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1. What is Enterprise Content Management?
   AIIM International, the not-for-profit global industry association for users and suppliers of document and business process management technologies and services, defines "enterprise content management" (ECM) as the "creation, capture, delivery, customization, and management" of information across an organization. ECM is intended to support the entire business information supply chain by providing the right information to the right person at the right time.

   • Reduce operational costs by centralizing and streamlining key business processes
   • Boost productivity by giving multiple users the exact information they need according to their role and facilitating collaboration across organizational/geographic boundaries

   In order to support those strategic organizational goals, and maximize the business value of data, a successful ECM technology solution must deliver:

   • Immediate access to data - 24 hours a day, 7 days a week -- for all stakeholders from employees and partners to investors and customers
   • Intelligent access - giving different users the ability to search and retrieve information relevant to their job function (while still maintaining appropriate security restrictions)
   • Integrated access -- working hand-in-hand with other key technology applications to streamline processes and fully leverage all resources.

   While Enterprise Content Management is a serious issue for most enterprises - large or small, private or public, around the world - it is an especially pressing concern for data-intensive industries such as financial, education, healthcare, telecom, retail, manufacturing and entertainment as well as certain government and military agencies.
   
   
2. How has Content been managed until now?
   Businesses have always held onto important information -- from customer transactions, bills and statements, to invoices, drawings, specifications and proposals. Information was kept on paper and placed in filing cabinets, or transferred to microfilm for long-term storage or archiving. Mainframe systems that produced customer statements and other data were integrated with microfilm and later microfiche for storage and archival. While the film and fiche-based storage systems were much less bulky than paper, they were not very efficient, and difficult to share between multiple offices. Computer imaging technology and the advent of inexpensive tape-based storage let companies convert their paper documents to images, which were stored in bulk on tape media. This was a significant advance over film-based storage because the images could be quickly retrieved and easily shared. These imaging and storage systems were the precursors of new systems such as Integrated Document Management (IDM) and Integrated Document Archival and Retrieval System (IDARS). As storage technology improved, computer output that was previously stored on film or fiche, began to be stored on optical laser disks - a technology known as Computer Output to Laser Disk or COLD. Recently, newer systems have brought traditional imaging solutions together with COLD - and now Enterprise Report Management (ERM) - technology and incorporated other forms of electronic documents (such as Word files). Some also support new output formats (AFP, Metacode, PCL, etc.) known as advanced or composed printstreams, which are used by laser printers to create highly formatted statements and invoices.
   
   
3. Why is Content Management in a state of "crisis"?
   Unprecedented volumes and varieties of enterprise data are driving up demand and raising the stakes. Many content management systems are now being overwhelmed by wave upon wave of data, in a host of different file formats, from the Internet and new data-intensive applications. The traditional, piecemeal approach to content management is becoming increasingly problematic. As a result, despite the astounding increases in information processing speed since the advent of "The Information Age", a typical office worker still spends up to 40% of his or her time looking for information - the same as in 1940. And the need for Enterprise Content Management just keeps growing. According to Doculabs, the content that drives e-business applications, such as e-commerce and customer relationship management, may be stored in multiple repositories and in multiple formats, making it difficult to get the right content to the right application in a timely and efficient manner. Therefore, in order to remain competitive, organizations must have fast and far-reaching access to content and the ability to deliver it immediately to users.
   
   
4. What functionality is needed in an ECM solution?
   On a conceptual level, an Enterprise Content Management system is a central repository for the vast amount of information that enterprises receive and generate. In practice, this means that a true ECM solution should provide an integrated, cohesive way to do three things:

   • Collect -- Capture information from numerous sources including hardcopy documents, electronic documents, spreadsheets, presentations, digital photographs, audio files, or video files. Depending on the type of business involved, additional sources, such as X-ray images, CAD drawings, or computer output reports (COLD or print stream reports), should be captured.
   • Organize -- Maintain large quantities of data, automatically obtaining index information from the source materials so that the content can be retrieved as needed. Content should be stored in a virtual repository, so users can access the data as necessary - wherever it resides.
   • Deliver - Retrieve content easily and quickly using a system that is web compatible, and provides web users with appropriate security plus the ability to modify content by adding annotations, redacting text, or modifying text. Content must be accessible to a wide range of users with varying levels of access permissions - regardless of the physical repositories in which the content is stored.

   Together, these three functions enable an enterprise to manage virtually all types of content, regardless of where it is stored - thereby maximizing both user productivity and the business value of information.
   
   
5. How can ECM technology reduce costs?
   ECM software can help organizations keep overhead costs down by postponing (or eliminating) the need to expand storage resources - onsite or offsite, paper or electronic. Most ECM systems will support RAID storage and secondary optical or tape storage, usually through integration with storage management systems. Some ECM systems will support multiple types of storage, from optical, WORM, RAID, DVD, CD or tape. The ability to quickly retrieve information, regardless of its age or storage location, represents a significant cost saving. While the cost of primary RAID storage is declining, strong integration with multiple types of secondary storage is still a critical feature for an ECM system, especially as some types of information must be maintained in a non-alterable format to comply with regulations and other policies. Further, a complete ECM solution should offer support for SAN and NAS storage.
   
   
6. How can integrated ECM boost productivity?
   An effective Enterprise Content Management solution will boost productivity by minimizing the amount of time that users spend waiting for information and tailoring search/retrieval results to serve each user's specific purposes. Beyond that, however, A fully integrated ECM solution should also include a mechanism for proactively driving workflow processes and promoting collaboration. This workflow component should be flexible enough to model the user-organization's own processes and then use those models to automate the flow of information through the organization. Further, it should provide for escalation of a task when work is not performed in a timely manner. It should allow easy reassignment of work in the event of sick leave or vacation, or in the event of personnel changes. The workflow mechanism should also provide monitoring and performance metrics, so bottlenecks in the work process can be quickly identified and resources assigned appropriately. In many cases, a business process will branch in many directions depending on the results of a particular task. At the same time, an ECM system should also maintain an audit trail of modifications, including version control, and provide a mechanism to check in or check out documents for editing or review. Both browser based clients and traditional workstation clients should provide these capabilities, so that collaboration can be extended to remote users, or even users outside the organization.
7. How can ECM leverage other applications?
   Ideally, an ECM solution should be easy to integrate with existing applications throughout the enterprise, or even with those that the enterprise might choose to deploy at a later date. Many types of applications within an organization depend on documents and other content. Integration can add to the implementation timeline and cost, so systems that provide a straightforward integration toolkit, such as APIs, SDKs, or easy to use scripting tools, are desirable.
   
   
8. What kind of security does an ECM solution need?
   A content management system should provide robust, yet flexible, security measures. Its system security should prevent unauthorized access to certain categories of content, so users see only that which is relevant to their job function. The system's security should be flexible, so that users can gain access to certain types of documents, and not to others, without restricting access to a specific job function.
   
   
9. Do ECM systems really work?
   Yes! For information about how new ECM technologies are supporting key business applications and specific industries, visit http://content.otg.com and request another FREE OTG Special Report called " Perspectives on the Content Crisis." Or, for specific ECM software case studies, go to OTG Software's main website at www.otg.comand turn to the Press Room section.
   
   
10. 10. Where can you learn more about Enterprise Content Management?
    To learn more about Enterprise Content Management, OTG invites you to contact them directly at at 800-324-4222 (or 240-747-6400).