate revenue.
Even though, there are plenty of ways that ECM solutions can help build business strategies, enhance customer engagement and advance its global presence. For organizations looking to dive into taking advantage of ECM and connecting data and content, then content management is necessary to solve a business problem.